Photo Of Polish Actor Viral As Catholic Priest Who Converted To Hinduism

A picture of a crime series scene featuring a Polish actor has been doing rounds on social media with a false claim that it shows Fr Anthony Fernandes, a Goan Catholic priest, who converted to Hinduism.

BOOM found the claim with the picture to be false. The photograph is of a Polish actor named Artur Żmijewski and taken from a series called Father Matthew.

The caption with the photo reads, "A Goan Catholic priest from a family of 400 years in Xianity,Fr Anthony Fernandes, became a Hindu. The Jesuit priest was converted at a public ceremony at Ram Krishna Temple in d ancient Hindu city. Today is a day of great joy for me,as I'm no more attached to any church." he said". (sic)

Click here to view the post.

Click here to view the post.

Fact Check

BOOM ran a keyword search mentioned in the posts to verify the claim but found no credible news reports published recently corroborating the same.

We then ran a reverse image search on the photo to get the details about it and found a Polish news article by Kultura Gazeta.pl carrying the same picture published on August 5, 2022.

The caption with the picture reads, "ATM Group - Promotional materials- photo: "Father Matthew" - still from the series".

The article further states, "The 28th season of "Father Matthew" will debut on TVP1 at the beginning of September. The crime series will be available to watch every Friday at a fixed time. Artur Żmijewski, who plays the main role, also this time undertook the task of directing some episodes of the series."

We then searched for the actor Artur Żmijewski and the series Father Matthew and found same photo uploaded on the crime series producer ATM Grupa's website.

According to ATM Grupa, "The Polish version of don Matteo, father Matthew (ojciec Mateusz in Polish), is played by Artur Żmijewski, who gives his character a kind smile and cheerful eyes."

We also found a video of the crime series was uploaded on the official YouTube channel of TVP VOD on December 3, 2008 where actor Artur Żmijewski can be seen playing the role.