FACT CHECK: No, The Vatican Did Not Dig A Tunnel To Maui And Fill It With Gold

Elias Atienza | Senior Reporter

A post shared on X claims the Vatican dug a 1,500 mile tunnel to Maui, Hawaii, and filled it with 43 million billion dollars worth of gold.

Verdict: False

There is no evidence that the Vatican did not dig a tunnel to Maui and fill it with gold.

Fact Check:

Social media users are claiming that the Vatican dug a 1,500-mile tunnel to Maui and filled it with gold and that women and children forced into sexual slavery were discovered.

One user wrote, “43 million billion dollars were confiscated from the tunnel connecting the Vatican to the island of Maui Hawaii, 1,500 miles long and 15km deep underground. From this tunnel, thousands of children and women who had had their limbs cut off and were forced into sexual slavery were rescued.”

This claim is false. If such a tunnel had been discovered, media outlets would have covered it, yet none have. A wider internet search also did not yield any results for this alleged tunnel. (RELATED: No, Disney World Is Not Adding Urinals To Women’s Restrooms)

Furthermore, the distance between the Vatican and Maui is around 8,000 miles, according to Google Maps. Wikipedia notes that the longest tunnel in use is the Delaware Aqueduct, which is 85 miles long and located in New York.

A Maui County spokesperson confirmed to Check Your Fact in a phone interview that the claims about the Vatican and Maui are false.

There have currently been 244,000 metric tons of gold discovered in the world, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. As of publishing time, gold is around $2,194 an ounce. That does not equal 43 quadrillion dollars.

There is no evidence of thousands of children and women being sold into sex slavery in Maui. Six children were rescued from sex trafficking in August 2023 in Hawaii, according to Hawaii Public Radio.

Elias Atienza

Senior Reporter
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