Pope Not Holding Same Mass, But Remains Strong

We agree with the Vatican on this one - you can't trust the French. A French newspaper report suggested that Pope Benedict XVI is suffering from poor health.

An article published April 25 in Le Figaro said the pope looked fatigued at times during his U.S. visit. It's no secret, the newspaper said, that the pope has a "fragile heart." Le Figaro said the pope had reduced the number of meetings and audiences before and after the U.S. trip and noted that he had not held his weekly general audience two days after his return.

But the Vatican shot back in response to the allegations.

"Certainly the pope is a man of 81 years, but he is well and is carrying out all his tasks, as everyone can see on live TV," Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, said April 26.

"This was a demanding visit, long and tiring, in which he carried out all his commitments brilliantly without giving the slightest indication of uncertainty and without having to modify or reduce his program at all," Father Lombardi said.

We believe that this claim stemmed from the abundance of media coverage geared at the Pope in the past few weeks thanks to his trip to the U.S. We doubt that these kinds of rumors will spring up when the Pope visits Sardinia in September. But these sort of rumors were once more vicious, we suppose.

[Catholic News Service]