Since President George Weah conceded defeat to Joseph Boakai of the Unity Party in November 14 run-off presidential election, Facebook has been flooded with an image of what is portrayed as prophecy of the late Catholic Archbishop Michael Francis.
The one-page note has no date, no signature but contains the image of the late Archbishop Francis. The note contains what appears to be prophecy about the current political situation of Liberia attributed to the late Catholic Bishop.
Rating Justification
To fact check this document, we search to find the first time the paper appeared online. Though our search did not fine the exact time, we found that this paper has been going viral during the last two presidential elections.
We found that the catholic owned Radio Maria made a Facebook post debunking that to the paper or prophecy is fake.
Radio Maria in the Facebook post clarified that Catholics do not address the Pope as “Your Holiness” as mentioned in the paper.
To further fact check this, we contacted the National Catholic Secretariat of the Catholic Bishop Conference of Liberia through its Secretary General Rev. Father Dennis Cephas Nimene. Rev. Father Nimene shared with us a May 2020 press release issued by the Church.
The release termed the viral note as fake news stating that it is a criminal act to associate a writing to someone who is not the author.
Conclusion
Based on these facts, we therefore conclude that the claim in the viral paper attributed to the late Catholic Archbishop Michael Francis is fake. The Catholic church has clarified that the late Archbishop did not make any such prophecy.
This report was developed with the support of Internews through the USAID Media Activity project. The funder has no say in the editorial decision leading to the production of this content