His doctors consider him fit for discharge following this morning’s tests, on the eve of Sunday’s Angelus and with the trip to South America on the horizon.
The medical report authorizing discharge
According to the Pontiff’s doctors’ statement, the decision was made “based on the blood tests and chest X-ray performed this morning and after evaluating his clinical condition,” so that the Holy Father “has been deemed fit for discharge.”
The CNN network also confirmed that the Pope will leave the hospital during the day. With the information available, the Holy See has not specified the time of departure or where he will complete his convalescence.
The discharge comes earlier than announced. Vatican spokesperson Matteo Bruni had anticipated a stay of about a week after the operation, and public audiences remained suspended until Tuesday, October 20.
In recent hours, rumors had circulated about a discharge this Saturday, without confirmation from the Holy See until today’s report.
From the nodule to the adenocarcinoma
Leo XIV, 71, announced after the Angelus on Sunday, October 11, that a routine examination had detected a pulmonary nodule at a very early stage. He was admitted to the Gemelli on Tuesday the 13th and underwent surgery that same afternoon by the thoracic surgery team led by Professor Stefano Margaritora.
According to the report signed by Dr. Luigi Carbone and by Margaritora himself, the surgeons removed the lower lobe of his right lung. Tissue analysis confirmed pulmonary adenocarcinoma, a diagnosis already suspected from previous tests.
His recovery has been favorable from the first day. The Pope began walking, eating normally, and receiving respiratory physiotherapy, and on Wednesday afternoon he concelebrated Mass in a room prepared for that purpose on the hospital’s tenth floor.
On Thursday he resumed work with a visit from the Substitute for General Affairs of the Secretariat of State, Monsignor Paolo Rudelli.
On Friday he presided over a Mass for healthcare personnel in which he distributed Communion and thanked doctors, nurses, and aides for their daily care of the sick in their frailty; in the afternoon he received Cardinals Luis Antonio Tagle and Baldo Reina, Vicar General of Rome.
The Angelus and the trip to South America
The Holy See had confirmed the Angelus for Sunday, October 18, without specifying whether the Pope would lead it from the hospital or in another format.
Vatican media confirm that tomorrow he will pray the Angelus from the window of the papal apartments.
The apostolic trip to Uruguay, Argentina, and Peru, scheduled for November 6–17, remains on the horizon for now.
Beyond the good postoperative progress, the Holy See has not reported whether the diagnosis will require any complementary treatment or the planned oncological follow-up—details that will shape the agenda of a pontificate that is barely a year and a half old.