A known conspiracy website claims Pope Francis appointed George Soros’s son cardinal, thus violating the canons of the Catholic Church.
Soros never goes away, he is transformed
NEWS: “Pope Francis appointed Alex Soros, a 37-year-old history graduate and the billionaire son of George Soros, cardinal-priest of the Catholic Church. The news dropped like a bomb for the Vatican, where a terrible schism is in the making which will rock the very foundations of the numerous Colleges of Cardinals created by the Pope in recently held consistories. […] The Roman-Catholic Pontiff raises to the rank of cardinal those eligible priests who stand out through their doctrine, their activity, their piety and prudence in overcoming adversity. However, only those members of the clergy who are ordained bishops can be appointed cardinals. In an attempt to rewrite Church canons, Pope Francis circumvented the sacred ordination of the newly appointed Cardinal Soros”.
NARRATIVE: Alexander Soros was appointed cardinal of the Catholic Church.
BACKGROUND: George Soros is a Hungarian-born American economist, political activist, philanthropist and businessman. He is a well-established opponent of ultra-liberal capitalism, which is why he became a favorite target of ultra-conservatives and supporters of conspiracy theories, as well as the victim of several anti-Semitic attacks. At the same time, owing to his financial support to a number of non-governmental organizations, Soros is considered a threat to authoritarian leaders or leaders with undemocratic tendencies, most notably Vladimir Putin and Viktor Orban.
Born into a family of wealthy Jews in Budapest in 1930, Soros survived the Holocaust by using fake IDs and living in hiding. Despite being only 14 years at the end of World War II, Soros was accused of having collaborated with the Nazis, profiting at the expense of other Jews. The narrative is based on a real story, which Soros himself admitted: during the Nazi occupation, Soros pretended to be the son of a government official who was compiling an inventory of assets and estates confiscated from Jews. Although he admitted to have accompanied the said official on one of his missions, Soros pointed out he was merely a child who wanted to survive, without fully acknowledging the reality around him. At the age of 17, after the introduction of the communist regime in Hungary, Geroge Soros moved to London, where he enrolled at the prestigious London School of Economics, before emigrating to New York in 1956. In the USA, Soros built a successful career in finance. In 1970, he set up his private investment fund, which would become the source of his wealth. Soros’s net worth is estimated at nearly 7 billion USD, which does not include the 18 billion dollars transferred to his foundations.
Soros started doing charity work in the 1970s, by awarding scholarships to black South-Africans at the time of the apartheid. Later he went on to provide assistance to dissidents of communist regimes in Central and Eastern Europe. After 1989, he expanded his activity to other areas. At present, the Open Society Foundations financially supports drug addicts, the legalization of same-sex marriages and the decriminalization of cannabis consumption. OSF also advocates the abolishment of authoritarianism, racism and intolerance.
For these reasons, George Soros is depicted as the “boogeyman” by nationalists, sovereigntists and anti-Westerners, particularly in Central and Eastern Europe.
Having aged considerably, in June 2023 George Soros handed over the management of all his businesses and foundations to his son, Alexander Soros, which shortly became a topic of a wide-reaching smear campaign. Adding to the said reasons are the latest statements of Alexander Soros whereby he condemned without restraint the Russian invasion of Ukraine, also launching a fund for supporting Ukraine.
Solidnews.ro, the website that spread the false information regarding Alexander Soros, is affiliated to Radio Gold FM, which last year was fined by the National Audiovisual Council for spreading fake news. Both media outlets are associated with Cozmin Gușă, a controversial politician / analyst / consultant / businessman who over the years promoted several false narratives and was described by Romanian media as a close associate / sympathizer / agent of influence of Russia in Romania.
“Digital Alert”, the publication quoted by SolidNews, is one of the main sources of disinformation in Spain, which regularly publishes articles depicting the Soros family as evil incarnate, criticizing the leaders of the Catholic Church whom it accuses, for instance, of seeking to rewrite the Bible in order to adapt it to modern-day social realities.
PURPOSE: To validate the previously promoted conspiracy theories, to stir and amplify social unrest, to demonize the West.
All cardinals appointed by Pope Francis are members of the clergy
WHY THE NARRATIVE IS FALSE: A cardinal is a member of the Catholic clergy appointed usually for life by the Pope. Collectively, cardinals make up the College of Cardinals, whose most sacred responsibility is the election of a new Pope when the Holy See is left vacant. During the sede vacante (the period of time between a pope’s death and resignation and the election of his successor), the College of Cardinals takes charge of the day-to-day governance of the Holy See. Furthermore, cardinals take part in papal consistories (which are held every year), administrative gatherings at the top of the Catholic Church that address matters of importance to the Church and appoint new cardinals.
Most cardinals are bishops and archbishops that lead dioceses and archdioceses around the world, or who are already part of the Catholic Church leadership at the Roman Curia in the Vatican. A very small number of cardinals are priests recognized for special service to the Church. The latter receive a papal dispensation upon being appointed cardinals. Although the Holy See appointed laymen as cardinals in the past, starting 1917 all cardinal candidates must be members of the clergy.
At present, according to official Vatican data, there are over 240 serving cardinals, of whom 132 are eligible for casting their votes in conclave to elect the pope. Since his election as Pontiff, Pope Francis has appointed 131 cardinals, and although some of his appointments were controversial, none of the 131 clergymen is Alexander Soros. The most recent cardinal appointments made by the Pope were on September 30, 2023, and no American citizen was included on the list of 19 candidates.
Although the Spanish publication that launched the narrative in question doesn’t provide a source to substantiate its claim that Alexander Soros was appointed cardinal, one possible source for this fake news could be the visit paid to the Vatican by Alexander Soros last summer, alongside the former American president Bill Clinton. In fact, in a video posted on TikTok on December 29, 2023, Alex Soros is announced as a newly appointed cardinal, the video also including pictures taken during his visit to the Vatican.
As regards Alexander Soros’ sexual orientation, conservative propagandists have already labeled him homosexual, something which they say would explain his liberal views regarding the rights of sexual minorities and gender equality. In that respect, various publications have published pictures depicting Alexander Soros together with a man described as his “African-American partner”, with whom he has a “publicly documented relationship”. Alexander Soros was also the target of “revelations” regarding his alleged homosexuality back in 2018, when Hungarian journalists claimed to have spotted him taking part in the Gay Pride parade in Budapest, posting pictures that were in fact showing a different man. In fact, Alexander Soros keeps his private life away from prying eyes, and his sexual orientation is unknown to the public. So far, there are no verified accounts that can shed light on Alexander Soros’s romantic relationships with women or men.
Check sources:
---copie-image.webp)
