by Carol Glatz

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, said an Italian newspaper’s claims about the pope’s health were “entirely unfounded.”

After checking with the pope himself and other sources, Father Lombardi told reporters “the pope enjoys good health” and that the unsubstantiated news report was “a serious act of irresponsibility, absolutely unjustifiable and unspeakable.”

The “Quotidiano Nazionale” reported Oct. 21 that an unnamed nurse at a clinic in Pisa told the paper that the pope visited the clinic several months ago and that tests revealed a “small dark spot” – “a small brain tumor.”

The paper reported that the anonymous source said the condition could be taken care of without surgery and that the specialist following the case was Dr. Takanori Fukushima, a neurosurgeon who teaches at Duke University Medical Center in North Carolina and travels to clinics in Japan and Pisa.

However, the doctor denied the reports in a written statement later in the day, saying, “I have never medically examined the pope. These stories are completely false.”

The newspaper’s editor-in-chief told the Italian news agency ANSA that they waited until now to publish the report because they were unsure about making it public, but then decided to because the pope is a public figure.

Further calling into question the veracity of the report, Dr. Giulio Maira, an Italian neurosurgeon who was interviewed by the same paper under the headline “Pope Francis has a tumor,” called Father Lombardi by telephone from New York City to say the reporter who called him had only asked him generic questions about brain tumors. No reference was made to the pope.