Vatican Denies Report Pope Has Small, Curable Brain Tumor

The Vatican has denied the report made by an Italian newspaper claiming that Pope Francis has a benign brain tumor. Dr. Fukishima, the paper said, found a tiny dark spot on the pope’s brain and declared it a treatable tumor and that surgery would be unnecessary.

Andrea Cangini, editor of Quotidiano Nazionale, said Lombardi’s denial was expected but he was standing by the story.

Lombardi in the meantime said that no Japanese doctor had visited the pope, no tests of the type described in the paper had been performed on him and that no helicopters had landed in the Vatican from the outside. “We asked ourselves for a long time if it was opportune to publish, then we decided that informing the public was more important than the pope’s privacy, given his public role”.

Lombardi said Pope Francis was carrying out his activities as usual and the spread of unfounded rumours was “extremely irresponsible and not worthy of attention”.

“We have long held fast the news to make all necessary checks, we do not have the slightest doubt as to its merits…”

Father Lombardi also pointed out that Pope Francis’ busy schedule has continued without issue.

The Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, suggested the report’s release was deliberately timed to be released during the synod.

The Vatican spokesmen said other than sciatica in his legs, the 78-year-old Pope’s recent trips to the United States and Cuba show he is in fine health.

The Rev. Antonio Spadaro, a Jesuit journalist in Rome who knows Francis well, tweeted a picture of him walking with the Pope, saying that “Peter, the rock”, a common term for pontiffs, is “rock solid and in good shape”. He repeated an early condemnation of the report as “an irresponsible act that was completely unjustified and unspeakable”.

In a television interview last March on the second anniversary of his election, Francis said he believed his pontificate would be short and he would be ready to resign like his predecessorPope Benedict rather than lead the church for life.

The Argentinian almost died as a young man after contracting an infection which resulted in the removal of part of his right lung.