The Pope’s 25 Elvis Gospel CDs, and Why (Once Again) You Can’t Trust the Media

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Any time a public figure dies, unless he or she was notoriously evil, there is a flurry of heartwarming human interest stories about what the departed person was like, replete with anecdotes and information that was previously little known. Pope Francis is no exception, and one of the things we have learned about him was that he had a great love for music. It seems that he had a music library containing over 2,000 music CDs, ranging from Mozart, whom the pontiff particularly loved, to Elvis Presley. It’s a fine story, full of human interest and giving us a glimpse into the human warmth of the late pope, but as it happens, it’s also an object lesson in why the establishment media simply cannot be trusted.

The story appeared Thursday in the Indonesian news site Tempo: “The leader of the Roman Catholic Church had held a deep appreciation for the arts, particularly film and music, since his childhood in Buenos Aires, Argentina.” He had “a deep love for classical music,” so deep, in fact, that “his music library, housed at the Pontifical Council for Culture, contains nearly 2,000 CDs and 19 vinyl records, according to the Vatican cardinal who curated the collection.” Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, president of the Pontifical Council for Culture, noted, “the collection includes albums by Edith Piaf, Argentine tango songs (especially those by Astor Piazzolla) and a 25-CD collection of Elvis Presley’s gospel songs.”

What a fantastic glimpse into the late pope’s personal life: he was a fan of the American pop music trailblazer and cultural symbol, Elvis himself! This claim goes back to a January 2022 Catholic News Agency (CNA) story that was published, among other places, in the Jesuit magazine America. It states essentially the same thing that Tempo reported upon the pope’s death — that Francis’ music collection included “an old album of Édith Piaf’s greatest hits; Argentine tango tunes, especially by Astor Piazzolla; and a 25-disc collection of Elvis Presley’s Gospel songs, said Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, president of the Pontifical Council for Culture.” America magazine even gave this story the title “Pope Francis’ music library contains nearly 2,000 CDs — including 25 by Elvis Presley.”

This is great, except for one thing: There is no 25-CD collection of Elvis singing gospel music. The King of Rock and Roll recorded three gospel albums, and there is a four-CD set of Elvis singing gospel songs called “I Believe – The Gospel Masters.” It contains the material on those three gospel albums Elvis released during his lifetime, plus outtakes and such. But that’s it. There is no more Elvis gospel music. If the pope really had 25 CDs of Elvis singing gospel, at least 21 of them must have contained material that no one else had or even knew existed. Pope Francis may have had a 25-CD set of Elvis singing songs such as “Blue Suede Shoes” and “Burning Love,” but 25 CDs of Elvis gospel? There is no such animal.

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