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Pope Leo cleared to leave hospital after lung surgery, will lead Angelus on Sunday

Doctors said tests confirmed he was fit for discharge, four days after the operation. A day earlier he had called Vladimir Putin to ask for a ceasefire in occupied Oleshky.

From the editorial desk · RomePublished
Pope Leo XIV (file photo)
Pope Leo XIV (file photo)Photos: Congressman Michael McCaul (R-Texas) / Wikimedia Commons; Ank Kumar / Wikimedia Commons, Public domain, CC BY-SA 4.0

Key points

  1. The Vatican said Pope Leo would leave Gemelli hospital on Saturday afternoon and return to the Vatican.
  2. He is due to lead the Angelus from the papal apartment window on Sunday.
  3. On Friday he asked Putin for a local ceasefire in Oleshky so aid could get in.

Pope Leo XIV was cleared on Saturday to leave Rome’s Gemelli hospital, four days after surgery to remove part of his right lung, and will appear at his window above St Peter’s Square on Sunday.

“Following the doctors’ assessment this morning, Pope Leo XIV will be discharged today from Gemelli Hospital,” the Holy See Press Office said. “He will leave the hospital in the early afternoon and return to the Vatican.”

His doctors, Luigi Carbone and Stefano Margaritora, said blood tests and a chest X-ray taken on Saturday morning, along with his overall clinical condition, showed he was fit for discharge. He had been expected to stay until 20 October. Before leaving, he was to celebrate Mass in the chapel on the hospital’s 10th floor.

“Tomorrow, he will lead the Angelus prayer from the window of the papal apartment,” the press office added.

A call to Putin

The 71-year-old Pope, who was found to have lung adenocarcinoma during Tuesday’s operation, has been working from his hospital room. On Friday he spoke by phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The Vatican said he expressed deep concern about the humanitarian situation in Oleshky, a Russian-occupied town on the eastern bank of the Dnipro river in Ukraine’s Kherson region, and called for a local ceasefire so that aid could reach residents and civilians could be evacuated. About 2,000 people are believed to be trapped there, short of food and medicine.

Russia’s state news agency TASS said Putin “provided the pope with detailed explanations of the Kyiv regime’s responsibility”. It was the Pope’s second known call with Putin since he was elected in May 2025.

What next

The Vatican has also released the list of journalists accredited to travel with the Pope to Uruguay, Argentina and Peru next month, a sign that the trip remains on the calendar.

The documents