Pope Leo XIV kept the plan to visit South American countries in November this year even after undergoing surgery to remove a cancerous tumor in the lung.
On the morning of Wednesday the 14th, the trip was still on his schedule. Oncological surgeons frequently advise patients not to travel by plane for three weeks after surgery – which would give the pope enough time to carry out the planned trip from November 6 to 17 to Uruguay, Argentina and Peru. But the possibility of him going will depend on his recovery.
The current itinerary of the trip is ambitious and the longest of his pontificate to date, envisaging that Pope Leo XIV would travel a little over 31,000 kilometers (19,000 miles) in about a dozen flights and two helicopter transfers, in addition to facing a significant altitude change in Peru – where he served for decades.
Although he was born in Chicago (USA), the pontiff has held Peruvian citizenship since 2015. Leo XIV arrived in Peru in 1985 as an Augustinian missionary and carried out extensive pastoral work. He served as bishop of Chiclayo, the fourth most populous city in Peru, with 600,000 inhabitants.
During Pope Francis’s pontificate, he was named cardinal in 2023 and headed the Dicastery for Bishops and the Pontifical Commission for Latin America.
The pontiff is hospitalized at the Gemelli Polyclinic Hospital in Rome, Italy, where he underwent surgery on Tuesday, the 13th. During the procedure, which lasted about 90 minutes, doctors removed the lower lobe of the right lung to remove a cancerous mass.
According to the Vatican, the intervention confirmed the diagnosis of pulmonary adenocarcinoma, identified in preoperative tests. The surgery was completed successfully, within the time planned and as scheduled, and the pope returned to his room after the procedure.
Pope Leo XIV, 71, had revealed on Sunday the 11th that doctors had found a small nodule in his lung and recommended its removal. It is expected that he will remain hospitalized for at least a week. The pope’s audiences were canceled through October 20.
Despite the hospitalization, Leo XIV remains fully in his duties as pope. Vatican norms provide procedures for the transfer of power in case of death or resignation of the pope, but do not establish a similar mechanism for situations of illness or loss of consciousness. Thus, even during the surgery, the leadership of the Catholic Church remained with the pope.
