Saudi Arabia's King And Vatican Cardinal Secretary Inaugurate First Catholic Church, Fact Check!

Illustration (Unsplash)

JAKARTA - Social media has been flooded again with a photo circulating that explains the King of Saudi Arabia with the Vatican's Cardinal Secretary in the middle of the ribbon scissors inaugurating the inaugural Catholic gerja in Saudi Arabia.

This photo shared by Wawan Ahiemza's Facebook account on May 4, 2020 with the caption 'Cardinal secretary of the Vatican and king of Saudi Arabia, inaugurated the first catholic church in saudi arabia.'

Reported from turnbackhoaks, in the photo is not the King of Saudi Arabia but a minister of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the vatican envoy. The two attended the opening ceremony of the second Catholic church in Abu Dhabi in 2015.

The AFP news site also provided the same description of the search for the overturned image in Yandex. Photo taken by AFP on June 11, 2015.

"Translated from English to Indonesian, the photo's caption reads: " (From left to right) Vatican Foreign Minister Cardinal Pietro Parolin; UAE Minister of Youth, Culture and Community Development Sheikh Nahayan bin Mubarak Al-Nahayan; and Apostolic Nuns and envoys to the Arabian Peninsula Archbishop Petar Rajic take part in the opening ceremony of the second Catholic church dedicated to St Paul in Abu Dhabi's industrial district, Musaffah, on June 11, 2015."

St Paul's Church is located in Musaffah, in the UAE capital, Abu Dhabi. The inauguration of the church was also reported by UAE media such as Khaleej Times and The National.

"This falls into the wrong category of content," the report said.