ROME and LONDON — Pope Leo XIV is scheduled to bear surgical procedure within the “subsequent few days” after medical doctors discovered a nodule on his lung, he stated on Sunday.
“Not too long ago throughout some test ups medical doctors discovered a circumscribed nodule in my lung,” the pontiff, 71, stated throughout an look on the window of the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace, overlooking a sunny St. Peter’s Sq.. “It was present in a really preliminary part and effectively localized. The medical doctors assume it’s opportune to intervene.”
Pope Leo XIV delivers the Angelus prayer in St. Peter’s Sq. on the Vatican, Sunday, Oct. 11, 2026. (AP Picture/Gregorio Borgia)
Gregorio Borgia/AP Picture
The Vatican press workplace stated in a press release shortly afterward that the process was scheduled for “early” this week, including that the “anticipated size of the postoperative hospital keep is about one week.”
The pope is scheduled to be operated on in Rome’s Gemelli Hospital, the first medical facility generally utilized by popes, together with Leo’s immediate predecessor, Pope Francis, who died in 2025 on the age of 88.
Trustworthy carry a picture of the Lord of Miracles on their shoulders throughout a procession in St. Peter’s Sq. earlier than Pope Leo XIV’s Angelus prayer on the Vatican, Sunday, Oct. 11, 2026.
Gregorio Borgia/AP Picture
Leo, a Chicago native and the primary American pope, who was beforehand Cardinal Robert Prevost, was elected the church’s 267th pontiff in Might 2025.
Earlier than Leo introduced on Sunday that he can be operated on, and whereas greeting the teams current within the sq., he greeted a Peruvian Catholic group and stated, “Thanks in your prayer for my apostolic go to that I’ll make to Peru.”
Folks stroll in By way of della Conciliazione, close to the Vatican, with St. Peter’s Basilica seen within the background, after Pope Leo stated medical doctors had detected a really early-stage nodule in his lung, and that he would bear surgical procedure within the coming days, in Rome, Italy, October 11, 2026.
Matteo Minnella/Reuters
Leo is formally scheduled to make a visit to Uruguay, Argentina and Peru between Nov. 6 and 17. His comment on Sunday appeared to point he nonetheless meant to journey to these international locations.
Giorgia Meloni, the Italian prime minister, stated in a press release in Italian that she and her authorities have been expressing solidarity “with the Holy Father as he faces the ordeal forward within the coming days.”
“The serenity and calm with which he spoke about it throughout right now’s Angelus are a supply of consolation to us,” Meloni stated. “I’m sure that the Italian folks, too, is not going to fail to supply their help and affection.”
