Bishop Robert Barron issued a statement on X Aug. 19 condemning AI-generated videos impersonating him and warning those who follow him online not to be influenced by the fakes.
The bishop stated in a video message that he was first made aware of the impersonation months ago after someone, who had been misinformed by a fake video, spoke with him about an “altercation” at a restaurant in Chicago. Bishop Barron said that another fake video told viewers that Pope Leo had summoned him to Rome to discuss points of disagreement.
“One that just came out recently had me giving recommendations about how to remove demons from your toilet — so my point, everybody, is: this is all ridiculous,” he said.
Bishop Barron also cautioned against dismissing the videos by calling them “harmless fun,” noting that fraudsters are creating the fake ones and making money from them.
“Think of someone — a third-rate band that does a knockoff of a pop song but puts the original musician’s name and picture on the cover and then sells it — well, that’s what’s going on here with these things, so it’s not just harmless fun people are having,” Bishop Barron said. “It’s doing damage to my reputation but also damage to people who are being defrauded.”
He urged viewers not to take the videos seriously and recommended avoiding watching them entirely. He also encouraged viewers to take time to distinguish between real videos and phonies, adding that they should ensure that the videos are coming from his or Word on Fire’s YouTube channel, or one of his social media accounts with an official blue check mark next to his profile name.
“But also I would say to those of you who have been following me for 25 years: use your common sense too,” Bishop Barron continued. “When you see these goofy images that are obviously generated by a computer and you hear me talking about some wild thing, I hope you have the sense to go ‘look, that’s not really Bishop Barron speaking.’”