While the world doused in Christmas carols and holiday spirit on December 25, an ITV newscaster made a blunder that put a halt to the celebrations and left everyone in shock. The news presenter announced the death of Pope Francis by mistake during the live Christmas Day coverage on Saturday.
The news presenter was reporting the annual Urby et Urby et Orbin homily live on Saturday afternoon when she mistakenly announced 85-year-old Pope Francis' death. Newscaster Kylie Pentelow stumbled after wrongly announcing the Pope's death on-air and apologized for her mistake.
"The Pope's festive address focused on his prayers for the pandemic to come to an end. He said vaccines should be made available to those most in need. His death was announced..." Kylie said but quickly corrected herself and said 'excuse me' before continuing. The internet, however, was baffled by the episode.
'What does ITV News know?'
The 'accidental' news of Pope Francis' death was not received well by social media as people were suprised out of their wits. Some called it a 'conspiracy' while others dubbed it a part of a script that ITV News prepared, that wasn't 'supposed to be read on-air.' "What happened to the Pope and what does ITV News know?" one person tweeted.
"That awkward moment when you accidentally report the death of the #pope on #itv Guessing they have a pre-prepared script and the newsreader read on to that by mistake?" another tweet read.
Pope Francis is well and alive and gave his Christmas Day speech from St Peter's Basilica at the Vatican on Saturday. In his speech, he condemned the ongoing conflicts in countries like Syria, Yemen, and Iraq. He stressed that the world has become so used to them [the conflicts] that immense tragedies are being passed over in silence. "We risk not hearing the cry of pain and distress of so many of our brothers and sisters," he said.
