Captain Ibrahim Traoré is president of Burkina Faso, a landlocked country in sub-Saharan Africa. “He is now arguably Africa’s most popular, if not favourite, president,” a South African security analyst told the BBC.
So it probably came as no surprise to his fans when Pope Leo XIV delivered a 36-minute speech in English praising him to the skies.
“I have read your words not once, but many times, and each reading has been deeper than the last,” says the Holy Father, “because in your voice I have heard not only the anger of a president, but the righteous cry of a continent long wounded by the twin blades of abandonment and exploitation.”
It seemed too good to be true, especially since President Traoré is a Muslim and a quasi-Marxist. In fact, it wasn’t true.
It was just the most brazen of dozens of AI-generated deepfakes featuring the newly elected pope.
The Vatican’s media office was exasperated. According to Vatican News, “It is noticeable that the image of the pope is repeated, and Leo holds the same two sheets of paper throughout the entire message.
“It is worth recalling—given the circulation on various social media of texts attributed to the new pope without source indication—that all of Pope Leo XIV’s speeches, addresses, and texts can be consulted in full at vatican.va.”
The pope’s fanboy letter to president of Burkina Faso is just the tip of the iceberg.
There’s a channel on YouTube called “Pope Leo XIV Sermons.” The last time The Catholic Weekly checked, it had already posted 26 of these sermons and Pope Leo had only given half a dozen.
Here’s a message which had had about 350,000 views – “The sky is heavy with prophecy. The clock of heaven is ticking its final seconds … Look around you. Do you not see it? The world is unravelling at the seams.”
At least the last sentence is true – the world is unravelling at the seems. Now that anyone can fake the pope’s voice, his face, and his gestures, it will be difficult for naïve people to distinguish fakery from reality.
During the conclave, White House social media accounts posted an image of a grim-faced Pope Donald blessing the faithful. It went viral on social media. That was so disrespectful that it verged on blasphemy. But at least everyone treated it a joke.
What happens when people don’t get the joke?