Doctors diagnosed Pope Leo XIV with lung cancer and removed the lower lobe of his right lung during surgery, the Holy See said.

The operation at Rome’s Gemelli hospital followed the earlier discovery of a nodule on his lung. The diagnosis confirmed suspicions from pre-operative tests, the Holy See said in a statement. “The procedure was successful, and there were no complications,” it said.

The American-born pontiff, 71, revealed during his regular Sunday blessing on Oct. 11 that doctors had discovered the lung nodule. He said then that it was in a localized, “very initial phase.” The surprise announcement took place just weeks before a planned apostolic trip to Uruguay, Argentina and Peru that’s scheduled to start Nov. 6.

The surgery lasted about 90 minutes, the Holy See said in its statement. Leo was in the operating room for about 3 hours.

“Following the surgery, the Pope regained consciousness normally and, after a brief period of observation, returned to his room,” the statement said.

Leo, who practices an active lifestyle including playing tennis regularly, was admitted to Gemelli earlier on Tuesday, the facility where ailing pontiffs are usually are taken for treatment. Leo’s predecessor, Francis, spent weeks in same medical facility in 2025 to treat a pulmonary infection and to undergo an abdominal surgery.

The Vatican has canceled all of Leo’s audiences through Oct. 20 to give him time to recuperate, but the highly awaited trip to Latin America remains scheduled.

Leo was elected leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics in May 2025. He has left his mark on the papacy by addressing the social and ethical implications of artificial intelligence. In his first encyclical to the faithful in May, Leo said AI should be “disarmed” to protect humanity from its dangers.

He has grown increasingly critical of U.S. military actions, challenging the Trump administration’s argument that God was on the side of the U.S. in its conflict with Iran. More recently, he remarked on X that the death penalty should be “inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person.”

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