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Leo XIV operated on at the Gemelli: a lung adenocarcinoma confirmed
Leo XIV was operated on at the Gemelli on 13 October 2026: a lung adenocarcinoma was confirmed and the lower lobe of his right lung removed; the intervention succeeded.
On the evening of 13 October 2026, a communiqué from the Holy See Press Office confirmed what the pre-operative examinations had given cause to fear: the histological examination carried out during the operation established a lung adenocarcinoma. That same afternoon, Leo XIV had undergone thoracic surgery at the Agostino Gemelli Polyclinic in Rome; to make the intervention radical, the lower lobe of the right lung was removed by video-assisted surgery. The Pope remained in the operating theatre for about three hours, the surgical act itself lasting some ninety minutes. The communiqué, drawn up by his physicians, states that "the operation was successful and there were no complications." Having woken normally, he returned to his room and asked for dinner. Post-operative examinations are expected in the days ahead; at this stage the physicians make no mention of chemotherapy.
The life of the body is a gift of God, entrusted to man that he may keep it and not that he may dispose of it. The fifth commandment, teaches the Catechism of the Council of Trent, does not only forbid the taking of another's life: it binds each man to preserve his own, and therefore to have recourse to lawful remedies when sickness threatens. To treat a sick body is not to flee the cross; it is to respect the work of the Creator, while awaiting the hour that He alone knows.
But no medicine heals us of death. Sickness remains, for the Christian, a part of the cross, to be borne in hope and not in anguish. "Statutum est hominibus semel mori," it is appointed unto men once to die (Heb. IX, 27); and the Church, who teaches her children the art of dying well, has never separated the care of the body from the preparation of the soul. This is why she has joined to the physician's remedy the anointing of the sick, so that healing, if it comes, may serve salvation.
We owe, then, to every man laid upon a hospital bed, the charity of prayer: to ask for health if it be useful to salvation, and in all things the grace of patience. This is the prayer we offer, without reckoning upon days to come that are not ours to count.
Sources. Catechism of the Council of Trent (1566), on the fifth commandment; Epistle to the Hebrews IX, 27, according to the Vulgate; Epistle of St James V, 14–15, on the anointing of the sick.