{"id":22515,"date":"2025-04-30T16:27:17","date_gmt":"2025-04-30T15:27:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/?p=22515"},"modified":"2025-04-30T16:27:19","modified_gmt":"2025-04-30T15:27:19","slug":"viral-image-of-catholic-cardinals-smoking-old-unrelated-to-popes-burial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/viral-image-of-catholic-cardinals-smoking-old-unrelated-to-popes-burial\/","title":{"rendered":"Viral image of catholic cardinals smoking, old, unrelated to Pope\u2019s burial"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Claim: An X<\/a> user shared a picture of two cardinals taking a smoke and claimed it was during Pope Francis\u2019s burial.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Verdict: False! Our investigation revealed that the picture, dating back to 2013, is unrelated to the pope\u2019s burial.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Full Text<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Pope Francis was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from March 13, 2013, until he died<\/a> on April 21, 2025. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to traditions<\/a>, the leader of the Catholic Church is chosen in a highly secretive gathering known as a conclave, which means \u201cwith key\u201d in Latin. Cardinals are tasked with picking the next pontiff, and follow an elaborate process that dates back to the Middle Ages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following the death of the Pope, several claims have been made online; some true, some false<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

An X<\/a> user, Hon Enos Mp (@djmasafi), shared a picture showing two cardinals smoking during the pope’s burial. The image was captioned \u201cTwo cardinals take a smoke break at the  Papal Conclave. Vatican City during Pope Francis’ burial.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Screenshot of the post from X. Picture source: Hon Enos.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Another X account, Lemon @cigarettesummer, posted<\/a> the same image: “Cigarette summer has now reached the Vatican.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reacting to the post, Zippix Nicotine Toothpicks (@ZippixNicotine) wrote, \u201cmust be fake. They probably had toothpicks, not cigarettes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another user, Marcel H\u00e2miliu (@HamtasticVoyage), agreed with the post and wrote, \u201cOh, that’s how they get the white smoke.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since the post went viral on April 28, 2025, it has garnered 3,300,000 views, 92,000 likes, 8,800 retweets and quotes, 4,600 bookmarks and 554 comments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Given the conflicting reactions to the post and its potential to mislead and spread false narratives about the church, DUBAWA decided to investigate the claim. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Verification<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

DUBAWA noticed that the phone held by one of the cardinals was a flip phone<\/a> used predominantly from 2010 to 2014. This suggests that it might be an old post. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So we conducted a reverse image search and saw that the picture had been online since 2013<\/a>, on Reddit, with the caption, \u201ccardinals taking a smoke break at the 266th Papal conclave in Vatican City (2013)\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to TinEye<\/a> and Microsoft Bing<\/a>, the image was shared online between 2013 and 2025. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The viral picture of the two cardinals smoking is from 2013, not from Pope Francis\u2019 burial, as posited by the claimant. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Claim: An X user shared a picture of two cardinals taking a smoke and claimed it was during Pope Francis\u2019s burial.\u00a0 Verdict: False! Our investigation revealed that the picture, dating back to 2013, is unrelated to the pope\u2019s burial.\u00a0 Full Text Pope Francis was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from March 13, 2013, until he died on April 21, 2025.  According to traditions, the leader of the Catholic Church is chosen in a highly secretive gathering known as a conclave, which means \u201cwith key\u201d in Latin. Cardinals are tasked with picking the next pontiff, and follow an elaborate process that dates back to the Middle Ages. Following the death of the Pope, several claims have been made online; some true, some false.  An X user, Hon Enos Mp (@djmasafi), shared a picture showing two cardinals smoking during the pope’s burial. The image was captioned \u201cTwo cardinals take a smoke break at the  Papal Conclave. Vatican City during Pope Francis’ burial.\u201d Another X account, Lemon @cigarettesummer, posted the same image: “Cigarette summer has now reached the Vatican.\u201d Reacting to the post, Zippix Nicotine Toothpicks (@ZippixNicotine) wrote, \u201cmust be fake. They probably had toothpicks, not cigarettes.\u201d Another user, Marcel H\u00e2miliu (@HamtasticVoyage), agreed with the post and wrote, \u201cOh, that’s how they get the white smoke.\u201d Since the post went viral on April 28, 2025, it has garnered 3,300,000 views, 92,000 likes, 8,800 retweets and quotes, 4,600 bookmarks and 554 comments. Given the conflicting reactions to the post and its potential to mislead and spread false narratives about the church, DUBAWA decided to investigate the claim.  Verification DUBAWA noticed that the phone held by one of the cardinals was a flip phone used predominantly from 2010 to 2014. This suggests that it might be an old post.  So we conducted a reverse image search and saw that the picture had been online since 2013, on Reddit, with the caption, \u201ccardinals taking a smoke break at the 266th Papal conclave in Vatican City (2013)\u201d. According to TinEye and Microsoft Bing, the image was shared online between 2013 and 2025.  Conclusion The viral picture of the two cardinals smoking is from 2013, not from Pope Francis\u2019 burial, as posited by the claimant. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22516,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"hannibal_claim_source":"","hannibal_source_label":"","hannibal_card_color":"blue","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_wpscppro_dont_share_socialmedia":false,"_wpscppro_custom_social_share_image":0,"_facebook_share_type":"default","_twitter_share_type":"default","_linkedin_share_type":"default","_pinterest_share_type":"default","_linkedin_share_type_page":"","_instagram_share_type":"default","_medium_share_type":"","_threads_share_type":"","_google_business_share_type":"","_bluesky_share_type":"","_mastodon_share_type":"","_selected_social_profile":[],"_wpsp_enable_custom_social_template":false,"_wpsp_social_scheduling":{"enabled":false,"datetime":null,"platforms":[],"status":"template_only","dateOption":"today","timeOption":"now","customDays":"","customHours":"","customDate":"","customTime":"","schedulingType":"absolute"},"_wpsp_active_default_template":true},"categories":[1571,3812,3815,123],"tags":[],"verdict":[],"ppma_author":[3793],"class_list":["post-22515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fact-check","category-headline","category-homepage","category-mainstream"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8R6dE-5R9","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"authors":[{"term_id":3793,"user_id":0,"is_guest":1,"slug":"lademi-aborisade","display_name":"Lademi Aborisade","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&r=g","author_category":"","user_url":"","last_name":"","first_name":"","job_title":"","description":""}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Catholic-priests.jpg?fit=575%2C421&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22515"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22515\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22517,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22515\/revisions\/22517"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22515"},{"taxonomy":"verdict","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/verdict?post=22515"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=22515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}