Ukrainian media mistakes Vatican's Down Syndrome Awareness support for ‘a touching photo of Ukraine's flag’

At a mass gathering in mid-February while touring Mexico, Pope Francis noticed two young women in the crowd at José María Morelos y Pavon Stadium who wanted badly to embrace him. With a smile on his face, Francis beckoned them nearer, and soon the three were hugging euphorically. In what would prove important two months later (when the Pope “latergramed” a photo of the moment), one of the women carried blue and yellow ribbons—the colors of the Down Syndrome Awareness ribbon.

Both the women the Pope held in his arms have Down's Syndrome—a detail initially lost on some Ukrainian journalists, who mistook the blue-and-yellow ribbon for Ukraine's blue-and-yellow flag. Unaware that the image had nothing to do with Ukraine, several Ukrainian news sites reported that the Pope had shared a “touching photo with the Ukrainian flag,” linking the act to the Vatican's recently announced fundraising effort to help conflict victims in Ukraine.

Most Ukraine-based media outlets that misreported the news, such as Vesti-ukr.com and Unian.net, have since unpublished their stories (though they can still be read on Google Cache). At the time of this writing, there are still a few hold outs, however, including Ukraine Today—Kiev's response to the Russian state news network Russia Today. On Ukraine Today, readers can still—at this very moment—find the published, uncorrected story, “Pope Francis Shares Touching Photo With Ukrainian Flag.”