Fact Check: Was Pope Francis Once a Nightclub Bouncer?

Pope Francis left Vatican City and arrived in Iraq on Friday for a three-day pilgrimage, marking his first visit to the Middle Eastern country.

"I come as a penitent, asking forgiveness from Heaven and our brothers for so much destruction and cruelty; a pilgrim of peace, in the name of Christ, Prince of Peace. How we have prayed, in these years, for peace in #Iraq! God always listens. It is up to us to walk His paths," the pope tweeted Friday.

The pope's trip led to a lot of Twitter chatter about him, and not just about the visit to Iraq.

The Claim

The Twitter account titled "Fact" that tweets various facts throughout the day wrote Thursday that "Pope Francis used to be a nightclub bouncer," in a post that gained more than 4,000 likes and 500 retweets.

The Facts

Before Pope Francis, 84, assumed his holy title as leader of the Roman Catholic church in 2013, he was known by his name, Jorge Mario Bergoglio.

When he became the first pope from South America and the first pope from the Western Hemisphere, details of his past began to emerge.

Pope Francis used to work as a former nightclub bouncer in the city of his birthplace, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

That fact was first reported in March of 2013 by Italian newspaper Gazzetta del Sud, which wrote: "As a student he worked as a bouncer at a nightclub to support himself."

Later in December of that year, major U.S. news outlets from coast to coast shared this detail and referred to a report from the Catholic News Service that cited the Vatican's official newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, which shared how Pope Francis visited a group of parishioners at the Church of Saint Cyril of Alexandria in Rome.

It was reported that during the visit, Pope Francis told parishioners about his life prior to being elected pope and detailed jobs he had, such as his stint as a nightclub bouncer. That was the first time he shared that information since becoming pope.

"That's one of the things he did while he was putting himself through school to study to become a priest," CNN reported live in 2013.

The news caused widespread, comedic reactions on social media when it first emerged and more recently after Facts on Twitter revived the detail about Pope Francis' past.

One user, in reply to Fact's tweet, shared a photoshopped image of current Pope Francis' head on the body of a club bouncer.

The Vatican did not respond to Newsweek's inquiries in time for publication.

The Ruling

True.

Pope Francis, then known as Jorge Mario Bergoglio, worked as a bouncer in Buenos Aires, Argentina, before becoming a priest.