Overview
- Vatican channels published a pre-distributed version of Pope León XIV’s Luján text that included the phrase Argentina “had two Popes,” even though the pope paused and did not say the line during his address.
- The item appeared on Vatican News and on Pontifex social accounts (X and Instagram) and gathered interactions before editorial leads detected the mismatch and removed or replaced the posts within minutes.
- Vatican journalists and outlets report that Massimiliano Menichetti of Vatican News and Andrea Tornielli of the Dicastery for Communication ordered the swift review and withdrawal of the content.
- The phrase is treated as institutionally delicate because it evokes the 2013 coexistence of Pope Francis and Benedict XVI and the complex status of a pope emeritus, which explains why León XIV omitted it.
- The episode highlights how the Holy See’s workflow uses prepared texts across multilingual teams and how that process can spread errors quickly, raising questions about verification steps for live events and social publishing.