Pope Leo XIV got up for breakfast after a quiet night in the hospital following lung cancer surgery that removed part of his right lung, the Vatican said.
The 71-year-old pontiff is resting at Rome’s Gemelli hospital after Tuesday’s operation to remove a cancerous growth from his lung. In a short Telegram statement reported Thursday, the Vatican said he slept well, rose, and ate breakfast, with tests showing normal results.
Breitbart News reported the update on the America-born leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics, formerly known as Robert Francis Prevost. Doctors quoted by the Vatican said his recovery was “proceeding as expected.”
On Sunday he announced he would undergo surgery to remove a nodule from his lung. After the Tuesday procedure, the Vatican revealed the growth was cancerous and that surgeons had removed part of his right lung.
A Vatican source said that on Wednesday he celebrated Mass in a specially prepared room on the hospital’s 10th floor, continuing his duties even while under care.
Just The News reported that tests during surgery confirmed lung adenocarcinoma. The Vatican said the procedure lasted about 90 minutes, was successful, and produced no complications.
"The surgery was successful, and there were no complications,"
the Vatican said in a statement carried in that account. After a brief observation period, the pope woke up normally and returned to his tenth-floor room at Gemelli.
Surgeons removed the lower lobe of his right lung. The nodule was found at a very early stage and was well situated, according to remarks attributed to the pontiff himself in later medical updates.
Readers following the case will recall that Pope Leo XIV headed to the Rome hospital for the planned nodule procedure earlier in the week, setting the stage for this post-operative report.
Fox News reported that postoperative blood tests and a chest X-ray showed recovery progressing normally, with values inside the expected range for this type of thoracic surgery.
"The results confirm that his postoperative recovery is progressing normally: the values are within the expected range for the type of operation performed."
That assessment came from Dr. Luigi Carbone and Professor Stefano Margaritora through the Holy See Press Office. Margaritora led the surgery at Gemelli.
The pope has started respiratory physiotherapy, begun walking in his room, and resumed normal eating. No complications have been reported. Hospital staff expect him to remain roughly a week.
Faithful watching from afar have already shown their concern, including those who kept vigil at Pope Leo’s boyhood home as word of the cancer diagnosis spread.
Gemelli has long housed a special papal suite, first prepared after the failed May 1981 assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II. That suite remains in use for Leo’s post-operative care.
Before the operation, Leo was known for weekly tennis and for swimming at the papal summer retreat at Castel Gandolfo, habits that marked him as an active 71-year-old heading a global flock.
His recent public work has mixed pastoral travel with internal Church decisions. He has pressed Europe on Christian identity, and he marked his 71st birthday by repealing Vatican salary cuts tied to earlier plans.
Those same themes of teaching and travel also appeared when Pope Leo XIV headed to France amid clashes between secular law and Catholic teaching on life, another reminder that the pontiff’s calendar rarely stays quiet for long.
On Wednesday the Vatican quoted doctors saying recovery was proceeding as expected. By Thursday morning the short official note was simpler still.
"The pope had a good night in the hospital. He got up and had breakfast,"
the Vatican said, adding that tests showed normal results. He had already celebrated Mass the day before in the prepared 10th-floor room.
The diagnosis was suspected before the operation and verified during it. Officials described the lump as small, early-stage, and favorably located, facts that help explain the uneventful course so far.
"Doctors found a small lump in the lung. It was identified at a very early stage and well situated."
That line, attributed to Pope Leo XIV in the Fox News account, matches the Vatican’s broader description of a contained finding rather than an advanced crisis.
For now the picture is straightforward: successful surgery, normal overnight vitals, breakfast, walking, and physiotherapy under way at Gemelli. Discharge timing beyond the roughly one-week hospital stay has not been spelled out in detail.
A Church that still draws more than a billion believers watches a working pope recover in public view, proof that clear diagnosis and steady care still matter more than spin.
