Pope Leo XIV on Sunday revealed he would be operated on “in the coming days” for a lump on his lung, saying it had been detected “at a very early stage.”
“During recent medical checks, a nodule on my lung was found. It has been detected at a very early stage and is very localized,” the 71-year-old said in a weekly address in St. Peter’s Square.
“The doctors believe it would be right to intervene, and so, following their advice, I have decided to have the operation to remove it. The operation is already planned in the coming days,” he said.
Following the statement by the Pope during his Angelus prayers, the Vatican press office said the expected recovery time from the operation would be around a week.
Born in Chicago, Leo became the first American pope last year after his Argentine predecessor Francis died on April 21, 2025, at the age of 88.
Francis was hospitalized for weeks at Rome’s Gemelli Hospital, the place where popes customarily receive medical care.
On May 8, 2025, Leo was chosen to lead the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics.
Formerly known as Robert Francis Prevost, he is less exuberant than his predecessor, yet he has steadily stamped his style on the leadership of the Catholic Church, discovering his voice as he confronts some of the world’s most urgent matters, from bloody conflicts to artificial intelligence.
Once the US and Israel started a war against Iran in February, the pope emerged as a prominent critic of the conflict.
He denounced US President Donald Trump’s threat to destroy Iran as “truly unacceptable” and called on Americans to press US lawmakers to “work for peace.”
Trump attacked the pontiff as “weak on crime and terrible for foreign policy”—and Leo responded that he bore a “moral duty to speak out.”
