Pope Leo XIV has returned to the Vatican days after undergoing lung cancer surgery and has issued a positive health update to well-wishers who lined the streets. The 71-year-old pontiff left the Agostino Gemelli University Hospital in Rome on Saturday, well ahead of the week-long stay the Vatican had initially anticipated.
His surgeon, Dr. Stefano Margaritora, said there are “no clinical reasons” to prevent the pope’s planned trip to South America next month. “The Holy Father has put his heart and soul into his recovery,” Margaritora told Vatican News, adding that he expected the pope to recover fully from surgery “in another 10 days or so.”
Surgeon backs planned South America trip
Leo is scheduled to travel next month to Uruguay, Peru and Argentina, a trip that will include a dozen flights and two helicopter rides to high altitudes. “As for a long trip involving air travel in about three weeks, I would say there are no clinical reasons why it should not take place,” Margaritora said.
The pope had the lower lobe of his right lung removed on Tuesday in the first major health event of his 17-month pontificate. The surgery confirmed he had adenocarcinoma, the most common type of lung cancer.
Pope greets well-wishers and young cancer patient
As he was driven away from the hospital in a black SUV, Leo told those who had turned out to support him: “I am much better, thank you.” He had earlier greeted patients inside the hospital accompanied by his surgeon, before waving to well-wishers outside who cried out “Holiness” as he walked to a waiting vehicle.
He paused when a 13-year-old Ukrainian girl presented him with a homemade papal doll that she said had helped her through successful cancer treatment. She had briefly met Leo at an audience in St. Peter’s Square last December, an encounter she told reporters “gave her the strength to overcome the illness.”
Recovery and first official duty
Leo has shown signs of recovering well after the surgery. He had a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, held meetings with senior aides and celebrated Mass in a makeshift hospital chapel.
He will take on his first official duty on Sunday, October 18, delivering the traditional Angelus blessing to the faithful in St. Peter’s Square. It comes exactly one week after the pontiff revealed to throngs in the square that the nodule had been found and would be surgically removed — an unusually candid revelation for the Vatican.
Margaritora, the chief thoracic surgeon at Rome’s Gemelli hospital, confirmed that the nodule was discovered by chance during routine abdominal examinations. It appeared as “a small spot” at the base of the lung, which extends down to the diaphragm, he said. He added that if the spot had been higher up, “it certainly would not have been seen.”
The cancer was in its early stages, and the pope had “no respiratory symptoms, and felt perfectly well,” Margaritora said. He described Tuesday’s procedure to remove the lobe as “routine” and “without complications,” but acknowledged that it “stirred deep feelings ... to operate on a pope, who for the first time – at least in modern history – is undergoing surgery for a malignant tumour.”
The Vatican did not disclose that the tumour was malignant until after Tuesday’s successful surgery. It later confirmed that the pope had undergone a biopsy before being admitted to Gemelli. Margaritora said the pope’s recovery so far had required “very little assistance from us.”
“His determination to recover quickly has been effective in every respect. It was truly commendable,” the surgeon said.
