FACT CHECK: Was $34 Quintillion In Gold Seized From The Vatican?

A post shared on Facebook claims $34 quintillion in gold was seized from the Vatican and will be given to people globally.

Verdict: False

There is no evidence that $34 quintillion in gold has been taken from the Vatican to be given to “the people.”

Fact Check:

“Breaking News! The $34 Quintillion in gold seized from the Vatican is being distributed to the people globally,” the Facebook post reads, citing “CBK” as its source. CBK appears to stand for “Caroline Bisset (sic) Kennedy,” according to another Facebook post shared by the user.

Caroline Kennedy died alongside her husband, John F. Kennedy Jr., in a plane crash in 1999 off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard, according to the New York Times. (RELATED: Was Pope Francis Arrested On Charges Including Human Trafficking And Fraud)

There is, however, no evidence that $34 quintillion in gold was seized from the Vatican and will be distributed globally. A search of press releases from the Vatican, as well as the Vatican News website turned up no reports of gold being seized. Had such a large sum of gold been seized with plans to distribute to the mass public, major media outlets certainly would have reported on it, yet none have.

“The claim is false,” Fr. Roger Landry, an attaché to the Permanent Observer Mission of the Holy See to the United Nations, said in an email to Check Your Fact. “A quintillion is a billion billions and there’s not even that much gold, not to mention money, in the world.”

The Vatican’s net assets in 2019 were worth roughly 4 billion euros, or about 4.7 billion U.S. dollars, not including the Vatican bank or the Vatican museums, according to Reuters. The Vatican bank had $20 million in gold reserves held at the U.S. Federal Reserve, and managed $64 billion worth of assets from its customers, NASDAQ reported in 2015.

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