Pope Leo Leaves Hospital After Lung Cancer Surgery

Pope Leo was discharged from hospital in Rome on Saturday afternoon after an operation to remove a cancerous tumour from his lung. The 71-year-old walked unaided from the building to cheers from well-wishers.

Doctors Luigi Carbone and Stefano Margaritora deemed him "fit for discharge" in a statement published by the Vatican. The statement said the decision considered blood tests, a chest X-ray taken that morning and an evaluation of the clinical picture. The Guardian

He had been in the Gemelli hospital in north-west Rome since Tuesday. Surgeons removed the lower lobe of his right lung in a 90-minute operation to extract the tumour. Reuters

The Vatican said the diagnosis was adenocarcinoma, the most common kind of lung cancer. The Guardian Doctors said his recovery was progressing normally. They are waiting for test results to determine whether the cancer has spread and if more treatment will be needed.

Leo became the first US-born leader of the Roman Catholic church in May last year. Last week, he told a crowd in St Peter's Square during the Angelus prayer that a small nodule on his lung had been detected during a check-up.

Before leaving, he celebrated Mass in his room on the 10th floor of the hospital. The Vatican said he would recite the Angelus prayer on Sunday from the window of the papal apartment. His appointments had been cancelled until 20 October, after an originally estimated week-long hospital stay.

While in hospital, he made a phone call on Friday to Vladimir Putin urging the Russian president to call a ceasefire in the Russian-occupied Ukrainian city of Oleshky. It is uncertain whether he will make an intense 12-day trip to South America planned in November. Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican's secretary of state, told reporters on Friday that Leo may need to readjust his trip schedule, at least regarding South America, depending on his health.