An Italian newspaper reported Wednesday that Pope Francis has a small, curable brain tumor. However, the Vatican claimed the report was completely false.
Rev. Federico Lombardi, the Vatican's spokesman, said the report in Quotidiano Nazionale newspaper was "totally unfounded," as well as "seriously irresponsible and not worthy of attention."
On its front page, Quotidiano Nazionale said the 78-year-old pontiff travelled to the San Rossore di Barbaricina clinic near Pisa in Tuscany to see a Japanese doctor named Takanori Fukushima "some time ago," who determined a small dark spot on the pope's brain could be cured without surgery, according to USA Today.
Pope Francis later held his weekly general audience before tens of thousands of people in St. Peter's Square and was due to return to a three-week gathering of Roman Catholic bishops from around the world, which he has been attending daily.
"Furthermore, as is clearly evident, the pope is carrying out his very intense activity in a totally normal way," stressed Lombardi.
The Italian newspaper found guilty of the made-up news cited unnamed sources in reporting the story. This isn't the first time that rumors have swirled about Pope Francis' health, as speculation raged after the Vatican curtailed his public appearances in the summer of 2014, though nothing came of those previous reports of potential medical woes, according to the Blaze.
