VATICAN CITY - The Vatican yesterday denied a Spanish newspaper report that Pope John Paul had cancer and said the 75 year old Pontiff would go ahead with a heavy schedule of engagements in the next few weeks.
The chief Vatican spokesman, Mr Joaquin Navarro Valls, said the Pope "laughed" when he heard of the report in the newspaper Diario 16, which said on Sunday that he probably had colon cancer.
"The latest scoop on the Holy Father's health by a Spanish journalist - who of course does not cite any sources - affirms that the Pope supposedly has a cancer," Mr Navarro Valls said in a statement. "His Holiness's doctor authorises me to say that John Paul II undergoes regular clinical checks and that he does not show any sign whatsoever of a neoplastic disease," he said.