A video filmed in the Vatican in July 2024 was shared falsely claiming that Pope Francis visited the Holy See’s diplomatic mission in Indonesia’s capital in August 2024. The claim came to light during the pope’s visit to Jakarta, where he met with religious leaders at Southeast Asia’s largest mosque and celebrated mass at Indonesia’s main stadium.
“Mr. Pope Francis visits the Vatican Embassy in Central Jakarta,” reads the caption of an Instagram post after on September 4, 2024.
A video was shown of Pope Francis entering a room as cardinals waited for him. The Indonesian text on the video also repeated the false claim.
The message was shared during the Pope’s visit to the world’s most populous Islamic country, as the start of his Asia Pacific tour of four countries (archived link).
In Indonesia, he met some religious leaders from the country’s six officially recognized religions and held a mass at the Gelora Bung Karno Stadium.
The same video has also been shared on Instagram, Facebookand TikTok here And herewith more than 130,000 views.
However, the video does not show Pope Francis visiting the Vatican’s diplomatic post, the so-called Apostolic Nunciature, in Jakarta.
Cardinals meeting in the Vatican
A reverse search on Google revealed that the original video uploaded to the verified Portuguese-language Instagram account of Vatican News on July 1, 2024 (archived link).
It shows Pope Francis leading a formal meeting of cardinals in the Apostolic Palace at the Vatican during a ceremony known as canonization, the process by which someone is declared a saint in the Catholic Church.
“During the Ordinary Public Consistory for the approval of the canonization process, the Pope decided that Blessed Giuseppe Allamano, Manuel Ruiz Lopez and his seven companions, Francis, Abdel Moati and Raphael Massabki, Marie-Leonie Paradis and Elena Guerra, will be inscribed in the Album of Saints on Sunday, October 20, 2024,” the caption of the message reads.
Below is a comparison between the clip in the fake post (left) and the original footage in Vatican News’ Instagram post (right):
