Pope Leo discharged from hospital after cancer operation

Original article by Angela Giuffrida in Rome

Pope Leo has been discharged from hospital in Rome after undergoing an operation to remove a cancerous tumour from his lung.

Leo, 71, was deemed “fit for discharge”, his doctors, Luigi Carbone and Stefano Margaritora, said in a statement published by the Vatican.

He walked unaided from the hospital on Saturday afternoon, to cheers from well-wishers.

Leo, who in May last year became the first US-born leader of the Roman Catholic church, has been in the Gemelli hospital since Tuesday, when doctors removed part of his right lung in order to extract the 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,” the statement said.

Doctors said on Wednesday that Leo’s recovery from the operation was progressing normally. They are waiting for the results of tests to determine whether the cancer has spread and if more treatment will be needed.

Leo was diagnosed with the most common kind of lung cancer – adenocarcinoma.

The pontiff celebrated mass in his room on the 10th-floor of the Gemelli hospital in the north-west of the Italian capital before being discharged.

The Vatican said he would recite the Angelus prayer on Sunday “from the window of the papal apartment”. It was during his angelus last week, in a rare moment of Vatican transparency, that Leo made the shock announcement to the crowd gathered in St Peter’s Square that a small nodule on his lung had been detected during a check-up.

The pope has worked from hospital, including making a phone call on Friday to Vladimir Putin, during which he urged the Russian president to call a ceasefire in the Russian-occupied Ukrainian city of Oleshky.

The Vatican had originally estimated a week-long stay in hospital. The pope’s appointments had been cancelled until 20 October.

It is uncertain if he’ll make an intense 12-day trip to South America planned in November.

Cardinal ​Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s secretary of state, told reporters on Friday that Leo may need to readjust his trip schedule, at least with regard to South America, depending on his health.

Before the cancer diagnosis, Leo, who enjoys sports, especially playing tennis, was generally believed to be in good health. He often makes use of the papal retreat in Castel Gandolfo, close to Rome.

The Gemelli, located in the north-west of the Italian capital, is renowned for treating reigning popes. Pope John Paul II stayed there so many times that the Vatican worked with the hospital to establish a high-security papal suite.