Oct 22 Conspiracy theories worthy of a Dan Brown novel sprouted in the Italian media on Thursday, with accusations that Pope Francis’s enemies were looking to undermine him after a newspaper reported he had a brain tumour.<\/p>\n
The Vatican angrily denied Wednesday’s story, calling it irresponsible and inexcusable, but rather than fading out of sight, the saga has inflated into a cloak-and-dagger whodunnit.<\/p>\n
“Who wants the pope dead”, the main headline in Il Giornale newspaper said. La Repubblica and La Stampa, both respected dailies, wrote of a “shadow of a plot” on their front pages.<\/p>\n
Most papers concluded that the story was false. But rather than dismissing it as a journalistic error, commentators and churchmen in the land that gave the world Machiavelli, the master of political cunning, looked for hidden intrigue.<\/p>\n
The common denominator was that the pope’s foes within the Vatican and the Catholic Church want to weaken his authority as a pivotal meeting of world bishops on family issues nears its end on Sunday.<\/p>\n
http:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/2015\/10\/22\/pope-tumour-conspiracy-idUSL8N12M2GA20151022<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Oct 22 Conspiracy theories worthy of a Dan Brown novel sprouted in the Italian media on Thursday, with accusations that Pope Francis’s enemies were looking to undermine him after a newspaper reported he had a brain tumour. The Vatican angrily denied Wednesday’s story, calling it irresponsible and inexcusable, but rather than fading out of sight, … Continue reading Conspiracy theories fill Italy media over pope brain tumour story<\/span>