From His Hospital Room, Pope Leo Says Mass and Calls Putin About a Besieged Ukrainian Town
Recovering from lung cancer surgery, Pope Leo XIV celebrated Mass for hospital staff Friday and urged Putin to allow a ceasefire in Oleshky.
Three days after surgeons removed part of his lung and confirmed he has cancer, Pope Leo XIV was saying Mass in a hospital room, thanking the nurses and phoning Vladimir Putin about a besieged Ukrainian town. Whatever one thinks of the papacy, that is a man doing his work while he can.
What the doctors said
Leo underwent thoracic surgery at Rome's Gemelli Hospital on Tuesday, Oct. 13, as Dock Line reported that week. Surgeons removed the lower lobe of his right lung using a video-assisted technique, according to a statement from his doctors released by the Holy See Press Office. "An intraoperative histological examination confirmed the diagnosis of lung adenocarcinoma, as suspected from the preoperative examinations," the doctors said.
He was in the operating room for about three hours, and the operation itself took about 90 minutes. Doctors said it was successful with no complications. Afterward, he asked for dinner and spent the evening with his secretaries and Vatican staff, Vatican News reported. Further tests are being done on the removed tissue.
On Friday, his doctors, Dr. Luigi Carbone and Professor Stefano Margaritora, said blood tests and a chest X-ray "confirmed the steady improvement in his overall condition," Vatican News reported. His recovery "allows him to carry out normal daily activities entirely independently," they said, and respiratory physiotherapy continues. The Vatican says the Sunday Angelus "will take place."
The diagnosis shocked the Catholic world. The Washington Post reported that top cardinals close to the 71-year-old, Chicago-born pontiff signaled their surprise and wondered whether his demanding pace may change. The Vatican has cleared his schedule through Oct. 20.
Working from a hospital bed
On Friday, his fourth day in the hospital, Leo celebrated Mass at noon in a room set up on the hospital's 10th floor and distributed Communion to members of the medical staff and Vatican gendarmes. In his homily, the Holy See Press Office said, he thanked "all the staff—doctors, nurses, and orderlies—for the work they do every day caring for patients in their frailty."
That afternoon he spoke by phone with Putin. According to the Vatican, he expressed "deep concern about the grave humanitarian situation in the city of Oleshky, in the Kherson region," and called for a ceasefire so food and medicine could get in and civilians could leave safely, Vatican News reported. A Russian readout said Putin wished him "a swift recovery," according to the Post.
A word to Protestant readers
Many of our readers are evangelical Protestants who hold real and serious disagreements with Rome over the authority of Scripture, the nature of salvation and the office of the papacy itself. Those differences matter, and pretending otherwise helps no one.
But a man with cancer is a man with cancer. Scripture does not tell us to pray only for those we agree with. "I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; for kings, and for all that are in authority" (1 Timothy 2:1-2). Leo leads the world's largest church and has a voice heard by presidents. He is also an American from Chicago who just learned what millions of families learn in a doctor's office every year.
Catholics and evangelicals have found common ground before. Just this week, leaders from both traditions spoke with one voice on immigration. Praying for a sick man ought to be easier than that.
Numbering our days
There is a lesson here for every believer. Popes, presidents and pastors are all made of dust. "So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom" (Psalm 90:12). No office, however high, protects a man from a diagnosis.
What Leo did on Friday is a fair picture of how a Christian ought to face illness. He gave thanks for those caring for him. He kept worshiping. He kept working for the good of people he will likely never meet. The apostle Paul wrote from prison and from sickness alike, "For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain" (Philippians 1:21).
Pray for his full recovery, for wisdom for his doctors and for every family who heard the word "cancer" this week. The same God hears them all.
Hero photo: Alvesgaspar / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped and resized.
