Pope Leo XIV will be admitted to Rome’s Gemelli Hospital “at the end of tomorrow morning” to remove a nodule from his lung, the Holy See press office said today. The operation could take place that same day, various Vatican sources told America.
The pope is expected to remain a week in the hospital after the surgery to facilitate his full recovery, said Matteo Bruni, the director of the Holy See press office, to journalists on Sunday, soon after Leo made the announcement.
The 71-year-old, Chicago-born pope has a robust constitution, keeps fit, plays tennis and has been in good health. He announced his hospitalization just after noon on Sunday, Oct. 11, when he told thousands of Romans and pilgrims from many countries gathered in St. Peter’s Square to pray the Angelus with him and receive his blessing:
Dear friends, during some recent medical examinations, the doctors found a small, localized nodule in my lung. It was detected at a very early stage and is well-localized. The doctors believe that it is best to intervene, so, following their advice, I have decided to undergo surgery to remove it. The operation is already scheduled to take place in the coming days. I thank you for your spiritual closeness and entrust myself to your prayers.
Pope Leo will reside in the 10th floor of the Gemelli Hospital, in the same suite that Pope Francis occupied during his stays here, and also where John Paul II was during his many periods in the hospital. Already, media representatives are gathering outside the hospital to record his entry there tomorrow.
On Monday morning, Mr. Bruni told the press that the nodule “was discovered in routine tests, and not because of any immediate cause or symptom that required investigation such as inflammation or infection,” as some media had earlier reported.
It will be only the second time that Robert Prevost has been hospitalized. The first was in 1985, over 40 years ago, in Peru during his first period as an Augustinian missionary there, when he got typhoid fever in Chulucanas and had to be taken to Clinica Roma, a private clinic at Piura, the capital of Peru’s northwestern region.
“It’s the only time in my life that I’ve been hospitalized,” he told Elise Harris Allen in an interview he gave a few months after his election in 2025 for her biography, Pope Leo XIV, but he added, “that was a very significant point for me, because it was like you’ve dealt with sickness.”
The news of the pope’s imminent hospitalization has sparked concern among believers worldwide. Messages of good wishes and prayers for his full health have arrived from church leaders from all parts of the world.
Archbishop Paul Coakley, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, is attending the meeting on “Amoris Laetitia” now taking place in the Vatican. Speaking to America today, he noted that the bishops’ conference has issued a statement in which they said, “The bishops of the United States join with the faithful and all people of good will in praying for [Leo’s] good health,” and prayed, “May the hand of Pope Leo’s surgeons be guided by the divine physician Jesus Christ.” They asked people: “Please find a moment today, as I will, to offer a prayer for Pope Leo and his care team.”
At the “Amoris Laetitia” meeting this morning, he added, “We prayed for his health and for his recovery. He was not present.” Asked if participants were worried, he said, “I don’t say ‘worry.’ [There’s] concern, of course, but the assurances seem to be that he is addressing it early and that the medical reports are not sounding any alarm at this point.” He added, “I think we’re all in solidarity with him and praying for him. So I think until we hear more, we just have to wait. Not panic. I mean, I think we wait and hope.”
Cardinal Joseph Tobin, who is also participating in the “Amoris Laetitia” meeting, told America today, “I think people are concerned [in the meeting], and they’re waiting for details of what’s happening,” adding that there was “ a request for prayers.” Referring to Leo’s planned visit to Latin America on Nov. 6-17, he said, “I think the one concern I would have is one of the stops, or maybe two, in the Latin American tour, at a very high altitude. And you need to be careful if you have issues with your lungs.”
In Peru, where Leo is expected to visit from Nov. 11-16, the Peruvian Bishops’ Conference entrusted the health and speedy recovery of the pope to the “Señor de los Milagros” [“Lord of Miracles”], the venerated image of the crucified Christ carried in procession this month.” It did so in a statement signed by the president of the Peruvian Episcopal Conference, Monsignor Carlos García Camader. The bishops called on the entire Catholic community and people of good will in Peru to join in prayer for the health of the pope.
On Sunday, before making the announcement about his surgery, Leo had greeted a group of Peruvians gathered around an image of the Señor de los Milagros in St. Peter’s Square and told them, “I greet the members of the Hermandad del Señor de los Milagros in Rome and all those who took part in the procession with the venerated Icon of the Crucified Christ. Thank you for your prayers for the pastoral visit I will make to Peru.”
On Sunday, a Mass for the speedy recovery of Pope Leo XIV was celebrated in the cathedral of Chiclayo, Peru, where Robert Prevost was a missionary bishop before his election as pope and where he is expected to spend two nights in November. His successor, Bishop Edinson Edgardo Farfán Córdova, appealed to his people via social media: “Let us place the Holy Father in the hands of the Lord, asking Him to strengthen him and accompany him at all times.”
In Argentina, where the pope is expected to visit on Nov. 8-11, the bishops’ conference urged the faithful to accompany Pope Leo [in his hospitalization] “with our affection, closeness, and prayer, and entrusting him especially to the maternal care of the Virgin Mary.” They added, “We ask the Lord to grant him strength and peace at this time, that the operation may go well, and that he may make a swift and full recovery.”
In Uruguay, where Leo is scheduled to visit Nov. 6-8, Cardinal Daniel Sturla, archbishop of Montevideo, urged the faithful, “Let us pray for his swift recovery and continue preparing for his visit to our country with renewed enthusiasm.” The Uruguayan Bishops’ Conference said preparations for the visit “continue with hope to welcome him to Uruguay and experience ‘great joy’ together.”
Messages and good wishes too arrived from the heads of state and government starting with Italy’s president, Sergio Mattarella, and prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, and the presidents of the three countries he is scheduled to visit in November, as well as heads of states from many other countries.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, “responded immediately, wishing the Pontiff a speedy recovery and expressing his gratitude for the Holy Father’s incessant appeals for peace,” the Ukrainian Embassy to the Holy See reported, according to the ANSA news agency. Earlier, before announcing his hospitalization, Leo spoke about the dramatic situation in Ukraine and said, “The war in tormented Ukraine continues to cause suffering far beyond its borders, especially in the poorest countries, where so many people depend on grain imports. I make a heartfelt appeal to the parties to the conflict to allow for the safe transport of grain through the Black Sea. The daily bread of millions of people cannot be held hostage by the war.”
This morning Mr. Bruni told the press that Pope Leo would carry out “his activities scheduled for today.” These included several private audiences, including with Jorge Eduardo Lozano, the archbishop of San Juan, Argentina. Archbishop Lozano who told Elisabetta Piqué (my wife), correspondent for Argentina’s main daily La Nacion, after the audience that he found Leo “very well, in very good spirits, and I would say that if it had not been for the announcement he made yesterday, he does not give the impression of being a sick man. He gets up, sits down, shows no symptoms, no sign of pain or unease in any way.” Archbishop Lozano said Pope Leo confirmed his firm intention to go on the trip to the Latin American countries, though he didn’t say explicitly, “I will travel” but asked how the preparation for the visit was going. The archbishop acknowledged that since this is a very demanding journey to three countries, “We’ll have to see what the doctors say after the surgery.”
An informed Vatican source, who didn’t want to be identified, told America that he too believed the trip would go ahead and said that is why it was decided to have the surgery so quickly.
The pope’s hospitalization tomorrow means that he will not participate in the closing phase of the meeting on “Amoris Laetitia” as he had originally planned. Indeed, he has only been present for the first day of this event. Father Giacomo Costa, S.J., a key player in the organization of the meeting, told a press briefing that the pope has asked that the synthesis report not be published after the meeting as originally planned, as he wished to review it after his convalescence. He also said the pope has asked Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, dean of the College of Cardinals, to preside over the concluding Mass on Wednesday morning.
Colleen Dulle, Vatican correspondent at America, contributed to the reporting of this story.
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