Pope Leo XIV has undergone surgery at a hospital in Rome to remove a lung nodule, with the Vatican confirming on Tuesday that the procedure was successfully completed.
The 71-year-old pontiff entered the hospital smiling and waving on Tuesday morning, hours before the operation to remove the growth, which was described as resembling a coin on the lung.
“The procedure was successfully completed, within the expected time and in the planned manner,” the Vatican said in a brief statement.
“The Holy Father has returned to his room,” it added, saying further details would be provided later.
The surgery marks Leo’s first hospitalisation since he became head of the Catholic Church on May 8, 2025. Vatican officials who saw him on Monday said he appeared relaxed about the hospital stay.
In a surprise announcement after the Angelus prayers on Sunday, Leo told crowds in St Peter’s Square that doctors had discovered the nodule “at a very early stage” during medical checks.
“The doctors believe it would be right to intervene,” he said.
The Vatican has historically been secretive about the health of popes but became more transparent during the illness of Leo’s predecessor, Pope Francis, who openly discussed his ailments.
People outside the hospital expressed concern about Leo’s condition.
Giorgia Fei, a 57-year-old Italian, said she had been worried by the news.
“However, the Holy Father is in very good hands here at the hospital because we have some outstanding doctors,” she said.
“I will pray a lot for him.”
Giuseppe Purpura, 72, also expressed concern.
“He’s still quite young and I really wasn’t expecting this. I thought he was in better health,” he said, adding that “thankfully it was caught in time”.
The Vicar General for the Diocese of Rome, Cardinal Baldassare Reina, led a rosary prayer for the pope in the hospital chapel, which was broadcast by the Vatican. Dozens of people attended, while Reina urged parishes across the city to join the prayers.
Before the surgery, the Vatican said Leo’s recovery was expected to take about a week. His audiences have been cancelled until October 20.
The Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, told the ANSA news agency that Leo had been “very calm” about his condition when they met on Monday.
Routine health checks
Chicago-born Leo, the first American pope, is sporty and believed to be generally in good health.
He is scheduled to travel to South America from November 6 to 17 to visit Uruguay, Argentina and Peru.
It was not immediately clear what would happen if the pope required a longer recovery.
Under Church law, the Cardinal Camerlengo, or chamberlain, assumes certain administrative responsibilities following a pope’s death. However, pontiffs do not have a deputy to replace them if they become incapacitated.
Marco Scarci, a thoracic surgery expert in the United Kingdom, told AFP that the operation was “not a particularly risky” procedure and that he expected Leo to recover quickly.
Most pulmonary nodules are benign, or non-cancerous, although a small percentage can be an early indication of lung cancer.
The Vatican told AFP that the nodule was discovered during routine health checks and that no symptoms had prompted the examination of the pope’s lungs.
‘Coin lesion’
A small nodule is known as a “coin lesion” because it resembles a coin on an X-ray, Professor Federico Venuta, head of thoracic surgery at Policlinico Umberto I hospital in Rome, told AFP.
Small nodules tend not to cause symptoms, but larger ones can cause shortness of breath, chest pain and persistent coughing, sometimes accompanied by blood.
Such nodules “could be a whole range of benign lesions — inflammatory, infectious, autoimmune, or congenital — or they could be malignant,” Venuta said.
The nodule can be removed under general anaesthesia, with the patient breathing through a tube.
Even if the nodule proved to be malignant, the pope’s outlook would be “very positive”, Venuta said.
“For a generally healthy person, the prognosis for lung cancer caught at such an early stage — specifically a pulmonary nodule with no distant spread — is absolutely favourable,” he said.
AFP