Pope Leo XIV at a café with a cappuccino and brioche, on the beach eating gelato, and even balancing on a stand-up paddleboard in the waters off Rimini. These images went viral after the Pontiff’s visit to the Riviera. The only problem: none of it actually happened. They are all content generated by artificial intelligence.
A flood of memes and photomontages has brought back into focus an issue that the Holy See has never hidden its irritation about: the improper and uncontrolled use of the Pope’s image.
Following Leo XIV’s day in Rimini, the internet’s imagination ran wild. The Pontiff was turned into a kind of Riviera tourist: breakfast at a café, strolls along the seafront, gelato with a sea view, and water sports. In one image, a white zucchetto even appears abandoned on the pavement, as if lost somewhere during his stroll through town.
All of it is fake, but often crafted realistically enough to confuse anyone scrolling quickly past these images on social media. And it is precisely here that internet humor collides with an issue on which the Vatican has, over the years, taken a very firm stance.
The Holy See has indeed repeatedly objected to the unauthorized use of the Pontiff’s likeness, especially when linked to commercial purposes or to depictions deemed damaging to his dignity and that of the Church. In the past, the Vatican has even threatened legal action against advertising campaigns that made use of the Pope’s image.
Today, the issue takes on a new dimension with artificial intelligence, which can produce increasingly convincing fake photographs in a matter of seconds. It’s a theme closely intertwined with fake news and the manipulation of reality — a subject Pope Francis himself had addressed on several occasions.
Leo XIV’s visit to Rimini, then, continues to make headlines even days later. This time, however, not for anything the Pope actually did on the Riviera, but for everything artificial intelligence has made him appear to do. And within the Vatican, the manipulation of the Pontiff’s image has long been considered anything but a joke.
