Part of the pope’s right lung was removed in Tuesday’s operation at Rome’s Gemelli hospital and the leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics is now awaiting the results of a biopsy to determine if the cancer has spread.
Blood tests and a chest X-ray meanwhile “confirm a normal post-operative course”, doctors Luigi Carbone and Stefano Margaritora said in a statement released by the Vatican.
“The values are within the expected range for the type of procedure performed,” they said.
The discovery on Tuesday that a nodule detected in Leo’s lung was cancerous has plunged the Catholic Church into a period of uncertainty.
“It’s a shock for everyone. We’re in ‘wait-and-see’ mode,” a Vatican source told AFP.
Doctors said his recovery was “proceeding as expected” and the pontiff had eaten both breakfast and lunch, been walking about his room, and had done some respiratory physiotherapy.
The sporty 71-year-old, elected as the first pope from the United States only last year, made the surprise announcement that he would be undergoing surgery after Sunday prayers.
Support
Messages of support flooded in from around the world, including from Britain’s King Charles III, who is also being treated for an undisclosed cancer.
A banner flying outside the hospital read “Long live the pope!” and a handful of people recited prayers for the hospitalised pontiff.
Nearby, nun Angele Bilegue said she had come to pray for Leo.
“I’m not worried. I came to express my closeness, to show my spiritual support, because I also came for Pope Francis,” she told AFP.
Leo’s predecessor, the Argentine Francis, spent five weeks last year being treated for double pneumonia at the same hospital, before his death at the Vatican on April 21, 2025.
Experts said much would depend on how advanced Leo’s cancer was, and whether it had spread, but the Vatican has said it had been detected early and was localised.
Before the operation, the Vatican said the pope’s recovery should take around a week. All his audiences have been cancelled until October 20.
“If we are dealing with stage I or II disease, and recovery is good… the patient can resume a normal life and usual activities within a few weeks,” Alain Gelibter, an oncologist at Rome’s Policlinico Umberto I hospital, told AFP.
The Chicago-born Leo is staying in a room on the 10th floor of the building, next to a papal suite with a private chapel that is currently under renovation.
He had entered the hospital smiling and waving on Tuesday.
In the hospital chapel, dozens of faithful prayed for the pope’s health during the operation.
New Uncertainty
The shock news of the tennis-playing pope’s illness has rattled the Catholic Church.
A Vatican source told AFP the pope seemed “unwell” after his trip to France at the end of September.
“If this forces him to slow down, it might not be a bad thing, given his very hectic pace,” the source said.
Expert Marco Politi, who has spent decades covering the Vatican, told AFP: “The Church is now in a state of uncertainty. When Leo was elected everyone foresaw a long papacy.”
Hendro Munsterman, a theologian and expert for Dutch newspaper Nederlands Dagblad, told AFP “we have a pope whom everyone described as young, active and athletic. Now, we have a pope who also has his own vulnerabilities, which will change his image.”
His health issues may prompt him to speed up personnel appointments, Munsterman said.
Politi said Leo had been working on “repairing” rifts between various wings of the Church, and many will want him “to continue with this important mission as soon as possible”.
Filipino Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, newly nominated to the influential role of dean of the College of Cardinals, celebrated mass on St Peter’s Square on Wednesday instead of Leo.
The surgery has raised questions about whether Leo will go ahead with a lengthy visit next month to Uruguay, Argentina and Peru, where he worked as a missionary for two decades.
AFP
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