Claim: Pope Francis seeks blessings of Buddhist Monks in a last ditch effort to save his life.
Fact: This claim is false. The footage used in these claims is from former exchanges and collaboration between the Pope and groups of monks from Thailand, dating back to 2024.
Several social media posts are circulating in Sinhala showing a collage of photographs of Pope Francis with Thai Buddhist monks, claiming that the Pope has “sought the blessings of Buddhism in His last few days.” Some posts also insinuate that despite Christianity being a popular religion in the world, “even for the Pope Buddhism is the last resort.”
These are some images/frames from the footage used in the viral social media posts:
A few posts can be found here, here, and here.
Newschecker team decided to look into the claim due to several incidents of misinformation spreading about the Pope’s medical condition after the Vatican announced on February 14, 2025 that He has been hospitalised due to bronchitis.
Also read: False Claims Of Pope Francis’ Death Go Viral on Social Media
Fact Check/ Verification
We began by conducting a reverse image search of the footage being used in these claims, and came across a video posted by EWTN on June 25, 2024, which showed a group of Thai Buddhist monks inside the Vatican premises with the Pope, performing a few Mahayana Buddhist rituals.
The video was found to be from May 27, 2024 when a delegation of Buddhist monks from the Wat Phra Cetuphon temple (also known as the Wat Pho) of Bangkok, a foremost Buddhist temple in Thailand, visited the Pope in the Vatican.
“Welcoming a delegation of some 100 Buddhist monks from the Wat Phra Cetuphon temple of Bangkok, in Thailand, he expressed his deep gratitude and appreciation for their “enduring friendship” and willingness to work together “to bring a ray of hope” to our wounded humanity,” a report on the Vatican News read. Another news report can be found here.
On closely analysing the viral image and the keyframes from the video from June 2025, Newschecker found that the frames and the participating monks seen in both media were the same.
We also noted that the Pope had engaged with the same Wat Pho monks back in 2019, as specified on His X (formerly Twitter) account and Vatican News.
In addition, we also checked for official updates on the Pope’s health condition as released by the Vatican. As of March 9, 2025, Vatican News has reported that, “His condition appears stable, with slight gradual improvements… However, the overall situation remains complex, prompting doctors to maintain a guarded prognosis.”
On March 7, the Pope sent a note of gratitude from the hospital to people for their prayers via His X account and a voicenote which was transcribed and published in Rome Reports.
It is thus clear that since His initial admission to the hospital on February 14, 2025, the Pope has remained in the hospital undergoing treatment and has not attended any outdoor events including events seeking blessings of Buddhist monks.
Conclusion
Social media posts claiming that Pope Francis has sought blessings of Thai Buddhist Monks in a last ditch effort to save his life are false. The footage used in these claims is from former exchanges and collaboration between the Pope and a group of monks from Thailand, dating back to 2024.
Result: False
Our Sources
‘Pope Francis Allows 100 Buddhist Monks to Pray Over Him at Vatican (EWTN Footage)’, published on the EWTN YouTube channel, June 25, 2024
‘Pope to Buddhists: ‘Let’s work together for a more inclusive world’’, published in Vatican News, May 27, 2024
‘Pope emphasizes to Buddhist monks: “We can only be saved together”’, published in Rome Reports, May 28, 2024
‘Pope in Thailand: Catholics and Buddhists can live as “good neighbours”’, published in Vatican News, November 19, 2019
‘Pope’s health remains stable amid slight improvements’, published in Vatican News, March 9, 2025
Verified X account of Pope Francis
