Three days after an operation on his right lung, Pope Leo XIV is back at the altar, at least on the tenth floor of a Rome hospital. On Friday the Vatican released two photographs, the first since he was admitted to the Gemelli clinic.
They show the 71-year-old pontiff on his feet in the green vestments of the season. He prays with joined hands in the first picture, while the second, shot during the Eucharistic prayer, has his secretary, Monsignor Edgard Rimaycuna, at his side. The room had been turned into a small chapel for the occasion.
According to spokesman Matteo Bruni, Leo led the midday liturgy himself, handed out Communion to off-duty doctors and nurses and to officers of the Holy See’s police force, and used his homily to thank the people caring for him and for other patients every day.
The surgery took place on 13 October. Surgeons removed the lower lobe of the right lung after spotting a suspicious nodule, and the analysis confirmed adenocarcinoma, the most frequent form of lung cancer.
The latest medical bulletin, signed by his physician Luigi Carbone and thoracic surgeon Stefano Margaritora, sounds upbeat. Lab results and imaging of his chest showed “steady improvement”, and the pope can now manage his daily routine without help. On Thursday he had already returned to some paperwork and received Archbishop Paolo Rudelli of the Secretariat of State.
Next comes a public moment. On Sunday he wants to lead the noon prayer for the faithful; where he will do so, at Gemelli or back home in the Vatican, has not been decided. Doctors currently plan to discharge him around 20 October.
