Original article (in Bosnian) was published on 3/4/2025; Author: Nerma Šehović
The fake quote attributed to Pope John Paul II about “bombing the Serbs” was shared again this year during the anniversary of the start of NATO’s airstrikes on the FR Yugoslavia.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) forces began an airstrike operation on March 24, 1999, targeting objectives in what was then the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, in order to pressure President Slobodan Milosevic to accept the terms of an agreement that would end the war with the Kosovo Liberation Army, as well as the humanitarian crisis and ethnic cleansing in Kosovo. The operation was launched without a United Nations Security Council resolution (link).
On the eve of the 26th anniversary of the operation, March 23, 2025, the web portal Novosti published an article about the event. Among other things, the article discusses the “shameful statements of foreign politicians” about the attacks, including an alleged statement made by Pope John Paul II:
During a public appearance in Denver, Pope John Paul II told U.S. President Bill Clinton: “You should bomb the Serbs”;
This alleged quote was also shared on social media platforms Facebook, Instagram, and X on the anniversary of the beginning of the attacks, March 24, 2025 (1, 2, 3).
The claim that Pope John Paul II told U.S. President Bill Clinton in Denver to “bomb the Serbs” has been circulating online for more than a decade. The “quote” can be found on social media and forums, as well as in dozens of media articles (1, 2, 3). It has even been published in literary journals and mentioned in a publication issued in 2020 by the European Defendology Center for scientific, political, economic, social, security, sociological, and criminological research. It has even been included among Pope John Paul II’s quotes on Wikiquote, which is a “sister” website to Wikipedia.
Did Pope John Paul II really tell Clinton to “bomb the Serbs”?
John Paul II was the head of the Roman Catholic Church, i.e. the Pope, from 1978 to 2005. According to information from the Vatican’s website, during his papacy, he visited Denver, United States, only once, in August 1993, during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia.
During that visit, the Pope made nine public addresses. Transcripts of all his speeches are also available on the Vatican website in English and Italian (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9). There is no mention of “bombing the Serbs” in any of them, nor anything remotely similar. The Serbs are not mentioned at all. One of those nine speeches, the Pope’s direct address to Clinton in Denver, is even recorded on video and is currently available on YouTube. It also does not contain the alleged words (link).
We were unable to find any evidence that the Pope stated “Serbs should be bombed” on any other occasion either.
In fact, after the NATO airstrikes on the FR Yugoslavia began in March 1999, Pope John Paul II advocated nonviolence, stating in his address to the Council of Europe on March 29, 1999, that violence is never a good answer to violence:
“Here, I want to mention the war being waged at our doorstep, in Kosovo, which is wounding all of Europe. I urgently call for everything to be done to restore peace in the region and for the civilian population to live together in brotherhood on their land. In response to violence, further violence is never a promising way out of the crisis. Therefore, it is appropriate to lay down arms and calm the desire for revenge in order to engage in negotiations that bind the parties, with the aim of reaching an agreement as soon as possible – one that respects different people and cultures, who are called to build a common society based on respect for fundamental freedoms. Such a development can then be recorded in history as a new element promoting Europe’s development”.
Following this speech, and during the attacks, he repeatedly called for peace and an end to the violence in FR Yugoslavia (1, 2).
Earlier in the 1990s, he had repeatedly called for peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia.
Therefore, there is no evidence that Pope John Paul II, either during his visit to Denver or on any other occasion, said that “Serbs should be bombed”. His actual, documented statements are completely contrary to that.
Where did the claim about the Pope and “bombing” come from?
The alleged statement by Pope John Paul II was also examined by our partner fact-checking web portal Fake News Tragac from Serbia, in their compilation of fake statements by Western officials and public figures regarding the attacks on FR Yugoslavia, published on June 26, 2023.
As early as 2011, in an article titled “Journalistic or doctoral forgery by Dr. Zoran Petrovic Pirocanac”, Zoran Djurovic established that the source of the Pope’s alleged statement is the book “Erase the Serbian Virus” by Serbian journalist Zoran Petrovic Pirocanac, published in 1999. In his 2011 article, Djurovic pointed out – and it was further confirmed through additional verification in the 2023 analysis by Fake News Tragac – that the book does not provide any source or reference for the alleged statement in which the Pope supposedly told Clinton to “bomb the Serbs”. Djurovic wrote the following:
“It is unacceptable to attribute the statement “You should bomb the Serbs” to the Pope, because it does not exist. This has nothing to do with journalistic ethics, and even less with science. There is no cited source (for the simple reason that none exists). The statement is a sheer lie, whether taken as a quote or as a representation of a quote. As an interpretation, it is weak. In that case, too, it is improper because it is not declared as an interpretation”.
The fact that certain publications directly reference the 1999 book, in which the Pope’s statement is clearly fabricated, indicates that it is the source of many forum posts, online articles, and Facebook accounts (link).
In conclusion, the Pope’s statement was fabricated by the author of the book “Erase the Serbian Virus” back in 1999. It has been shared on social media and included in media articles and “scientific” publications as authentic for 26 years, even though its authenticity has been debunked by Zoran Djurovic and Fake News Tragac.
Therefore, the claim that Pope John Paul II told U.S. President Bill Clinton during a public appearance in Denver that “Serbs should be bombed” is assessed as the distribution of fake news.
