by Courtney Mares, OSV News
VATICAN CITY (OSV News) — One week after Pope Leo XIV first revealed to the world that he would be undergoing lung surgery, the pope returned to the window of the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace Oct. 18, thanking Catholics worldwide for their prayers five days after undergoing lung cancer surgery.
“I would like to thank all those who have prayed for me in recent days. I have truly sensed your support,” the pope said after leading the crowd in St. Peter’s Square in the prayer of the Angelus.
“This experience has made me feel particularly close to all those who are living with illness or infirmity. Now that I have overcome this delicate phase, as you know, I will gradually resume my activities, always with God’s help and your prayers,” he added.
The pope said he was especially grateful to all of the doctors, nurses, and staff at Rome’s Gemelli Hospital, where he underwent lung cancer surgery on Oct. 13 to remove the lower lobe of the right lung.
It was Pope Leo’s first public appearance since he was discharged from Rome’s Gemelli Hospital the day prior after his doctors deemed him fit to return to the Vatican earlier than had been originally expected.
Thousands of people in St. Peter’s Square on the cloudy Sunday cheered loudly when the pope waved from the window of his papal apartment less than 24 hours after his hospital discharge.
Emotional pilgrims welcoming Pope Leo back to the Vatican
For Ylenia Casati, a 32-year-old woman from Siena, Italy, the experience was very moving.
“It was emotional. I almost started crying because it was so wonderful to see him again,” Casati told OSV News.
“Today was the first Angelus right after his hospitalization, and I wanted and needed to see him, and to be reassured by hearing him and seeing that he was doing well.”
Her friend, Ilaria Beatrice, 31, from Prato, Italy, described St. Peter’s Square as “full of passion, full of love, of excitement.”
“To feel like part of such a close-knit community of believers, it’s wonderful,” she said. “To turn around and see people clapping, crying, and cheering — it gives you so much strength.”
The Oct. 17 announcement of the pope’s imminent discharge from the hospital the day prior came earlier than previously expected, as the Holy See Press Office had originally indicated that the pope would remain in the hospital for about a week following his Oct. 13 admission to Gemelli on the day of his surgery.
Pope’s surgeon praised Pope Leo as an ‘ideal’ patient, said pope can go to South America
Dr. Stefano Margaritora, the lead surgeon for Pope Leo’s 90-minute lung cancer operation on Oct. 13, said in an interview with Vatican News on the day of his hospital discharge that he saw no clinical reason to cancel the pope’s planned trip to South America.
“As for a long trip involving air travel in about three weeks, I would say there are no clinical reasons why it should not take place,” Margaritora said, indicating that he believed from a medical standpoint that Pope Leo could be ready to undertake the demanding visit to Latin America scheduled for Nov. 6-17.
“At the time of his discharge from the hospital, Pope Leo was in entirely satisfactory clinical condition,” the surgeon said. “The lung’s re-expansion after surgery is proceeding according to the usual timetable.”
The surgeon estimated that it usually takes “a couple of weeks to make a truly complete physical recovery after this kind of operation.”
“Since almost a week has already passed, I believe the pope could be fully recovered in another ten days or so,” he said.
Margaritora, who is the chief thoracic surgeon at Gemelli Hospital, described Pope Leo as “an ideal patient.”
“He was always serene, always smiling, and rarely complained, despite the pain a person inevitably feels, even with all the measures we take,” he said.
The doctor also shared a story of how Pope Leo offered a helping hand moving chairs in the chapel so that he could celebrate Mass two days after his cancer surgery.
“On the second day after the operation, we turned around and found him arranging the chairs in the chapel himself. We said, ‘Holy Father, we can do that.’ And he replied, ‘It doesn’t matter. I can do it, so I will.’ What can I say? He really was an absolutely ideal patient,” Margaritora said.
Pope Leo celebrating the centenary of World Mission Sunday
In his Angelus address, the pope marked the 100th anniversary of World Mission Sunday.
“Let us think of how much missionary history has unfolded over these 100 years,” Pope Leo said. “Let us pray that the Church may always remain faithful to the mandate of the Risen Lord: ‘Go into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation.'”
Before praying the Marian prayer of the Angelus in Latin with the crowd, Pope Leo reflected on Sunday’s Gospel in which St. Matthew records Jesus as saying, “Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.”
Pope Leo said, “In Jesus, we contemplate a God who is not afraid of history but comes instead to dwell within it. His Kingdom does not abolish human roles and responsibilities. It does, however, call us to live without compromise, free from selfish ambitions and unjust motives, seeking above all the Kingdom of God and his righteousness.”
The pope described Jesus’ teaching to render unto Caesar as a command “to be truthful, free from servile fear or hypocrisy, (and) free to do good.”
“Let us pray to the Lord to help us live in this way. And let us entrust ourselves to the intercession of the Virgin Mary,” he said.
