By Karen Rebelo
An old video showing a wax figure of Pope John Paul II in a glass case being carried into a packed church in Mexico is being shared with a false claim that the video shows the late pontiff's body has not shown any signs of decomposition.
BOOM found that the viral claim is false and that the video was shot in Mexico in 2011 and shows a wax figure of the late pope displayed at a Catholic school.
Pope John Paul II died on April 2, 2005 at the age of 84. He was canonized as a saint on April 27, 2014 by the Roman Catholic church. John Paul II was one of the most widely traveled popes and is still venerated in his native Poland.
The video, which is four minutes and 31 seconds long, shows a group of Catholic nuns and others waiting for someone to arrive through the church doors. A hymn in Spanish can be heard in the background. Later on, a group of men carrying a large glass case, which appears to contain the body of Pope John Paul II, enter the church carrying it through the aisle.
The men place the large glass case on a stand in the middle of the aisle while the camera shows different angles of the body of Pope John Paul II.
The video is being shared on WhatsApp with a caption that claims, "Pope John Paul's body was yesterday exhumed, after 12 years. His body appears intact with no signs of decay."
The video is also viral on Facebook with the same misleading claim.
FACT CHECK
BOOM found that the claim is false and that the video is from August 2011 when a wax figure of Pope John Paul II was exhibited at a Catholic school in Mexico.
Pope John Paul II's body has not been exhumed recently
Contrary to the viral forward, Pope John Paul II's body was not exhumed recently but was done so in 2011 ahead of beatification - the first step in the process of declaring a deceased person a saint.
"Pope John Paul II's coffin was exhumed on Friday ahead of his beatification as tens of thousands of people began arriving in Rome for one of the biggest events since his funeral in 2005," an ABC News article dated April 29, 2011, reported.
"The Vatican said the coffin was removed from the crypts below St. Peter's Basilica while top Vatican officials and some of the late pope's closest aides looked on and prayed," the article further stated.
We also found images of the exhumation on Getty Images. However, the photos only show the exterior of the casket and not the state of the body.
The current pope Francis declared two of his predecessors John Paul II and John XXIII, saints of the Roman Catholic church in April 2014. Read more about it here.
Viral video shows a wax figure of Pope John Paul II in Mexico in 2011
BOOM broke down the video into keyframes and ran a reverse image search. We found a fact-check article by the website El Universo published in 2016.
The article stated that the video showed a life-size wax figure of the late pope wiith a cross on his chest. It also said the wax figure toured different dioceses in Mexico for several years.
Using Google Translate we searched for Spanish keywords on YouTube (reliquias de juan pablo ii en mexico) or 'the relics of John Paul II in Mexico' and were able to find the original video which was uploaded in August 2011.
The description of the video translates to, "Visit of the Relics of Blessed John Paul II to Mercedes School. Click here to view an archive.
The video was uploaded by Hernández Romero - a maths school teacher.
