The Vatican has strongly denied an Italian press report that Pope Francis is suffering from a benign brain tumour.
Italian newspaper Quotidiano Nazionale claimed that the tumour had been diagnosed by a Japanese neurosurgeon, Takanori Fukushima, who visited the Pope at the Vatican “some months ago”.
The small tumour was curable without surgery, the report added.
“The spread of the totally unfounded news of the health conditions of the Holy Father on the part of an Italian news outlet is seriously irresponsible and not worthy of attention,” Father Federico Lombardi, spokesman for the Vatican, said.
In a second statement today, Lombardi said: “I can confirm the Pope is in good health.”
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He added that he hoped “this matter therefore ends immediately”.
Francis is currently taking part in the three week synod at the Vatican which is considering how the Church should handle issues including divorce and homosexuality.
The pope has kept up a gruelling schedule of foreign trips this year and has appeared to be in good health, apart from leg pain brought on by sciatica.
But last year, he told journalists he thought he had two to three years to live.
“Two or three years and then I’ll be off to the Father’s house,” he said in August during a flight back from his visit to South Korea. He mentioned the possibility of retiring if he was unable to carry out his duties, following in the footsteps of his predecessor, Pope Benedict, who stepped down in 2013, claiming his health was fading.
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Francis lost most of one lung to an infection in his youth, but doctors have said that will not affect his life expectancy.