ROME (OSV News): Pope Leo XIV was diagnosed with lung cancer following a 90-minute surgery on October 13 during which surgeons removed the lower lobe of the pope’s right lung.
Dr. Stefano Margaritora, chief thoracic surgeon at Rome’s Gemelli Hospital, led a medical team in the video-assisted technique operation. In a joint statement with Dr. Luigi Carbone released at just before 10:00pm, Rome time, the doctors said that the “examination confirmed the diagnosis of lung adenocarcinoma, as suspected by the preoperative tests.”
The statement said, “The Holy Father was in the operating room for about three hours; the surgery itself lasted approximately 90 minutes. After the surgery, the pope woke up as expected and, following a brief period of observation, returned to his room on the 10th floor.”
The pope underwent the surgery in the late afternoon after being admitted to Rome’s Gemelli Hospital at 1:00pm.
The surgery was successful, completed on schedule and as planned, and the Holy Father has returned to his room
Holy See Press Office
“The surgery was successful, completed on schedule and as planned, and the Holy Father has returned to his room,” the Holy See Press Office said in a statement issued shortly before 8:00pm.
Pope Leo was expected to remain in hospital for one week of recovery. The Vatican has cancelled all of the pope’s scheduled audiences through October 20.
According to Vatican News, post-operation tests will be conducted on the removed tissue in the coming days.
Following the operation, Pope Leo had dinner and spent the evening in the company of Vatican staff members, according to Matteo Bruni, director of the Holy See’s press office.
The hospital’s chapel was overflowing with people on Tuesday evening as Baldassare Cardinal Reina, the vicar general of the Diocese of Rome, led a rosary for the pope’s healing as people anxiously awaited the results of the pope’s operation.
Following the operation, Pope Leo had dinner and spent the evening in the company of Vatican staff members
In a statement issued on the evening of October 13, Hong Kong time, Cardinal Stephen Chow, S.J., the bishop of Hong Kong, called on the faithful to “pray for the success of the operation and for the pope’s swift and complete recovery.”
Cardinal Stephen said, “May the Lord grant Pope Leo XIV strength, peace, and healing, and his medical team which is going to see through his surgery and recovery. “
The night of October 13 “passed calmly for the pope,” according to the Holy See Press Office on October 14.
Pope Leo’s operation took place just days after he first revealed to the world that he needed surgery at the end of his Angelus address in St. Peter’s Square on October 11.
This was the second hospitalisation in the 71-year-old pope’s life, according to a recently published biography. Shortly after his election, Pope Leo said that he had only been hospitalised once in his life before becoming pope when he caught typhoid fever after recently arriving as an Augustinian missionary in Peru in 1985.
“It’s the only time in my life I’ve been hospitalised,” Pope Leo is quoted as saying in the book, Pope Leo XIV by Elise Ann Allen, calling it “a very significant” moment in his life that helped him more sharply focus on his new ministry.
Pope Leo’s surgery occurred less than one month before he was scheduled to depart for South America for what would be the longest international trip of his pontificate November 6 to 17, with stops in Uruguay, Argentina and Peru. The Vatican has not yet announced any changes to the trip.
