The Vector

Pope Leo leaves hospital after lung cancer surgery

A Sunday appearance is planned, while further test results remain outstanding.

Pope Leo XIV left Rome’s Gemelli Hospital on Saturday, four days after surgery for lung cancer. The Vatican said he would lead Sunday’s Angelus prayer from the papal apartment, although questions about further treatment remain unresolved.

The departure followed an assessment by his personal physician, Luigi Carbone, and surgeon Stefano Margaritora. Vatican News reported that blood tests, a chest X-ray and their assessment of his clinical condition supported discharge. The Holy See Press Office announced that he would return to the Vatican in the afternoon. Sky News subsequently reported that he had left, waving to people from inside a car.

Leo, 71, underwent surgery on Tuesday to remove the lower lobe of his right lung after doctors identified a suspicious nodule. The operation confirmed adenocarcinoma, according to AP and Sky. Saturday’s development concerns his having recovered sufficiently to leave hospital; it does not, by itself, resolve the separate question of whether the operation will be followed by additional cancer treatment.

Sky reported that doctors were awaiting further results concerning the cancer’s characteristics, whether it had spread beyond the removed lobe and whether more treatment would be needed. No firm conclusion on those questions can be drawn from the discharge announcement. The distinction matters because a decision about where someone can continue recovering is different from a complete assessment of the underlying illness.

The Vatican’s next announced public engagement is the Angelus on Sunday, to be led from the window of the papal apartment. Vatican News also said that Leo would celebrate Mass in the hospital’s chapel before returning. Those arrangements describe a limited sequence of religious duties. They do not provide a comprehensive timetable for resuming every audience, meeting or journey in his diary.

AP reported that the Vatican had initially anticipated a hospital stay of around a week and had cancelled audiences through Tuesday. His departure therefore came earlier than that initial estimate. The revised timing followed his doctors’ assessment, rather than an announcement that all restrictions had been lifted. The reports checked contain no basis for treating the original estimate as a fixed medical deadline.

During his admission, Leo had continued some activities. AP reported meetings with senior aides and the celebration of Mass, while the Vatican released photographs from the hospital chapel on Friday. These provide context for the account of progress in his recovery, but they are not a substitute for the outstanding test results. Public appearances and the ability to undertake selected duties cannot establish a prognosis.

A previously scheduled visit to Latin America from 6 to 17 November remains an important forthcoming commitment, according to AP. Saturday’s news establishes his discharge and the Vatican’s plan for Sunday; it does not independently confirm his eventual fitness for that journey. Further official medical information will be needed to establish what treatment and adjustments to his workload, if any, follow.

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