Video shows Holy Week procession, not Catholics honouring Pope Francis

Published on April 30, 2025 at 09:33
4 min read
By AFP Indonesia

As royals, presidents and hundreds of thousands of Catholic faithful headed to Rome following Pope Francis's death, a video was shared in social media posts that falsely claimed it showed people paying their respects to the popular Argentine pontiff. The clip in fact shows a traditional procession held during Holy Week in Malaga, in southern Spain, days before the Catholic Church's 88-year-old leader died.

"Thousands of Catholics from around the world gathered to pay their respects to Pope Francis," reads the Indonesian-language caption of a TikTok video shared on April 24, 2025.

The video shows dozens of people in white robes carrying a large float down a street lined with onlookers.

"Goodbye to the leader of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis," reads text superimposed on the clip.

Screenshot of the false TikTok post, captured on April 29, 2025

The video emerged after Pope Francis died of a stroke, causing a coma and "irreversible" heart failure, according to his death certificate released by the Vatican on April 21 (archived link). The 88-year-old Catholic leader had spent five weeks in the hospital, where he nearly succumbed to double pneumonia.

His coffin was transferred for three days of lying in state at St Peter's Basilica, where tens of thousands of mourners paid their last respects, ahead of his funeral on April 26 (archived here and here).

The same video was also shared alongside similar claims on YouTube, Facebook and Instagram.

But it does not show mourners paying their respects to Pope Francis.

A reverse image search on Google using keyframes from the falsely shared video led to the same footage shared on TikTok on April 16 -- five days before Francis died (archived link).

According to the post, the video shows a procession during Holy Week in the southern Spanish city of Malaga.

Holy Week begins on Palm Sunday -- which this year fell on April 13 -- when Christians remember Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem followed just days later by his trial, crucifixion and death at the hands of the Romans, and his resurrection on Easter Sunday.

In Spain, the week is characterised by dozens of parades featuring elaborate floats topped with life-sized statues of Jesus and the Virgin Mary accompanied by hundreds of penitents, who traditionally wear flowing robes and have their heads covered by distinctive pointy hoods (archived link).

Screenshot comparison of the falsely shared video (left) and the TikTok clip from April 16 (right)

The float -- topped with a life-sized statue of the Virgin Mary -- was paraded through Malaga on April 15, and can be seen in coverage of the day's events streamed by local broadcaster Canal Malaga RTV (archived link).

Features in the falsely shared video correspond to Google Street View imagery of an area near the Malaga Museum (archived link).

Screenshot comparison of the falsely shared video (left) and Malaga Museum as seen on Google Street View (right), with corresponding features highlighted by AFP

Moreover, a transparent pyramid seen later in the falsely shared video is Malaga's Pirámide de Cristal or Glass Pyramid (archived link).

Screenshot comparison of the falsely shared video (left) and Pirámide de Cristal as seen on Google Street View (right), with the pyramid highlighted by AFP

AFP has debunked other misinformation related to the death of Pope Francis here, here and here.

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