Conspiracy Theorists Misrepresent Photos to Claim Pope Francis Was Beholden to a Global Jewish Cabal
By Sarah Komar
What happened: Conspiracy theory-oriented social media users are citing video clips and images of Pope Francis kissing the hands of a group of yarmulke-clad men, falsely claiming that the men are the late billionaire investment banker David Rockefeller, the late former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, and a “John Rothschild,” an apparent reference to the German Jewish banking family the Rothschilds.
A closer look: Following Pope Francis’ death on April 21, the images and clips spread among conspiracy accounts and antisemitic and anti-Catholic social media users to portray the late Pope as submissive to supposed Jewish global control, a false claim has sporadically spread since at least 2016.
On April 21, far-right and conspiracy theory-oriented X user Liz Churchill posted a video featuring footage of Pope Francis meeting with men wearing Jewish skullcaps and stated: “Here you see the Pope kissing the hands of David Rockefeller, Henry Kissinger and John Rothschild…the most powerful people on Earth…almost like he’s there for them…instead of his faithful followers.” The post received 1 million views and 13,000 likes in less than two days.
Italian Facebook user Luciano Sturaro posted an image of the Pope kissing the hands of a Jewish man on April 21 alongside the text: “Pope Bergoglio bowing and kissing the hands of the Zionists who wanted to dominate/enslave Humanity. Let’s remember this.”
Actually: The photos and footage depict Francis meeting six Holocaust survivors during a May 26, 2014, visit to Israel’s Holocaust museum, Yad Vashem — an interaction that can be seen in a video of Francis’ full visit on the museum’s YouTube channel.
The video posted by the museum shows that Francis kissed and shook the hand of each survivor as he greeted them.
Other falsehoods mount in mourning: Since Pope Francis’ death, NewsGuard has documented five false claims related to the late Catholic leader, including that he died from complications caused by the COVID-19 vaccine and that a video showed a satanic ritual being performed at his funeral, which is actually scheduled for Saturday, April 26.
This follows a slew of falsehoods about the pope previously reported by NewsGuard in March 2025 amid his battle with pneumonia.