Video shows Pope Francis in August 2024, not 'after hospital discharge'

Published on March 11, 2025 at 09:15
2 min read
By Jan Cuyco, AFP Philippines

After the Vatican announced a slight improvement in Pope Francis's condition at the end of February, a video was shared in social media posts that falsely claimed it showed the 88-year-old pontiff had been "discharged from hospital". The video in fact shows the pope in August 2024, months before the religious leader was hospitalised with breathing difficulties on February 14.

"BREAKING NEWS: Pope Francis has been discharged from hospital, glory to God Almighty," reads the caption of a Facebook video posted on February 28, 2025.

The 35-second video shows a crowd cheering as the pontiff walks onto a stage.

The video was shared after the Vatican noted a second day of improvement in the pope's clinical condition (archived link).

The Argentine, who has been pope since 2013, was admitted to Rome's Gemelli hospital on February 14 for breathing difficulties, with his condition sparking widespread alarm as it deteriorated into pneumonia in both lungs.

Francis suffered several respiratory crises, prompting fears the road to recovery would be long, or might force the elderly pontiff to resign.

Screenshot of the false Facebook post, captured on March 11, 2025

The video was also shared alongside similar claims elsewhere on Facebook and TikTok.

But the leader of the world's nearly 1.4 billion Catholics has not made any public appearances since his hospitalisation in mid-February (archived link).

The video also predates the pontiff's hospitalisation.

Papal audience

Reverse image searches on Google using keyframes from the falsely shared video led to the same footage on the verified Vatican News YouTube channel, where it was streamed on August 21, 2024 (archived link).

The video's title and description says it shows the pope's general audience at the Paul VI Hall.

The falsely shared video lifts footage from between the livestream's 3:45 and 5:18 marks.

Screenshot comparison of the falsely shared video (left) and the Vatican News video from August 2024 (right)

Catholic media organisation EWTN also published the same video of the pontiff from that day (archived link).

AFP has previously fact-checked misinformation involving the pope here.

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