Pope Leo sticks to busy schedule before surgery to remove lung nodule

Pope Leowas maintaining his ‌regular ​busy schedule on Monday as he awaits surgery to remove a small growth found on one of his lungs ‌and he held seven previously planned meetings in the morning, the Vatican said. Leo, 71, said on Sunday that the growth, a small nodule, had been found on a recent check-up, was "well-contained" ‌and had been spotted early. He added he would undergo surgery this week.

The ‌nodule was found during a routine health check, the Vatican press office told journalists on Monday. The usual advisory on the pope's daily schedule, issued at noon (1000 GMT), said he met that morning with visiting ⁠bishops from ​Argentina, Nicaragua and ⁠the United States, among others.

Leo, elected pope by the world's cardinals in May 2025, is relatively young ⁠for a Church leader. He enjoys sports, including tennis, and is not known to be a ​smoker or to previously have had health issues. The Vatican has not said what ⁠day the surgery will take place, but said the pope's recovery is expected to take about a week.

Leo, ⁠the ​leader of the 1.4-billion-member Church, has several public appointments on his calendar for this week, including a Mass in St. Peter's Square on Wednesday morning. Wednesday's Mass has ⁠not been canceled, as of Monday morning.

A nodule on the lung is a small, localised ⁠lesion that can be ⁠benign. The American Thoracic Society says fewer than 5% of lung nodules overall prove cancerous, although risk rises with age, size, and ‌other factors ‌such as smoking.