Fake images of Pope Francis draped in a Pride flag resurface following his death
These images of the late Pope Francis are AI-generated. (Facebook)
These images of the late Pope Francis are AI-generated. (Facebook)
Viral images of Pope Francis with a gay Pride flag have resurfaced on social media following the pontiff’s death, but they’re not real.
The Vatican announced on 21 April that Pope Francis, the first Latin American leader of the Roman Catholic Church, had died aged 88.
His passing, which the Vatican said was brought on due to a cerebral stroke that brought on a coma and the collapse of his cardiovascular system, continues to be mourned by LGBTQ+ Catholics around the world, who remember his legacy, which included support for the LGBTQ+ community.
Following his death, social media users in Greece began resharing images showing him wrapped in a Pride flag.
Some of the posts included anti-LGBTQ+ captions, labelling the late pontiff as “irresponsible” and “perverted”.
One post shared on Facebook was captioned: “The Catholic Pope Francis has died. Perhaps the most devil-possessed and perverted scoundrel of Catholicism in the last 200 years.”
The same images of him wrapped in the Pride flag were shared on Instagram, with one user calling the late pontiff “gullible”.
However, the images being circulated, which date back to 2023, aren’t real and are, in fact, AI-generated. The images show “clear visual inconsistencies,” according to AFP.
Speaking of inconsistencies, during his decade of papal service, Pope Francis oversaw a Catholic Church in flux on acceptance of LGBTQ+ people. Pope Francis supported the LGBTQ+ community on many occasions but failed to fully uphold their rights in other areas, as well as famously using a slur to describe gay priests in 2024.
He was said to have used the homophobic slur during a meeting with bishops about allowing celibate gay men to train as priests. In the behind-closed-doors meeting, the pontiff is believed to have said there was already too much “frociaggine” in seminaries, an Italian word which roughly translates as f****t.
The Vatican released an apology, insisting that the pope supported the LGBTQ+ community. “The pope never intended to offend or express himself in homophobic terms, and he apologises to those who felt offended by the use of a term reported by others,” the message stated.
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