Pope Leo discharged from hospital after lung cancer surgery

By Christopher Lamb, CNN

Rome (CNN) — Pope Leo XIV left hospital Saturday, four days after undergoing lung cancer surgery in a swift return to his duties following the first health scare of his papacy.

Leo walked out of hospital unaided, greeting well-wishers, including a 13-year-old Ukrainian girl who gave him a stuffed toy as a gift.

The 71-year-old first American pope was admitted to the Gemelli hospital on Tuesday with doctors removing a nodule that was determined to be pulmonary adenocarcinoma, the most common type of lung cancer.

Leo was deemed ready to leave hospital after blood tests and an X-ray, his doctors said ahead of his release.

He is due to offer the traditional Sunday blessing from a window overlooking St. Peter’s Square on Sunday, a week after he announced he would need surgery.

News of the pope’s illness has been met with shock and concern inside the Vatican, while raising questions about what this means for his papacy.

Pope Leo was elected last May at the relatively young age of 69 and is in good physical shape. As a cardinal living in Rome, he had a personal trainer and is known to enjoy sports such as tennis and swimming.

The pope is scheduled to make a packed trip to Latin America from 6-17 November, including Uruguay, Argentina, and a “homecoming” to Peru where he served as a missionary and bishop for years. The Vatican is remaining cautious about those travel plans.

“We need to see how the Pope feels once he is discharged—what his state of health is—and based on that, he will decide whether to keep or cancel his trips,” Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Holy See Secretary of State, told reporters Friday.

Since his surgery, however, the pope has worked from the hospital, receiving cardinals and having a telephone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, where he raised the plight of civilians in the southern Ukrainian city of Oleshky.

Past popes have written letters of resignation in case of a severe illness or medical emergency that impedes them from carrying out their duties.

Parolin, however, told reporters that he didn’t think Leo had made such a provision. “I don’t think he left anything. It didn’t even seem to me that there was any need and that the matter was so serious to be able to foresee an absence of government.”

Just days before his surgery, however, the pope had confirmed Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle as the Dean of the College of Cardinals.

The dean, who is the “first among equals” leader of the college, plays a crucial role in presiding over a conclave (providing he’s under 80) and the pre-conclave meetings. Any future papal election is considered far into the future. But the appointment of the 69-year-old Tagle, a charismatic figure previously tipped as a possible pope, was an important piece of housekeeping.

This story has been updated. Sharon Braithwaite, Barbie Latza Nadeau and Stefano Pozzebon contributed reporting.

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