Pope Francis's 'First Selfie' On 'Official' Instagram Has Fooled A Lot Of People

The Pope's 'First Selfie' Is Not All That It Seems

Thousands of people from all over the world were delighted when Pope Francis posted his "first selfie" on Instagram on Monday, but there's just one problem - it isn't real.

The 78-year-old's grinning face was posted to an Instagram account claiming to belong to the Vatican on Monday morning, with the caption purporting to be the pontiff's "first selfie".

Although the photo was "liked" more than 8,000 times in just four hours, it has emerged that the image is simply a screen grab from a video chat he did with young people around the world in September 2014.

People were delighted that the image was shared this morning.

One person commented: "Thank you for this beautiful start to my day! Your smile brings so much joy."

Another Instagram user posted: "You are the best Papa!! God bless and protect you!"

But others were quick to point out that the Pope's "first selfie" was nothing of the sort.

Either way, it certainly lifted a lot of spirits on a dreary Monday morning.

Following the climate change agreement made at the Paris summit this weekend. It's very plausible that the Pope would be smiling today.

A passionate advocate of tackling global warming, the pontiff has repeatedly urged countries to play their part in protecting the environment.

He used his tour of the US in September to chastise climate change deniers for failing in their duty to protect our "common home".

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