Fake message to President of Burkina Faso attributed to Pope

Vatican City, May 22, 2025: “To His Excellency President Ibrahim Traoré, President of the Sovereign Nation of Burkina Faso, son of African soil, defender of his people, may grace and peace multiply for you through wisdom, courage and truth.” This is how a supposed English-language message attributed to the Pope and created with artificial intelligence begins.

A video of about 36 minutes was uploaded to YouTube on the account “Pan African Dreams”, produced using footage from Pope Leo XIV’s audience with journalists on Monday, May 12.

A “morphing” technique was used—that is, transforming the image so that the movement of the lips matches the AI-generated words.

The fake video is titled “Pope Leo XIV responds to Captain Ibrahim Traoré – A Message of Truth, Justice & Reconciliation”.

Viewers are led to believe that the new pope delivered an entire public address to Burkina Faso’s President Ibrahim Traoré in response to his letter, and in the video, Pope Leo is made to say, “I have read your words not once, but many times, and each reading has been deeper than the last, 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.”

This video is part of a series of fake messages covered by BBC News on May 15, and was reposted in a slightly shorter, lower-quality version by the YouTube account “Nou se Legliz”.

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.

News of his activities and video messages are available in real time on the Vatican News portal at vaticannews.va, in multiple languages, as well as on the Vatican’s newspaper website L’Osservatore Romano at osservatoreromano.va.

By Vatican News