Hoax Alert: Pope Francis does not have brain tumour

Pope Francis is barely three years into his position as head of the 2 billion-strong Roman Catholic Church, and while he is popular with Catholics as evidenced by the millions of crowds in his recent visits to countries with large Catholic populations such as the Philippines, Cuba and the U.S., already there are conspiracy theories about the false rumours that he is very sick.

Reuters reports that the speculation is that the former Archbishop of Buenos Aires has a benign brain tumour. Once that rumour began circulating, Italian media quickly reported that conservative groups within Vatican City were suspected to be behind the move to unseat him.

Quitidiano Nazionale, an Italian newspaper, claims that a Japanese doctor visited the pope secretly in January to examine him. The daily identified the physician as Takanori Fukushima from North Carolina.

Fukushima, in a statement, denied the rumour that Pope Francis has a growth on his brain that could be treated without surgery. He stresses, “I have never medically examined the pope. These stories are completely false.” However, he did see the pope as a pilgrim during a general audience and even got to shake the hand of the holy, but healthy, man.

ABC reports that Fukushima, a consulting professor of neurology at Duke University Medical Center and director of the Carolina Neuroscience Institute in Raleigh, posted an entry in September 2014 on his Japanese blog with photos of him meeting Pope Francis in St Peter's Square.

In a later blog post in the first two months of 2015, the neurologist wrote that he returned to the Holy See on Jan. 28 aboard a helicopter and met several cardinals. The trip was arranged on the sidelines of surgical duties that Fukushima did in Rome and other parts of Italy.

But the Italian daily stood by its story on Thursday, which led other respectable Italian newspapers such as Il Giornale, La Repubblica and La Stampa to conclude the story, which appears to be a "shadow of a plot," was false.

These papers began noting that the enemies of Pope Francis from within the Vatican, who disagree with the many reforms he has introduced since he was elected in March 2013, want to weaken his authority especially with a very important meeting of world bishops on family issues to end on Sunday. The family is one of the key areas where Pope Francis is introducing major changes, such as the granting of communion to divorced Catholics, how to treat gays and baptism for children of single parents.

German Cardinal Walter Kasper says some people, both inside and outside the Church, “are nervous about the outcome of the synod.” He adds the rumours are clear indicators that some people do not like the pope, but the cardinal stresses Pope Francis is in good shape.

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