Close to the funeral of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, false images of him are circulating online. In addition to the negative one towards him, artfully cropped to make people believe he was giving the Nazi salute during a mass (we talk about it here), another is proposed that portrays him together with Pope Francis and Pope John Paul II, when the first two were not yet cardinals. This is a photo montage.
For those in a hurry
- The photo has been circulating since at least 2013, while in Italy since at least 2014.
- The shot is the work of photographer Massimo Sambucetti, but does not portray the three Popes.
- It is a photomontage, the original did not portray the then Cardinal Bergoglio.
Analyses
Here is the text with which the image is spread, proposing the example of a post published on January 2, 2023 with over 3700 shares:
ATTENTION SENSATIONAL HISTORICAL PHOTO
And a photo of the last three Popes of our Holy Church.
This is a unique photo. It is exciting to see them together. Young Pope Francis together with S. Karol and the worthy Pope Ratzinger.
They were ignorant, but God already knew it.
Few have received it. DISTRIBUTE IT
The real photo
This is a photo montage. The original photo was taken on December 20, 1985 by photographer Massimo Sambucetti for ap (circulated since 2010), where then-cardinal Ratzinger and Pope John Paul II are portrayed shaking hands in front of a cardinal who is not Bergoglio at all.
The man portrayed between the two Popes was actually Cardinal Edouard Cagnon (who died in 2007), as explained by Aciprensa.com way back in 2013 precisely because of the spread of the false one.
It was circulating in Italy in 2014
The image is not new in Italy, it was already circulating in 2014, one year after the first pontificate of Pope Francis. Here is the post of February 22, 2014 from which the text of the meme circulating online could come, where we note over 51,000 shares:
As reported by Cicap, in an article entitled “The hoax of the 3 popes”, the image circulated with descriptions such as the following:
Look at it in this photographic gem found on the web. A rare shot unites Pope Francis, Benedict XVI and John Paul II. The photo should date back to 1979. It was recovered and published by the Filipino journalist Harold Geronimo. Looking at it today I would say that we are facing an extraordinary and prophetic meeting. A John Paul II who has recently become Pope shakes hands with Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI) then archbishop of Monaco, under the cheerful gaze of Pope Francis who in 1979 was provincial superior of Argentina
Conclusions
A photo taken in 1985 by the photographer Massimo Sambucetti was artfully modified, around 2013, replacing the face of Cardinal Edouard Gagnon with that of the then Cardinal Bergoglio, in such a way as to make one believe there was a “historical photo” with the last three Popes.
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