Pope Leo to be hospitalized Tuesday for surgery to remove a lung nodule

Pope Leo XIV will be admitted to a hospital Tuesday morning to undergo surgery to remove a lung nodule discovered during recent medical tests, the Vatican said Monday.

The timing of the procedure was confirmed after the 71-year-old American pontiff had a full day of meetings, audiences and appointments.

The Vatican press office also said no particular issue precipitated the tests, denying Italian media reports suggesting an inflammation had prompted the medical checkup.

Leo revealed the discovery during his Sunday noon prayer and said he was following doctors’ advice to remove the nodule “in the coming days.” The Vatican predicted a weeklong recovery.

It was business as usual at the Vatican on Monday, with Leo presiding over six private audiences, including with the head of the U.S. military chaplains, Archbishop Timothy Broglio, and one group audience. He also made three appointments, and the Vatican released a letter he had penned to the outgoing dean of the College of Cardinals.

In the afternoon, he was expected to rejoin a weeklong conference he convened on ministering to families.

Leo’s surgery marks the first major health event of his 17-month pontificate. It was significant because the pope himself revealed the news, in perhaps the most public way possible: at the end of his Sunday noon blessing, with thousands of people in St. Peter’s Square.

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The Vatican has for centuries zealously guarded the pope’s health and has often sent out confusing information, or none at all, about papal illnesses. Pope Francis tried to change that by being upfront about his frailties and musing on his eventual death. But even during his pontificate, information was tightly controlled.

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Leo’s decision and reveal suggested an unusual level of transparency by the American pope.

A lung nodule is a small abnormal area measuring less than 3 centimeters that sometimes appears on a CT scan of the chest or abdomen. Often, the scans are done to investigate trauma or a lung infection, unrelated to a lung cancer screening. A nodule can be benign or malignant, and oftentimes surgical removal is recommended to ascertain whether it is cancerous since performing a lung biopsy by needle can be difficult.

Oncologists say that if the nodule turns out to be cancerous, Leo’s prognosis is “excellent” since it will have been removed at an early stage.