Pope Leo to enter hospital on Tuesday for surgery on lung nodule

VATICAN CITY, Oct 13 — Pope Leo was due to be hospitalised in Rome on ​Tuesday ahead of surgery to remove a small growth on one of his lungs, in the first major health issue of his 17-month tenure.

Leo, ‌71, said on Sunday that a small nodule had been found on a check-up, was "well-contained" and had ⁠been spotted early.

He was expected to ​leave the Vatican for Rome's Gemelli hospital ⁠late morning, the Vatican press office said, without specifying when the actual operation ‌would take place.

Leo, ‌elected by the world's cardinals in May 2025, is relatively young for ⁠a Church leader. He enjoys sports, including ⁠tennis, and is not known to be a smoker or to have had health issues previously.

The Vatican has said his recovery is expected to take about a week. All his public events have been cancelled until October 20.

A nodule on the lung is a small, localised lesion that can be ‌benign. The American Thoracic Society says fewer than 5% ​of lung nodules overall prove cancerous, although risk rises with age, size, and other factors such as smoking.

Dr. Federico Venuto, chief of thoracic surgery at Rome's Policlinico Umberto I hospital, said procedures to remove lung nodules are usually minimally invasive, and can sometimes involve use of a thin camera tube called a thoracoscope.

"The complication rate is extremely low," he told Reuters.

The late Pope ​Francis, Leo's predecessor, died at age 88 in April 2025 and was hospitalised several times ‌as he grew ‌frail in ⁠his later years.

Leo, who spoke in a firm, clear voice at his only public event on Monday, keeps a very busy schedule. He is due to make an 11-day tour of Uruguay, Argentina and Peru from November 6 to 17.

In the ‌same address on Sunday when ​the pope announced his need for surgery, ‌Leo pledged he would ⁠go forward with ​the trip.

(Reporting by Joshua McElwee, Additional reporting by Cristiano Corvino and Clara Schoenthaler, Editing by ​Andrew Cawthorne)

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