| schema:text
| - Fact Check: PM Modi was NOT the only leader to meet Pope at G7 Summit, old video from 2021 viral
India Today Fact Check found that the viral video is from 2021 — not the recent G7 Summit.
Listen to Story
India Today Fact Check
The viral video is from 2021, not the recent G7 Summit. The Pope met several state leaders along with Modi on the sidelines of the meet.
The X account of the Kerala Congress recently courted controversy with its post mocking Prime Minister Narendra Modi meeting Pope Francis at the G7 Summit in Italy. The party soon deleted the post and apologised to Christians.
Amid this, a video of the Pope meeting PM Modi has gone viral on social media with the claim that out of all the state leaders, only PM Modi was invited by the Pope to meet him during the G7 Summit in Italy.
A Facebook user sharing the video wrote, “The media doesn't show this outreach. Only Modi Ji was invited by Pope out of all state heads attending the G7 meet in Italy. This is the power of India today. No credit is given to Modi Ji by Indian Seculars.” Its archive can be seen here.
India Today Fact Check found that the viral video is from 2021 — not the recent G7 Summit. The Pope met several state leaders along with PM Modi on the sidelines of the global leaders meet.
Our Probe
Reverse-searching keyframes from the viral video led us to several video reports on YouTube from October 2021. A video report by Voice of America matched the visuals of the viral video. The caption noted that PM Modi met Pope Francis at the Vatican on October 30, 2021, and invited him to visit India. At that time, PM Modi was in Rome for the G20 Summit.
Similar news reports of PM Modi meeting the Pope in 2021 in Vatican City can be seen here and here.
It’s noteworthy, however, that Modi did meet the Pope at the recently held G7 summit in Italy. Several news reports covered the brief meeting and shared pictures of Modi embracing the head of the Catholic Church following a handshake. PM Modi also shared photos of the encounter on his social media accounts.
Before and after his address at the summit, the Pope had a series of private bilateral meetings with several state leaders, including US President Joe Biden, French President Emmanuel Macron, and Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. However, he did not meet PM Modi privately.
The Pope was taken around the table in a wheelchair to greet the world leaders gathered at the summit. Pictures of the Pope meeting other heads of state can be seen here and here.
Thus, it’s clear an old video of PM Modi’s meeting with the Pope is being shared to falsely claim that he was the only state leader to meet the head of the Catholic Church during the recent G7 Summit.
Please share it on our at 73 7000 7000
You can also send us an email at factcheck@intoday.com
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)