The Vatican has released the first photographs of Pope Leo XIV since surgeons removed the lower lobe of his right lung on 13 October, showing the pontiff celebrating Mass in a chapel set up on the tenth floor of Rome’s Gemelli hospital. The first images amounted to an announcement watched live around the world, and arrived alongside a medical update confirming that his recovery continues to improve.
Blood tests and a chest X-ray carried out on Friday “confirmed the constant improvement in his general condition”, according to a joint statement from his personal physician Dr Luigi Carbone and chief surgeon Prof Stefano Margaritora. The doctors said respiratory physiotherapy is continuing and his recovery allows him to carry out normal daily activities completely independently. Tissue analysis during the operation confirmed adenocarcinoma, the most common type of lung cancer, as recorded in the Vatican’s published medical update.
A Mass of thanks for the medical staff
At noon, the Pope presided over Mass himself and distributed Communion to those present, among them off-duty medical and nursing staff and members of the Vatican Gendarmerie Corps. In his homily he thanked the doctors, nurses and orderlies “for the work they do every day caring for the sick in their fragility, and in a particular way what they had done for him”. His words carried a message of faith in a time of trial, given extra weight by the hospital setting.
Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said the Pope would deliver the traditional Sunday Angelus, though it was unclear whether from the hospital or the Vatican. The Pope also received Cardinals Luis Antonio Tagle and Baldassare Reina in separate afternoon visits. The Vatican had estimated a week-long stay and cancelled his audiences through Tuesday; Bruni cautioned against expecting an immediate discharge, saying the doctors alone would decide.
Speaking on world hunger from his hospital bed
The illness has not silenced the Pope’s public voice. In a message to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization marking World Food Day on Friday, he warned against using food as a weapon of war and urged governments to redirect military spending towards sustainable agriculture — access to safe, sufficient food, he said, was “an obligation of justice” binding states and the international community alike.
The speed of his return to public duties, four days after major lung surgery, carries a message of continuity for the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics at a moment of geopolitical strain. The images from Gemelli suggest a pontificate that intends to keep working through its first great health test.
