DETECTING FAKE NEWS – THE CASE OF A FILIPINO AS THE NEXT POPE

The death and burial of Pope Francis has raised a flurry of all kinds of news, including speculations as to who the next Pope would be. Amidst all these, one news stood out with blazing headlines: “Breaking: Cardinal Tagle Elected As Pope Luis I — Church Enters A New Era! 

Being a Filipino, I was initially overjoyed to hear the “breaking” news. Cardinal Tagle is a Filipino, an outstanding leader in both the Philippine Church circles and around the world. He is definitely qualified to succeed the late Pope Francis, both in terms of wisdom, compassion and profound knowledge of the teachings of Christ. 

He is also a very close adviser to the former Pope who appointed Tagle as a Cardinal-Bishop, one of the higest positions in the global Catholic hierarchy.  Tagle promoted to ‘cardinal-bishop,’ second-highest title in the Church

However, Cardinal Tagle and I know each other and are friends. He invited me once to give a talk before a gathering of bishops in the Philippines known as the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines. 

I know him to be a very humble person and holy man. He is one of the holiest man I ever met. The “breaking” news gave the title of Pope Luis I to Cardina Tagle. This raised suspicions within me as Cardinal Tagle would never use the name of a Pope that contains his first name. This was totally out of character for Cardinal Tagle. Besides, as far as I know, in Church history, there is no outstanding Pope or Church leader with the name of “Luis”. 

I also knew that there was some form of timeline for electing the new Pope after the death of the former Pople. This timeline speaks of a window of 15-20 days after the death of Pope Francis. 

So I double-checked the “breaking” news. My suspicions were confirmed This “breaking” news about Cardinal Tagle was fake news. The conclave of Caridnals had not yet been convened. So how can a new Pope be elected when the process of electing a new Pope had not even started?

Here, check it out. Timeline for electing the new pope following Francis’ funeral

What that news source was doing was hoping that their choice of Pope would be Cardinal Tagle They created a video as if the reality had already happened. 

The lesson here is this. In an age of disinformation and fake news, always check out the reliablity of the news and the source of the news. It will prevent embarrassing moments in one’s life when, through ignorance, one becomes a purveyor of fake news. 

However, before ending, it would be good to quickly add. I have nothing against Cardinal Tagle being chosen to be the next Pope within the next two weeks or even less. Cardinal Tagle is highly qualified to be the next Pope. 

But let us not count our chickens before they are hatched. We have to have our integrity intact when we are passing on the news. After all, that news may be contaminated news and we will destroy our reputation in the process.