Pope Francis at the Vatican on March 8, 2020 (Alberto Pizzoli / AFP)

Photo altered to show Pope Francis licking baby

This article is more than one year old.
Published on March 10, 2020 at 22:00
2 min read
By AFP Spain, Natalia SANGUINO, AFP USA

Reddit posts shared more than 10,000 times show an image of Pope Francis licking a baby’s face. It has been misleadingly altered; according to photo evidence, the pope only kissed the child.

The edited image -- which appears here and here on Reddit -- has been circulating since at least 2018.

Screenshot of a Reddit post with the manipulated photo, taken March 10, 2020

A Google reverse image search found the original 2013 Associated Press photograph, which was published in The Washington Post. The photo, which showed Francis’ first papal audience on March 27 of that year, can also be found in the AP’s archives.

Screenshot taken March 4, 2020 of the original photo, which was published in The Washington Post

An AFP photo showing the same moment also makes clear that the pontiff was kissing, not licking, the baby.

Pope Francis blesses a baby as he arrives for an audience at St Peter's square on March 27, 2013 at the Vatican (Gabriel Bouys / AFP)

In addition to appearing on Reddit, a Spanish-language post on Facebook featuring the image has been shared more than 2,000 times.

This article was translated from Spanish by Claire Savage in Washington.

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Photo altered to show Pope Francis licking baby

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