Pope Leo XIV left the hospital on Saturday to return to the Vatican, five days after his lung cancer surgery.
The 71-year-old leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics came out to cheers and applause from well-wishers outside the hospital.
He had been at the Gemelli hospital in Rome since Tuesday when doctors removed part of his right lung to extract a cancerous tumour.
“Considering the blood tests, the chest X-ray done this morning, and evaluating the clinical picture, the Holy Father has been deemed fit for discharge,” doctors Luigi Carbone and Stefano Margaritora wrote in a note published by the Vatican.
The Vatican had said that Pope Leo “will recite the Angelus prayer from the window of the papal apartment”.
The Angelus prayer is typically given by the pope from the Apostolic Palace overlooking St Peter’s Square.
But in past years, former popes John Paul II and Francis, similarly hospitalised at the Gemelli, have delivered the prayer from the window of their hospital rooms.
The Vatican press office said that Leo celebrated Mass on Saturday, as he has in recent days, in a room on the 10th floor of the hospital where he has been recovering.
Outside the hospital, 12-year-old Ukrainian Varvara Struck said she was rooting for the pope.
The former cancer patient said she had met the pope last year in Rome, “and he blessed me for a successful treatment.”
“With his support, I’ve now overcome my illness, and I want to give him my positive energy so that he, too, can overcome his illness as quickly as possible,” she said.
Up In Air
News that the otherwise active pope had a cancerous tumour removed from his lung has rattled the Vatican and the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics.
But his doctors have said Leo’s recovery has been progressing normally as they await the results of tests that will determine the course of action to take.
Leo has resumed some work, making a call on Friday to Russian President Vladimir Putin to urge a ceasefire in the Russian-occupied Ukrainian city of Oleshky.
Up in the air, however, is a planned papal voyage to South America, scheduled for November 6-17 to visit Uruguay, Argentina and Peru.
Vatican watchers say that Leo — who spent two decades as a missionary in Peru — is anxious to make the long journey, but will likely follow the recommendations of his doctors.
Leo has cancelled all his audiences until October 20.
The pope announced to the public in St Peter’s Square last Sunday, following the Angelus prayer, that a routine medical examination had revealed a nodule that doctors recommended should be removed.
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