FACT CHECK: Does This Picture Show An Advertisement For An ‘Elite Global Leaders’ Conference Being Held At The Vatican?

An image shared on Instagram claims a conference titled the “Elite Global Leaders Conference” will be held at the Vatican on Oct. 23 and will focus on “humanity-empowering technology.”

Verdict: False

There is no evidence that such a conference is being held at the Vatican.

Fact Check

The image appears to show a poster advertising an upcoming conference being held at the Vatican titled “Elite Global Leaders Conference.” The poster states the purported event is invitation only and will focus on “technology that empowers humanity,” the keynote presentation allegedly being “The Code – Programming Our Future For Good.” Circled in red are the names of the supposed conference’s two keynote speakers, David Fergusson and Carlos Moreira, authors of “The transHuman Code: How To Program Your Future.”

“If you don’t know what transhumanism is, I suggest you start researching it today. #DoNotComply,” reads the post’s caption. (RELATED: Was $34 Quintillion In Gold Seized From The Vatican?)

Transhumanism refers to the movement to develop human enhancement technologies that integrate into the human body, according to Encyclopedia Britannica. The book mentioned, “The transHuman Code,” discusses how humans can maintain their humanity despite ever-evolving technology, according to the book’s summary on Amazon.

There is no evidence that the poster, or the alleged conference, are real. There are no events listed on the Vatican’s event calendar for Oct. 23. Likewise, neither Moreira nor Fergusson mentions the purported event on their respective Twitter accounts.

“I know nothing about this and there’s nothing in our internal publications,” 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 when asked about the poster. The image was shared on social media and the meme website americasbestpics.com.

While there does not appear to be an upcoming conference at the Vatican featuring Moreira and Fergusson as speakers, they did previously lead a forum titled, “Technology and Human Flourishing” at the Collegio Teutonico in Vatican City in 2019, according to press releases from Accesswire and GlobeNewswire. The forum included discussions about humanity and technology and how best to balance the two, Accesswire reported.

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