Pope León XIV will be admitted to Rome's Gemelli Polyclinic Hospital this Tuesday, October 13. He will undergo surgery there to remove a nodule that doctors found in his lung during a routine checkup. He also canceled all his audiences through October 20.
The news was reported by pauta.cl. According to La Tercera, citing the Prefecture of the Papal Household (the office that organizes the Pope's schedule), the pontiff will arrive at the hospital late in the morning. Vatican sources confirmed this to the Europa Press news agency on Monday.
Robert Prevost, the Pope's civil name, disclosed the diagnosis on Sunday after the Angelus prayer in St. Peter's Square. He told the faithful that the nodule "was detected at a very early stage and is well localized". On his Spanish-language X account, @Pontifex_es, he added that doctors consider surgery appropriate and that he decided to follow their advice.
A lung nodule is a small mass of tissue that commonly appears on imaging scans. The sources do not say what type it is or whether its nature has been diagnosed. Vatican News, the Holy See's official news outlet, described it on X as a "small and localized" nodule. It is also unknown how long he will remain in hospital.
Before the operation, the Pope kept his normal schedule on Monday. He met with the Circle of St. Peter, a charitable association in Rome that helps vulnerable people, and held six private audiences. However, he missed the afternoon session of the summit on the family being held in the Paul VI Audience Hall.
Presidents of bishops' conferences from around the world are taking part in the gathering, convened to mark ten years since Amoris laetitia, Pope Francis's document on the family. Jesuit Giacomo Costa, who coordinates the meeting's methodology, explained that the surgery requires changes to the program.
Filipino Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle will preside over Mass on Wednesday, October 14, in St. Peter's Square. Tagle is pro-prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization, the Vatican body responsible for missions, and the new dean of the College of Cardinals. Costa said that at the Mass they will pray especially for the Pope's health.
The Pope also asked that the summit's synthesis report not be published on the scheduled date. He wants to read the conclusions first and respond with his own reflections. The sources do not report a new date for that document. If there are no changes, the Pope's public schedule will resume after October 20.
