Fact check: Viral image shows Pope John Paul II with future pope Benedict, not Francis
The claim: Image shows Pope John Paul II with future popes Benedict, Francis
A Dec. 31, 2022, Facebook post (direct link, archive link) features a black-and-white photo that it claims shows former Pope John Paul II seated next to two future popes: Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI and Pope Francis.
“A VERY rare photograph of John Paul II with two men who would succeed him as Pope, Cardinal Ratzinger, who became Benedict XVI, and Cardinal Bergoglio," reads the post's caption. "What a wonderful photo.”
The post was shared more than 800 times in just over a week.
Other versions of the claim garnered hundreds of additional shares.
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Our rating: Partly false
The photo shows John Paul and Benedict. However, the third man in the photo is former Venezuelan Archbishop Rosalio Jose Castillo Lara, not Bergoglio, who went on to become Pope Francis.
Photograph shows papal signing of historic 1983 Code of Canon Law
The photograph was taken on Jan. 25, 1983, and shows John Paul and Benedict, who was then known as West German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, as well as Lara. They were at a Vatican ceremony for the pope to sign the Roman Catholic Code of Canon Law, according to Getty Images’ Bettmann Archive.
News outlets including ABC News and Fox News also reported the image shows John Paul, Benedict and Lara.
Lara was the chairman of the Vatican commission that worked to revise the code for the previous two decades, Getty reported.
The new code marked the first change in the church’s laws since 1917. It ended an American experiment to streamline marriage annulments within the country and retained the practice of excommunication for abortion, among other provisions, as reported by The New York Times and The Washington Post at the time.
Though the image being shared on social media does not feature the three successive popes, the trio was "surely ... together in the same room at some point," said Massimo Faggioli, a religious studies professor at Villanova University with expertise in the Catholic Church. News reports from the 2001 Synod of Bishops, for example, indicate all three were at the meeting.
Paste BN reached out to users who shared the image for comment.
Our fact-check sources:
- ABC News, accessed Jan. 9, Pope Benedict XVI through the years
- Getty Images Bettmann Archive, accessed Jan. 9, Pope John Paul II and Cardinal Ratzinger
- Massimo Faggioli, Jan. 9, Email to Paste BN
- Fox News, Dec. 31, 2022, Pope Benedict’s vision of Catholicism, Vatican II, and the future of the Church endure through his teachings
- The New York Times, Nov. 27, 1983, New Canon Law Code in Effect for Catholics
- The Washington Post, Jan. 26, 1983, Pope Signs New Code of Law Updating Rules for Catholics
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