Pope Leo XIV underwent surgery on Tuesday at Rome's Gemelli Polyclinic to remove a nodule from his lung, and the Holy See's Press Office said the procedure ended successfully, according to RTVE.es.
The Press Office announced on its Telegram channel that the operation "concluded positively within the expected times and in the expected manner," RTVE.es reports. It added that further information would be released later.
The 71-year-old pontiff left the Vatican shortly before 1:00 p.m. local time on Tuesday for the hospital. Before entering the building, he lowered his car window and greeted people gathered outside, according to RTVE.es.
The surgery was performed by a thoracic surgery team led by Professor Stefano Margaritora, a physician who has carried out thousands of operations, RTVE.es reports.
Why it matters
The Gemelli Polyclinic is once again the setting for a major moment in a papacy. RTVE.es notes that the hospital played a central role in the final months of Pope Francis's life and during the long reign of John Paul II.
For Leo XIV, the hospital stay carries particular weight because of his personal history. The pope holds Peruvian nationality, having spent decades in Peru as a missionary and bishop, and he has an apostolic trip scheduled from November 6 to 17 to Uruguay, Argentina and Peru. Whether that journey proceeds as planned is now one of the main questions hanging over the Vatican's calendar.
The Vatican has said it will follow the practice used during Francis's various procedures and issue a medical bulletin after the operation, according to RTVE.es.
What the pope said before the operation
Leo XIV disclosed the diagnosis himself on Sunday during the weekly Angelus prayer, speaking from the window of the Apostolic Palace to the faithful gathered below.
He said doctors had found a contained nodule in his lung during recent check-ups, describing it as detected at a "very early" stage and well localized, according to RTVE.es.
On Monday, the director of the Holy See Press Office, Matteo Bruni, specified that the nodule had been found during "routine" examinations, RTVE.es reports.
That sequence — the pope announcing his own diagnosis from the Apostolic Palace window, followed by a formal Vatican statement the next day, and then surgery on Tuesday — gave the public an unusually compressed timeline from disclosure to operation.
A different room, but the same floor
Unlike his predecessors, Leo XIV is not staying in the section of the hospital reserved for popes, because that area is undergoing renovation, according to RTVE.es. He is instead admitted to an adjacent area, still on the tenth floor of the Roman hospital.
The change is logistical rather than medical, but it marks a visible departure from the arrangements that surrounded the hospitalizations of Francis and John Paul II at the same institution.
Audiences cancelled through October 20
The Prefecture of the Pontifical Household announced that Leo XIV has cancelled all audiences through October 20, covering the period of his hospitalization, RTVE.es reports.
The cancellation clears the pope's schedule for roughly a week, though the Vatican has not indicated how long he is expected to remain at the Gemelli beyond that window.
The next major item on the papal agenda is the November apostolic journey to Uruguay, Argentina and Peru. No change to that trip has been announced.
What to watch next: the medical bulletin the Vatican has said it will release following the surgery, and any update on whether the November journey to South America will go ahead as scheduled.
