OSV News
Two weeks after surgery for lung cancer, Pope Leo XIV has been cleared by doctors to proceed with his planned Nov. 6-17 trip to South America, the longest and most demanding journey of his pontificate so far.
In a statement released Oct. 26, papal physician Dr. Luigi Carbone said there are no medical concerns that would prevent the pope from traveling to Uruguay, Argentina and Peru as scheduled. The Vatican said the pope’s recovery is progressing well and that he has gradually resumed his responsibilities while balancing work with appropriate periods of rest.
“The Holy Father looks forward with great joy and enthusiasm to this journey,” the statement said.
Pope Leo added: “I am looking forward to returning to the continent where I’ve experienced so many moments of my life.”
Msgr. Guillermo Inca Pereda, coordinator of the papal visit in Peru, said a Vatican advance team arrived Oct. 26 for final planning. Despite speculation that the high-altitude stop in Cusco might be dropped following the pope’s surgery, he said, “Nothing is ruled out.”
The trip will cover more than 19,000 miles on 14 flights, with Pope Leo celebrating nine public Masses and ending the journey in Chiclayo, Peru, where he served as bishop from 2015 to 2023.
Doctors had confirmed in an Oct. 21 message Pope Leo XIV needs “no further treatment” following his Oct. 13 surgery for lung cancer.
The Holy See Press Office announced that Carbone and Dr. Stefano Margaritora said “the final histological examinations and molecular biology tests on the material removed” during the surgery confirmed the tumor was a “localized lung adenocarcinoma.”
The doctors said that “subsequent oncological evaluation confirmed that no further treatment is necessary.”
The Vatican has not disclosed whether Pope Leo received any presurgical, or “neoadjuvant,” cancer treatment before entering Rome’s Gemelli Hospital Oct. 13 and undergoing a 90-minute surgery that same day.
Following the video-assisted surgery — which saw the removal of the lower lobe of the pope’s right lung — Carbone and Margaritora, chief thoracic surgeon at Gemelli, “confirmed the diagnosis of lung adenocarcinoma, as suspected by the preoperative tests.”
Though Pope Leo has been cleared to embark on his South American trip next month, he had to cancel his Oct. 27 visit to Assisi, where he was to mark the 40th anniversary of St. John Paul II’s World Day of Prayer for Peace.
Pope Leo was scheduled to attend the closing day of the Oct. 25-27 interreligious gathering, titled “Disarmed and Disarming Peace,” a theme inspired by the pope’s own words.
During the visit, the pope was slated to join Christian leaders in the Lower Basilica of St. Francis for a prayer service alongside Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople.
In an Oct. 23 message published by the Vatican press office, Carbone and Margaritora said a chest X-ray confirmed the pope’s “excellent post-operative progress.”
“However, given the short time that has passed since the operation, the attending physicians have deemed it appropriate to advise against, as a precautionary measure, the planned helicopter trip on Oct. 27th,” the statement read.