Uncertainty Over Pope’s Health Fuels Familiar Debate Over Vatican’s Candor
New York Times · LC · trust 49/100
By announcing his lung condition himself, Leo has been more forthcoming than many popes. But mysteries remain, prompting scrutiny of papal statements for hidden meaning.
Listen · 7:20 min Share full article Pope Leo XIV at a torchlight procession last month in Lourdes, France. Vatican experts wondered if he already knew of his cancer diagnosis during that visit. Credit... Lionel Bonaventure/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images By Elisabetta Povoledo
Leo prayed silently for several minutes before a statue of the Virgin Mary, and then, as pilgrims to Lourdes have done for generations, he touched the grotto’s rock wall, drank water from its spring and lit a candle.
In light of the Vatican’s announcement this week that Leo has lung cancer, church experts are now asking whether he already knew that he was sick when he went to Lourdes nearly three weeks ago.
It’s something that the Vatican has so far not disclosed.
The question — and the lack of an answer — reflects both the level of global curiosity about Leo’s predicament and the Vatican’s reluctance to divulge key details about it.
Despite intense interest from the world’s news media, Matteo Bruni, the Vatican spokesman, has not said when the pope’s condition was discovered and what might have caused the cancer.
That lack of clarity has left the Vatican press corps to seize on every recent statement, utterance or appearance from Vatican officials — including from the pope himself — and read into it, even if there isn’t much to read.
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