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PeakMetrics / Fact Checks

Religion & belief fact checks

Explore claims publishers have checked about religion & belief. Read their original ratings and follow the evidence.

3,371 published reviews in this topic

LupaReligion & belief

“(...) [Está] sendo aprovado nessa semana na Alerj (Assembleia Legislativa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro) um projeto de lei absurdo que atinge diretamente o coração da igreja. É o projeto de lei 4.257 de 2018, do deputado estadual Átila Nunes. Olha que absurdo! Esse projeto de lei torna o crime afetivo do evangelho. Esse projeto de lei passa a punir o propagador do evangelho. Então, você que leva a palavra de Cristo corre o risco a partir de agora, dessa aprovação, de ser preso. E a pauta que implementaram nessa prática colocaram o nome de assédio religioso. Olha o absurdo! Você propagar o evangelho pode ser enquadrado no crime de assédio religioso (...)”

Publisher’s rating: Falso

YouturnReligion & belief

திருட்டு திராவிட மாடல் அரசு உடனடியாக அகற்றப்பட வேண்டும்… இந்துக்கள் பெரும்பான்மையாக வாழும் தமிழகத்தில் அரசுப் பயணச்சீட்டு மூலம் கிருஸ்துவ மதமாற்றத்திற்கு தொடர்ந்து உதவி வருவது மிகவும் வேதனையான விஷயம்..!

Publisher’s rating: Misleading

dpaReligion & belief

Oekraïense militanten branden kerk af omdat abt weigert bij het patriarchaat van Kiev te gaan.

Publisher’s rating: Er werd in Ovadne geen kerk in brand gestoken. Een video die dit moet bewijzen dateert uit 2021 en toont een kerk zo'n 900 kilometer verderop. De brand in die kerk was ook geen kwaad opzet, maar werd waarschijnlijk veroorzaakt door slechte elektrische bedrading.

The claim linked a supposed church fire in Ovadne, in Ukraine’s Volyn region, to a local priest’s refusal to join the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU), associated in the claim with Kyiv. The investigation found no fire at either of the two churches it identified in Ovadne. It also reports that local media quoted regional authorities and emergency services, who said they knew of no church fire there: “Beide kerken zijn niet de kerk op de video” and “geen weet hebben van een kerkbrand in Ovadne.” The video did show a real burned church, but the review traced it to the St. Theodosius Chernigovsky church in Novooleksandrivka, in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast—about 900 kilometres from Ovadne. The investigation describes using reverse-image search to identify the building, and says that the result was also found by Georgian fact-checkers at Mythdetector. It dates that fire to January 2021, rather than the claimed incident in Ovadne. The review says Ukrainian emergency services posted footage of the fire on YouTube and that their report found no deliberate act, with poor electrical wiring considered the likely cause. It attributes this account of the report to a Facebook post by the church’s archpriest, Dmitry Fednov. The evidence therefore separates the real 2021 fire shown in the video from the later allegation about Ovadne and the priest’s church affiliation.

dpaReligion & belief

Le pape émérite Benoit XVI a demandé au président américain Joe Biden de ne pas venir à ses funérailles.

Publisher’s rating: Ni Benoît XVI, ni le Vatican n’ont interdit à Joe Biden d’assister aux funérailles. Il a simplement été souligné que le défunt avait souhaité un cadre simple de son vivant. C’est pourquoi seules l’Allemagne et l’Italie ont été officiellement invitées.

The claim concerns whether Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI or the Vatican specifically asked President Joe Biden not to attend Benedict’s funeral. The review traces the circulating assertion to an article shared on Facebook from the French site Le Salon Beige, which relied on a White House press briefing and an article by Newsmax. Newsmax’s opening sentence attributed the claim to White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, but the review says that interpretation did not match what happened. [S1: “L'article partagé dans la publication Facebook provient d’un site français appelé Le Salon Beige.”; “L’article s’appuie sur un communiqué de presse de la Maison Blanche et sur un autre article du site américain Newsmax.”; “Cette affirmation ne correspond pourtant pas à la réalité.”] The review describes two pieces of evidence it compared with that claim: Biden said in an interview that his appearance would require a sizeable entourage, and Jean-Pierre said at a White House briefing that U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See Joe Donnelly would represent the United States. The review reports that Jean-Pierre presented Donnelly’s role as consistent with the deceased pope’s and the Vatican’s wishes—not as an explicit ban or disinvitation of Biden. [S1: “Le président américain a expliqué dans une interview qu’un entourage conséquent serait nécessaire à son apparition.”; “L’attachée de presse de la Maison Blanche, Karine Jean-Pierre, a répondu que l’ambassadeur des États-Unis au Saint-Siège, Joe Donnelly, représenterait les États-Unis aux funérailles, comme le souhaitaient le défunt pape et le Vatican.”] The review’s account of the Vatican’s announcement supplies the context for the delegation decision: the funeral was to be as simple as possible, and only Germany and Italy were represented by official delegations. It reports that Benedict died on December 31, 2022, and that his requiem Mass took place at the Vatican on January 5, 2023. Those details support the distinction between a limited official delegation and a personal prohibition on Biden attending. [S1: “les États-Unis n’ont fait que se conformer à la demande du chef émérite de l’Église d’organiser sa messe funéraire de la manière la plus simple possible.”; “seules l’Allemagne, dont Benoît XVI était originaire, et l’Italie étaient représentées par des délégations officielles.”; “Benoît XVI est décédé le 31 décembre 2022 à l’âge de 95 ans. La messe de requiem a eu lieu au Vatican le 5 janvier 2023.”]