Pope Leo XIV appeared at the window of the Apostolic Palace on Sunday to lead the noon Angelus, four days after surgeons removed part of his right lung and confirmed he has lung cancer.
The crowd in St. Peter's Square applauded when he appeared.
"Once this delicate stage is overcome," he said, "I will gradually resume my activities, always with the help of God and your prayers."
Out of hospital
Leo, 71, left Rome's Gemelli hospital on Saturday afternoon. Blood tests and a chest X-ray that morning showed he was well enough to go home, according to his doctors, Luigi Carbone and Stefano Margaritora, Gemelli's chief thoracic surgeon, who led the operation.
Before leaving, he celebrated Mass in a room on the hospital's 10th floor, thanked the medical and nursing staff, and, according to reports, visited the children's cancer ward, where some of the young patients gave him letters.
What the surgery found
Leo told the world himself, at the Angelus a week earlier, that "during some recent medical examinations, the doctors found a small, localized nodule in my lung." He said he had decided to have it removed.
The operation was on Tuesday, October 13. Surgeons removed the lower lobe of his right lung. He was in the operating room about three hours; the surgery itself took about 90 minutes. "The surgery was successful, and there were no complications," the Vatican said.
Tests confirmed lung adenocarcinoma, the most common form of lung cancer and one that also occurs in people who have never smoked.
What the Vatican has not said: what stage the cancer is, or whether he will need more treatment. It says tissue and molecular tests will guide the next steps. Margaritora has called his condition "absolutely satisfactory," and before the operation oncologists said a small nodule removed early carries an excellent outlook.
It is the first major health problem of his papacy to be made public. Leo, born Robert Prevost in Chicago, became the first American pope in May 2025.
What he said
On Sunday he thanked those who had prayed for him and the doctors and staff at Gemelli, and said he felt "especially close to those who suffer from illnesses and disabilities."
He signed off: "Thanks to you all and have a good Sunday!"
A phone call from a hospital bed
On Friday, three days after surgery, Leo phoned Vladimir Putin from his hospital room.
The Vatican said he expressed "deep concern about the grave humanitarian situation in the city of Oleshky," in Ukraine's Kherson region, and asked for a ceasefire to let food and medicine in and civilians out. The New York Times has reported about 2,000 civilians, including 40 children, trapped there. The city is under Russian control.
The Kremlin said Putin supported a Vatican initiative to deliver supplies, and that "it has been agreed to cooperate on this matter." It was the pair's second call; the first was in June 2025.
What comes next
His audiences were cancelled through October 20, and the Vatican has not confirmed whether he will hold Wednesday's general audience. Doctors have estimated about ten days of recovery.
Two dates are on the calendar. On October 27, he is due in Assisi for an interfaith meeting marking 40 years since John Paul II's gathering there. And from November 6 to 17, he is scheduled to visit Uruguay, Argentina and Peru, the country where he spent years as a missionary and bishop. "I would say there are no clinical reasons why that trip cannot be undertaken," Margaritora said.
Published Sunday, October 18, 2026. Medical details are from the Holy See press office, Vatican News and Gemelli surgeon Stefano Margaritora. The Vatican has not released the stage of the cancer or a treatment plan.
