APTOPIX Vatican Pope Surgery

Pope Leo XIV has brought an American style of governing to the Vatican, including in the way it handles health crises. Not only did history’s first American pope announce himself that he had a lung nodule that required removal. But Leo’s doctors have been providing the medical updates for his recovery, not the Vatican. The written medical updates are spare, but provide authoritative information with a degree of accountability and transparency that is anathema to the Vatican. It's a far cry from the times of St. John Paul II, when his spokesman would tell some tall tales about his health that in retrospect seem hard to believe.

Pope Leo XIV is being released from the hospital on Saturday after lung cancer surgery. He will deliver the traditional noon blessing Sunday from a window overlooking St. Peter's Square, the Vatican announced. The 71-year-old had the lower lobe of his right lung removed after doctors identified a suspected cancerous nodule. The surgery confirmed he had adenocarcinoma, the most common type of lung cancer. His personal physician and surgeon said in a separate statement that Leo was “deemed fit for discharge from the hospital” based on blood test results and a chest X-ray performed Saturday morning along with an assessment of his clinical condition. He is set to leave the hospital in the early afternoon and return to the Vatican, the Vatican said in a brief statement.