Pope Leo XIV walked the hallways of Rome's Agostino Gemelli University Hospital, resumed his regular meals, and privately celebrated Mass barely 24 hours after surgeons removed the lower lobe of his right lung — yet the lymph node biopsy results that will determine whether his cancer has spread still have not arrived, leaving three Latin American countries and millions of U.S. Catholic faithful in anxious prayer.
The recovery is advancing. The waiting, though, has only just begun.
What the Vatican Said on Wednesday and Thursday
In a joint statement released October 14, the pope's personal physician Dr. Luigi Carbone and chief thoracic surgeon Prof. Stefano Margaritora confirmed that the 71-year-old pontiff had undergone respiratory physiotherapy, was walking in his room, and had resumed both breakfast and lunch. "Recovery is proceeding as planned," the two doctors stated. A Vatican News bulletin the following morning added that Leo had slept well for a second consecutive night and rose independently to eat breakfast.
On Wednesday afternoon, the pope celebrated Mass in a room on the 10th floor of Gemelli that had been specially prepared for the liturgy, with his personal secretaries in attendance. That floor carries its own history with the papacy — Pope John Paul II spent so many extended stays there that he famously referred to the hospital as "the Vatican's third location."
The Vatican's medical bulletin made no mention of any further treatment plan, with doctors declining to discuss chemotherapy, radiation or other therapies until the results of pending tests were in — particularly the lymph node samples, which will confirm whether the adenocarcinoma has extended beyond the original site in the lung.
The Science Behind the Wait
Dr. Stephen Liu, a lung cancer expert at Georgetown University's Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, noted that adenocarcinoma carries a comparatively favorable prognosis among lung cancers. Two questions will now determine Leo's course: how large the original tumor was, and whether any of the removed lymph nodes tested positive for cancer cells.
The outlook brightens considerably if both answers favor the pope. Dr. Juanita Mora, national medical spokesperson for the American Lung Association, stated that when adenocarcinoma is caught early and removed surgically, five-year survival rates reach 80 to 98 percent. "The fact that Pope Leo had a localized case of adenocarcinoma with an early-stage detection works in his favor," Mora said. The decision by surgeons to proceed directly to surgery — rather than leading with radiation or chemotherapy — is itself a signal that doctors believed the cancer was contained.
Leo had prepared the public for this moment himself, announcing during his Sunday Angelus that a nodule had been detected "at a very early stage."
Three Nations on Hold
The recovery timeline collides directly with the most symbolically loaded journey of Leo's pontificate. The Nov. 6–17 apostolic tour — which the Vatican had planned to carry the pope across Uruguay, Argentina and Peru over 12 days, with stops in 10 cities, 14 flights and two helicopter excursions — remains officially on schedule, even as its feasibility grows uncertain.
Argentina had already declared November 9 a national holiday — Leo's first full day in the country. Additional local holidays were designated for Nov. 10 in Buenos Aires and Córdoba and for Nov. 11 in Buenos Aires Province, corresponding to the pope's movements through each jurisdiction. Argentina's National Security Minister Alejandra Monteoliva told the Argentine news channel LN+ that preparations would continue "until there is an official response from the Vatican."
Peru's response carried the sharpest edge. President Keiko Fujimori told reporters on Wednesday that the recovery was likely to take "several weeks, longer than expected," and acknowledged that "there could be some changes" to the schedule. She balanced caution with care: "What is important here is that His Holiness the Pope regains his health," Fujimori said, adding that preparations in Peru would continue until the Vatican issued contrary guidance.
The medical math is tight. General post-operative guidelines for thoracic surgery advise against flying for at least two to three weeks — a window that puts the outer boundary in the first days of November, just before Leo is scheduled to land in Montevideo on Nov. 6.
What Cancellation Would Cost Latin America
The stakes of any delay go well beyond the logistical. Leo would be the first pope to visit Argentina since John Paul II in 1987, and the first to set foot in Uruguay since that same pontiff's 1988 visit. For Argentina, the trip carries additional weight: it would be the first papal visit to the homeland of Leo's predecessor Pope Francis, who never managed a return to Buenos Aires during his own pontificate.
For Peru, the stakes are more intimate still. Leo spent nearly two decades in the country as a missionary and later as Bishop of Chiclayo, acquiring Peruvian citizenship in 2015. The itinerary includes a homecoming Mass in Chiclayo — a stop that had been years in the making for the communities that shaped him. Murals of Leo already line walls across northern Peru. The emotional infrastructure for this visit was assembled long before any operating room entered the picture.
Bishops' conferences across Latin America responded to the uncertainty with calls for prayer while emphasizing that the tour's status remains unresolved.
How U.S. Latino Catholics Are Processing the News
For the approximately 70 million Catholics in the United States — a community with deep Latin American roots — Leo's diagnosis carries a particular weight. He was elected on May 8, 2025, to succeed the late Pope Francis, making him the first American-born pope in history, and his vigorous profile had given little indication of the medical episode that arrived in October.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a practicing Catholic who has met with Leo at the Vatican, posted a prayer on X in which he said that he and his wife Jeanette were "united in prayer for [Leo's] health," asking that "May the Lord give him strength and the Holy Spirit guide" the medical professionals at the pontiff's bedside.
The private dimension of the episode runs deeper still. Louis Prevost, Leo's eldest brother, is currently enrolled in a clinical trial for multiple myeloma, a form of blood cancer. The two brothers spoke by phone the week before the surgery, adding a quiet personal layer to a very public medical event.
The Vatican has not announced any changes to the November tour. The lymph node results, when they arrive, will likely reframe that conversation entirely — in one direction or the other.
© {{Year}} Latin Times. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.