Vatican says Pope Leo to be released from the hospital on October 17, four days after lung cancer surgery

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Leo XIV is being released from the hospital on Saturday, four days after lung cancer surgery, and will deliver the traditional noon blessing Sunday from a window overlooking St. Peter's Square, the Vatican announced. The 71-year-old Leo had the lower lobe of his right lung removed after doctors identified a [...]

Vatican says Leo is recovering well, will deliver the traditional noon blessing Sunday from a window overlooking St. Pope Leo had the lower lobe of his right lung removed after doctors identified a suspected cancerous nodule. The surgery confirmed he had adenocarcinoma, the most common type of lung cancer

Pope Leo XIV is being released from the hospital Saturday, four days after lung cancer surgery, and will deliver the traditional noon blessing Sunday. Pope Leo XIV will leave the Rome hospital Saturday where he has been recovering from lung cancer surgery, the Vatican said, after doctors deemed him “fit for discharge”. Leo, 71, has been at the Gemelli hospital north of the Vatican since Tuesday, where doctors removed part of his right lung to extract a cancerous tumour.

“Considering the blood tests, the chest X-ray done this morning, and evaluating the clinical picture, the Holy Father has been deemed fit for discharge,” doctors Luigi Carbone and Stefano Margaritora wrote in a note published by the Vatican. The Vatican confirmed that “Pope Leo XIV will be discharged today”. “He will leave the hospital in the early afternoon and return to the Vatican.

Tomorrow he will recite the Angelus prayer from the window of the papal apartment,” the Vatican said. The Angelus prayer is typically given by the pope from the window of the Apostolic Palace overlooking St Peter’s Square. But in past years, former popes John Paul II and Francis similarly hospitalised at the Gemelli have delivered the prayer from the window of their hospital rooms.

The Vatican’s press office said that Leo celebrated mass on Saturday, as he has in recent days, in a room on the 10th floor of the hospital where he has been recovering. – Up in air – News that the otherwise healthy and sporty pope had a cancerous tumour removed from his lung has rattled the Vatican and the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics. But his doctors have said Leo’s recovery has been progressing normally as they await the results of tests that will determine the course of action to take.