FACT CHECK: Video of priest’s ad for ‘holy water from Vatican’ is AI-generated

Claim: Catholic priest and content creator Father Friel Pareja promotes drinking “holy water from the Vatican” that allegedly cures cancer, gout, diabetes, and other illnesses. 

Rating: FALSE

Why we fact-checked this: The Facebook post containing the claim has 5.1 million views, 80,600 comments, and 217,000 reactions as of writing. It was posted by a Facebook page named “Miracle Padre Pio” which has 11,000 followers. 

In the video, Father Pareja is shown saying that the alleged holy water from the Vatican can cure illnesses. Pareja is seen reading a Bible verse at the start of the video, followed by stitched clips of an old woman supposedly drinking holy water, clips featuring Pope Francis, and people holding a bottle labeled “holy water.” 

The facts: The video is fake and AI-manipulated as debunked by both a deepfake detection tool and Pareja himself. 

Pareja, through the Faith channel in the Rappler app, flagged the video as false and denied that he sells drinkable holy water. He also said holy water should not be drunk. 

“Pinapainom “daw” yung holy water na makagagaling “daw” sa cancer, bukol, gout diabetes and iba pang malubhang sakit. Wala po akong binebentang holy water na iniinom (hindi po iniinom ang holy water),” Pareja said. 

(Drinking holy water supposedly cures cancer, tumors, gout, diabetes, and other serious diseases. I don’t sell holy water to drink (holy water should not be drunk).

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Pareja, also known as “Father Tiktok,” is a known social content creator in the Philippines with 3.4 million followers on Tiktok and 1.9 million followers on Facebook. Earlier in June, the priest debunked circulating posts on social media that used his name and videos to sell rosaries, oil, and holy water. 

AI-manipulated: TrueMedia.org, a free web-based deepfake detector, noted that the video has “substantial evidence of manipulation” in faces, voices, and semantics. 

According to TrueMedia.org’s findings, face manipulation and audio generation using artificial intelligence were detected in the video with a 99% confidence level. The video also scored high in the facial and voice anti-spoofing analyses. 

The detector found semantic inconsistencies in the audio of the video. 

“The language used is informal and promotional, typical of marketing or scam messages rather than genuine spoken audio. The mention of sharing the video and liking the post further suggests a social media marketing tactic rather than a real conversation or broadcast. The exaggerated claims of curing serious illnesses like cancer and diabetes also indicate a lack of authenticity and credibility,” the analysis read.

Similar reports: This is not the first time church figures have been used in misleading advertisements: 

• Did an AI priest dupe Cebu Catholics about ‘Santo Niño Hubad’?
• FACT CHECK: Video report by TV anchors on ‘free’ necklace is fake, AI manipulated 
• Beware of this ‘Mama Mary necklace from the Vatican’

– Ailla Dela Cruz/Rappler.com

Keep us aware of suspicious Facebook pages, groups, accounts, websites, articles, or photos in your network by contacting us at factcheck@rappler.com. Let us battle disinformation one Fact Check at a time.