Pope Leo to be hospitalised on Tuesday ahead of surgery, Vatican says

Pope Leo will be admitted to hospital ​on Tuesday ahead of surgery ‌to ​remove a small growth found on one of his lungs, the Vatican said, as the pontiff kept up a busy schedule on Monday, ‌holding seven previously planned meetings in the morning. 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.

The nodule was found during ‌a routine health check, the Vatican press office told journalists earlier on Monday, before confirming that the ‌pope is expected to be hospitalised on late Tuesday morning, ahead of his surgery. It did not say when the actual operation would take place.

The regular advisory on the pope's daily schedule, issued at noon (1000 GMT) on Monday, 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 said the pope's recovery is expected to ⁠take about a week. Leo, the leader of the 1.4-billion-member Church, had several public appointments on his calendar for this week, including ⁠a ​Mass in St. Peter's Square on Wednesday morning.

The Vatican has not said if the Mass, the closing event of a week-long assembly of bishops, will still be held. While the pope ⁠is going to hospital on Tuesday, it could still be led by a Vatican cardinal. 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.