No record Pope Francis told Catholics to 'eat what you want' in run-up to Easter

"Pope Francis spoke again," reads a Facebook post shared on February 15, as Christians marked the start of Lent.

"Eat what you want at Easter, the sacrifice is not in the stomach, but in the heart," reads the speech attributed to the pontiff.

"A good roast or meat stew won't make you a bad person. Nor a fish fillet will make you a saint. Better try to have a deeper relationship with God through better treatment with others. We are less superficial and more humble at heart."

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Screenshot of a Facebook post sharing the false claim, taken on February 15.

The quote was shared more than 16,000 times in similar Facebook posts from accounts around the world, including Fiji, the United States, Ireland and Malaysia. 

A variation of the speech also circulated in Facebook posts that falsely claimed the pope told people to eat whatever they wanted during Lent.

As of February 22, 2024, the pontiff has not yet delivered his Easter message and there is no official record that he has ever publicly said these words.

In his Lent message for 2024 -- published on the Vatican's website on February 1 -- the pope instead invited Catholics to "pause" for prayer and to help those in need (archived link). 

Some of the posts falsely claimed he made the comments on February 14, 2024 to mark Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent.

The Vatican's website -- which also publishes details of Pope Francis' official engagements -- lists four activities for that day. None of the official transcripts from these events contained the speech attributed to the pope in the misleading Facebook posts.

He held a general audience in the morning and a holy mass to mark Ash Wednesday later that day.

He also published a message about the Catholic church in Brazil and an agricultural development fund (archived links here, here, here and here). 

Old hoax

The speech falsely attributed to the pontiff has circulated on Facebook since at least April 2023 (archived here and here).

According to the official transcript of his Easter message from that year, he did not tell Catholics to "eat what they want" at Easter or Lent, as the false posts claimed (archive link).

None of Pope Francis' past Easter messages contained that specific phrase. A keyword search for it on the Vatican's website also returned no results (archived link).

The pope is regularly a target of misinformation, as debunked by AFP here.