The Vatican confirmed Pope Leo XIV has pulmonary adenocarcinoma after surgeons removed the lower lobe of his right lung in a successful operation, with the cancer’s stage and spread still undisclosed.
Doctors at Rome’s Gemelli hospital completed the procedure without complications, and tests taken during the operation verified the diagnosis that preoperative exams had already suggested, Breitbart News reported.
The Holy See released a medical bulletin describing a radical resection of the lower lobe of the right lung. The work used a video-assisted technique and lasted roughly 90 minutes inside a three-hour stretch in the operating room. A team led by Dr. Stefano Margaritora, Gemelli’s chief thoracic surgeon, performed the surgery.
Officials said the pope woke normally afterward and returned to his room. Just the News noted the same clean outcome and the confirmation of lung adenocarcinoma during the procedure.
The bulletin left little doubt about the core finding while withholding the details patients and the faithful usually want next.
In the statement, the Vatican said:
"The surgery was successful, and there were no complications,"
It continued:
"To ensure a radical resection, the lower lobe of the right lung was removed using a video-assisted technique. Intraoperative histological examination confirmed the diagnosis of pulmonary adenocarcinoma, as suspected from pre-operative tests."
That is the official record. The stage of the cancer, and whether it had spread beyond the removed lobe, was not disclosed.
The Washington Examiner reported that the 71-year-old pontiff is recovering at Gemelli and has already resumed certain regular activities. The outlet also noted that adenocarcinoma is the most common form of lung cancer.
Medical staff prayed the rosary as the operation began. Cardinal Baldassare Reina, the vicar of Rome, spoke at the start of the prayer and asked the faithful to join him.
Reina said:
"Let us join together in prayer, asking the Lord to sustain our bishop, Pope Leo, and to comfort all those who are hospitalized here,"
Well-wishes poured in from around the world after the news broke.
Candida Moss, the Edward Cadbury professor of theology at the University of Birmingham in England, told CBS News the Vatican’s long habit is to limit health disclosures and force outsiders to read between the lines.
Moss said:
"The Vatican tends to keep these things under wraps, so there’ll be a lot of reading between the lines to try and detect what is the state of the pope’s health,"
She also said the public should expect Pope Leo to keep working as much as he can, pointing to earlier popes who stayed active through serious illness, including John Paul II’s long struggle with Parkinson’s.
“We should also expect that, inasmuch as is possible, Pope Leo is going to continue to work,” Moss said, adding that the Church has a long tradition of pontiffs remaining as active in liturgy and duty as their health allowed.
That pattern is familiar. Institutions with global reach often control the flow of medical information tightly. In this case, the Holy See confirmed the cancer type and the successful lobe removal, then stopped short of the staging and metastasis questions that define prognosis.
Believers can pray for a full recovery. They are also entitled to clear answers when a world leader’s health shapes the Church’s next chapter, and the Vatican still has not given them.