Spanish Holy Week procession footage misrepresented as Pope Francis funeral

“The Pope LOOKS LIKE he is literally having a SATANIC Ritual as a funeral,” read the caption on a Facebook video published on April 22, 2025. The post has been shared more than 1,800 times.

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Screenshot of the false Facebook post, published on April 22, 2025

The short clip shows a procession of people wearing robes and black hooded masks while holding illuminated staffs as they march to a drum inside a church. 

A red inverted cross with a rooster is embroidered on the outfits. 

The same video was also shared alongside similar claims in Spanish and on other platforms, including Instagram and X.

Pope Francis died of a stroke and cardiac arrest on April 21, 2025, according to official records.

He lay in state at Saint Peter's Basilica for three days of mourning before he was buried on April 26, 2025 (archived here).

He was interred at the Santa Maria Maggiore church in Rome after a funeral mass in St Peter's Square in the Vatican (archived here). 

However, claims that the video of robed figures shows the late pope’s funeral are false.

Holy Week clip

A reverse image search of keyframes from the false video found other videos of similar religious ceremonies. 

One of the results shows a similar scene of the same penitents in a video published on TikTok in 2024 by an account dedicated to the Holy Week processions in Cartagena (archived here).

Holy Week, or Semana Santa, in Cartagena is a tradition that attracts hordes of tourists to the region for ten days of processions leading to Easter Sunday.

The video caption in Spanish reads: “Tercio del Arrepentimiento De San Pedro Miércoles Santo 2024”, which translates to, “Third of the Repentance of Saint Peter Holy Wednesday 2024”.

A Google search of the Spanish caption led to a page about the San Pedro Apóstol Association, California Brotherhood in Cartagena, Spain, which shows and describes the same ceremonial attire seen in the video circulating online (archived here).

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Screenshot of the emblem on the video compared with the San Pedro Apostol Association website

Contacted by AFP Fact Check, the San Pedro Apostol Association said the video shows “the departure of this Holy Wednesday’s procession of our female contingent from the church of Santa María de Gracia in Cartagena”.

Holy Wednesday was celebrated on April 16 this year, five days before Pope Francis died. 

“Regarding the symbols, the inverted cross, also known as the cross of Saint Peter, represents humility, the feeling of not being worthy of being crucified like his master,” San Pedro Apostol wrote in an email.

San Pedro Apostol said the rooster refers to Jesus’ prophecy to Peter, in Matthew 26:34, which reads: “Jesus said to him: ‘Truly I tell you, this night before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times’.”

“These symbols refer to the life of Saint Peter, which, along with many others, we parade during Holy Week in Cartagena.”

AFP also geolocated the 2024 TikTok video of the San Pedro Apostol Association’s procession to Cartagena by matching a distinctive building that now houses a restaurant called “Vinarte”.

In 2019, according to Google Maps, it was the site of a clothing store called Love & Paradise (archived here and here).

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Screenshots comparing the video (left) to the location as it was seen in 2019 on Google Maps

Cardinals will meet on May 7, 2025, in a secret conclave to elect the new pope, the Vatican announced on April 28, 2025 (archived here).

AFP Fact Check has debunked other false claims related to the death of Pope Francis, including here and here.