Pope tumour rumour ‘an evil plot’
A VATICAN meeting of bishops, priests and cardinals to discuss doctrine has degenerated into a dark rumour mill, with claims of ‘‘apocalyptic’’ plots to bring down the Pope.
The Vatican press office has issued strident denials after an Italian newspaper said that the Pope had consulted a Japanese neurosurgeon about a brain tumour.
The report, described as irresponsible and inexcusable by Father Federico Lombardi, a Vatican spokesman, was also denied by the surgeon himself, Takanori Fukushima.
L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican’s daily newspaper, said the tumour story was a well-timed attempt to kick up a ‘‘dust storm’’ around the Pope.
Adding to the conspiratorial atmosphere, bishops and cardinals said hidden enemies of the Pope were trying to portray him as approaching the end of his reign, while conservatives were fighting his liberal leanings on homosexuals and divorcees at the synod, which ends today.
‘‘It seems a sort of apocalyptic strategy that appears in the Bible and has been commonly used since ancient times,’’ Argentine archbishop Victor Manuel Fernandez, who is close to the Pope, said.
‘‘This news was issued with evil intention because talking about someone like this reveals an intent to destabilise him.’’
The plotters behind the story would be difficult to identify, Fernandez said.
The editor of Quotidiano Nazionale, the newspaper which ran the tumour story, insisted that his source was reliable.
Other Italian newspapers insisted the report represented a treacherous plot against the Pope, with Il Giornale running the headline: ‘‘Who wants the Pope dead?’’
German cardinal Walter Kasper told La Repubblica the tumour story was ‘‘a clumsy attempt to influence the work of the synod’’, adding that the Pope was in rude health.