The Vatican on Wednesday strongly denied and condemned a report that Pope Francis, the head of the world's more than 1.2 billion Roman Catholics, was suffering from brain cancer.

Quotidiano Nazionale, a relatively small Italian tabloid based in Bologna, had claimed that the Church leader had a small, curable tumor. The Pope had reportedly been assessed by a Japanese physician during a trip the tabloid said the pontiff made to the San Rossore di Barbaricina clinic near Pisa in Tuscany, USA Today reported.

But the entire report was "totally unfounded" and "seriously irresponsible and not worthy of attention," according to Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi.

"As all can see, the Pope continues to exercise his intense activity without interruption and in an absolutely normal way," Lombardi added in a statement. L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican's official newspaper, meanwhile, supported Lombardi's denial, the Italian Huffington Post noted.

"Reports about the Pope's health published last night, in an irresponsible manner, by Italian newspaper are unfounded," the news outlet noted brusquely.

Quotidiano Nazionale had said that the Japanese doctor in question was neurosurgeon Takanori Fukushima, who teaches at Duke University Medical Center in North Carolina and works with the San Rossore di Barbaricina clinic, the Discovery Channel reported. He diagnosed Francis with "a small brain tumor" that could be treated without surgical intervention, the newspaper claimed. 

But Lombardi categorically denied that the pontiff had ever met with Takanori.

"No Japanese doctor has examined the pope in the Vatican and no examinations of the type indicated in the article have been performed," the spokesman detailed.

Francis himself, meanwhile, on Wednesday held his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square, where Lombardi said people could get a perfect picture of the Pope's health for themselves.

"If you were in the piazza this morning you would have seen that. And if you go on the trips with him, you know he has a small problem with his legs, but his head is absolutely perfect," Lombardi added.

Quotidiano Nazionale's editor-in-chief Andrea Cangini, for his part, said the newspaper was sticking by its story.

"The Vatican's denial is expected and understandable," Cangini said. "We have a waited a long time before publishing the news as we wanted to check it out. We have not the slightest doubt about its veracity."