Pope to return to Vatican after cancer surgery

Pope Leo XIV will leave the Rome hospital Saturday where he has been recovering from lung cancer surgery, the Vatican said, after doctors deemed him “fit for discharge”.

Leo, 71, has been at the Gemelli hospital north of the Vatican since Tuesday, where doctors removed part of his right lung to extract a cancerous tumour.

“Considering the blood tests, the chest X-ray done this morning, and evaluating the clinical picture, the Holy Father has been deemed fit for discharge,” doctors Luigi Carbone and Stefano Margaritora wrote in a note published by the Vatican.

The Vatican confirmed that “Pope Leo XIV will be discharged today”.

“He will leave the hospital in the early afternoon and return to the Vatican. Tomorrow he will recite the Angelus prayer from the window of the papal apartment,” the Vatican said.

The Angelus prayer is typically given by the pope from the window of the Apostolic Palace overlooking St Peter’s Square.

But in past years, former popes John Paul II and Francis similarly hospitalised at the Gemelli have delivered the prayer from the window of their hospital rooms.

The Vatican’s press office said that Leo celebrated mass on Saturday, as he has in recent days, in a room on the 10th floor of the hospital where he has been recovering.

– Up in air –

News that the otherwise healthy and sporty pope had a cancerous tumour removed from his lung has rattled the Vatican and the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics.

But his doctors have said Leo’s recovery has been progressing normally as they await the results of tests that will determine the course of action to take.

Leo has resumed some work, making a call on Friday to Russian President Vladimir Putin to urge a ceasefire in the Russian-occupied Ukrainian city of Oleshky.

Up in the air, however, is a planned papal voyage to South America, scheduled for November 6-17 to visit Uruguay, Argentina and Peru.

Pope watchers say that Leo — who spent two decades as a missionary in Peru — is anxious to make the long journey, but will likely follow the recommendations of his doctors.

Leo has cancelled all his audiences until October 20.

The pope himself announced to the public in St Peter’s Square last Sunday, following the Angelus prayer, that a routine medical examination had revealed a nodule that doctors recommended should be removed.

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