Pope Leo XIV left Gemelli after lung surgery

Key Takeaways

The discharge	Pope Leo XIV left Rome's Gemelli Hospital on Saturday, Oct. 17, and returned to the Vatican, the Holy See Press Office said. He is to pray the Angelus on Sunday, Oct. 18.
The operation	On Tuesday, Oct. 13, surgeons removed the lower lobe of his right lung. The operation lasted about 90 minutes, and a test during surgery confirmed lung adenocarcinoma.
The tests	Blood tests and a chest X-ray on Saturday, Oct. 17, led his doctors to call him fit to leave. A note on Friday, Oct. 16, had already reported steady improvement.
The trip	A Vatican programme still lists Uruguay, Argentina and Peru from Friday, Nov. 6, to Tuesday, Nov. 17. His surgeon said there is no clinical reason to cancel it. The bulletins do not say whether the cancer has spread.

Pope Leo XIV left Gemelli Hospital in Rome on Saturday, Oct. 17, four days after surgeons removed the lower lobe of his right lung. The Holy See Press Office said he returned to the Vatican that afternoon and will pray the Angelus on Sunday, Oct. 18, from the Apostolic Palace.

Pope Leo XIV left Gemelli on Oct. 17

On the morning of Saturday, Oct. 17, the Holy See Press Office said Pope Leo XIV would leave Gemelli Hospital in the early afternoon. In a separate note, Dr. Luigi Carbone and Professor Stefano Margaritora said morning blood tests and a chest X-ray left him fit to leave. The doctors' note said "the Holy Father has been deemed fit for discharge." The morning notice said the Angelus on Sunday, Oct. 18, would be from the window of the papal apartment.

An Italian bulletin later that day said he had left and was back in the Vatican. He thanked Professor Margaritora and the medical and nursing team, and greeted the staff, Professor Elena Beccalli, rector of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, and the hospital leadership. The bulletin says the Apostolic Palace. The morning notice had said the apartment window.

BBC News and NBC News reported that he walked out unaided and spoke with well-wishers. CBS News reported a conversation with a young woman holding a doll in his image, and a return to Vatican City at 3:43 p.m. local time. NBC News said he appeared to accept a homemade figure of the pope. The Vatican notes give no clock time.

What the Oct. 13 operation found

On Sunday, Oct. 11, Pope Leo XIV told the Angelus crowd he would have a lung nodule removed. "During some recent medical examinations, the doctors found a small, localized nodule in my lung," he said in the Holy See text. He said it "was detected at a very early stage and is well-localized." He did not say cancer. NPR reported the remarks from St. Peter's Square.

The bulletin on Tuesday, Oct. 13, said surgeons removed the lower lobe of the right lung with a video-assisted technique "to ensure a radical procedure." Tissue examined during the operation confirmed lung adenocarcinoma, "as suspected by the pre-operative tests." He spent about three hours in the theatre. The operation lasted about 90 minutes, with no complications, and he returned to a room on the tenth floor.

A Vatican News biography says he was born in Chicago on Sept. 14, 1955, so he is 71. BBC News and CBS News also gave that age.

Recovery notes and the November trip

On Wednesday, Oct. 14, the doctors said tests were in the normal range for this operation and that he had started walking in his room. On Thursday, Oct. 15, the chest X-ray showed good recovery of the operated lung, and he carried out daily activities on his own. On Friday, Oct. 16, blood tests and a chest X-ray "confirmed the steady improvement in his general condition," their note said.

BBC News, writing on Saturday, Oct. 17, attached "steady improvement" to the discharge tests. Those words are in the Friday, Oct. 16, note. The doctors' note on Saturday, Oct. 17, says only that he was fit for discharge.

Matteo Bruni, director of the press office, told Vatican News on Sunday, Oct. 11, that recovery would take about one week. NPR reported the same estimate. He left four days after surgery. BBC News said his schedule had been cleared until Tuesday, Oct. 20. CBS News said a stay until that date had been the expectation. No note through Saturday, Oct. 17, names Oct. 20.

A Holy See announcement on Wednesday, Aug. 5, set visits to Uruguay, Argentina and Peru from Friday, Nov. 6, to Tuesday, Nov. 17. The programme of Monday, Sept. 21, lists a Rome-to-Montevideo flight on Friday, Nov. 6, and a Buenos Aires-to-Lima leg on Wednesday, Nov. 11. NBC News said the trip starts on Nov. 11. That is the Peru leg, not the flight from Rome.

Professor Margaritora told Vatican News on Saturday, Oct. 17, that the pope's condition was "entirely satisfactory," the blood tests "completely normal," and that "his heart function was fine." The discharge bulletin says none of those three things. He said recovery takes "a couple of weeks," and there are "no clinical reasons why it should not take place" for a long air trip in about three weeks. The notes do not confirm or cancel the trip, say whether the cancer has spread, or set out further treatment. NBC News reported that gap.

He told Vatican News the nodule was found by chance during abdominal exams, at the base of the lung, and that the pope had no breathing symptoms. The remarks on Sunday, Oct. 11, say only that examinations found it.

A call with Putin on Oct. 16

On Friday, Oct. 16, the day before he left, the press office said he spoke by phone with Vladimir Putin, president of the Russian Federation. The bulletin said he raised the "grave humanitarian situation" in Oleshky, in the Kherson region, and asked for a ceasefire so food and medical assistance could arrive and civilians could leave voluntarily and safely. He restated the Holy See's commitment to dialogue and peace. The bulletin does not date any earlier call. BBC News said this was the first since June 2025.