On May 12, a Georgian-language Facebook user published a photo collage of the Pope. The photos show that the Pope has an LGBTQ+ flag wrapped around his shoulders. The photo is accompanied by a caption in Russian: “Russia is the last pillar of the Christian world.” Catholicism is over.” The user writes that Russia is the only one that can confront the enemies of Orthodoxy.
In the past years, the same photo was used by the pro-Kremlin online media “Georgia and World”.
The disseminated photo is not authentic and is generated by artificial intelligence (AI). Looking at the photo collage, it can be seen that there are several inaccuracies on it, which is characteristic of photos generated by artificial intelligence.
The photo of the Pope holding the LGBTQ+ flag was first shared on the social media pages of Gay Forest, a platform dedicated to queer communities. The hashtags used in the posts indicate that they are created through the artificial intelligence program, MidJourney.
The fact-checking department of the French publication AFP verified the photo of the Pope and noticed several inaccuracies. In each of them, the colors of the LGBTQ+ flag are arranged in asymmetrical lines, in some places the colors are not well distinguished, the flag itself is also asymmetrical, in some places, it is shapeless and unfinished.

Visual manipulations about the Pope have been disseminated in the past as well. For more details, see the articles of “Myth Detector:”
- AI-Generated Photo of the Pope Disseminated on Social Media (in Georgian)
- The secret rulers of the world or the survivors of the holocaust – what does the photo depict?
- hat Does the Painting of the Virgin Mary Gifted to the Pope by Zelenskyy Represent?
About the Source
Facebook user Nona Sharabidze regularly spreads false information and Kremlin narratives of anti-Western content. “Myth Detector” has repeatedly debunked the disinformation amplified by Sharabidze in the past.
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