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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/thedialog.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/14120707\/20261014T1040-POPE-LEO-CANCER-INTL-REAX-1828326-scaled.jpg\" "\\"GEMELLI")
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<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\nROME \u2014 Church and world leaders offered prayers and wishes for a speedy recovery to Pope Leo XIV following the Vatican\u2019s announcement that he was diagnosed with lung cancer after undergoing surgery to remove part of his right lung.<\/p>\n
Following the Oct. 13 announcement that the operation was successful, Dr. Stefano Margaritora, chief thoracic surgeon at Rome\u2019s Gemelli Hospital, and Dr. Luigi Carbone, said in a joint statement that the \u201cexamination confirmed the diagnosis of lung adenocarcinoma, as suspected by the preoperative tests.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n The pope is expected to remain in recovery at Rome\u2019s Gemelli Hospital for one week. According to Vatican News, doctors will conduct post-operation tests on the removed tissue in the coming days.<\/p>\n In Rome, concern for the pope\u2019s health was the number one topic from pontifical university classrooms to curial offices and the \u201cAmoris Laetitia\u201d meeting hall.<\/p>\n For Cameroonian Archbishop Andrew Nkea of Bamenda, who was in Rome for the Oct. 7-14 gathering marking the 10th anniversary of \u201cAmoris Laetitia,\u201d the diagnosis was very surprising.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a very surprising announcement (for) me in particular, because in April, the pope had been to my country, to my diocese and to my house,\u201d Archbishop Nkea told OSV News, recalling the pope\u2019s visit to Cameroon during a four-nation apostolic visit to Africa in April.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was looking in very good form,\u201d the archbishop said.<\/p>\n Nevertheless, he added, \u201cWe thank God that it was an early discovery. So, we are hoping that he will recover very fast, and he will get back to his duties because the whole world is waiting for him to get well.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite the pope\u2019s absence on the meeting\u2019s final days, Archbishop Nkea told OSV News those present in the assembly \u201cwere not discouraged, but we were very, very strongly united with him in prayer.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAnd every morning before we started the meeting, we prayed for his health and for his quick recovery,\u201d he said. \u201cIt really didn\u2019t affect the meeting in the sense that it didn\u2019t kill our spirits, because we have hope in God and trust in his healing power. But at the same time, we missed him in the meeting.\u201d<\/p>\n Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig M\u00fcller, who led the then-Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith from 2012 to 2017, in a conversation with OSV News Oct. 14, acknowledged the shock many felt at Pope Leo\u2019s diagnosis so early in his pontificate.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are remembering John Paul II; in his last years he suffered. But now Pope Leo, nobody thought, was prepared for the suffering of these (health problems), with cancer in the first year,\u201d the German cardinal said.<\/p>\n While the pope\u2019s office does not spare him from human suffering, Cardinal M\u00fcller noted that it does position him to be an example of leading in adversity. \u201cThe Holy Father is the first representative of Jesus Christ, the Vicar of Christ, and the successor of Saint Peter,\u201d he told OSV News.<\/p>\n \u201cTherefore, he is also for us an example, and he wants to be an example, to give us a good example in suffering, but also in the hope in Jesus Christ and this life on earth, and also for eternal life,\u201d the cardinal added.<\/p>\n Speaking with OSV News Oct. 14, Dominican Father Thomas Joseph White, rector of Rome\u2019s Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, said that while the news of Pope Leo\u2019s surgery and cancer diagnosis had left many \u201cconcerned and saddened,\u201d it also serves as a reminder of \u201cthe Christian meaning of suffering.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cEven though it\u2019s objectively a bad thing \u2014 I mean, it\u2019s a grave thing to suffer \u2014 there\u2019s the Christian hope to live suffering constructively,\u201d Father White told OSV News. \u201cAnd so, you think about the pope doing that, and you pray for him.\u201d<\/p>\n Father White recalled the witness given by previous pontiffs who navigated debilitating illnesses in the public eye.<\/p>\n He noted that ministerial priests, especially the Roman Pontiffs, are called \u201cto be conformed to Christ and to pray for others, to offer himself in Christ with the grace of Christ for others.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI think actually of John XXIII, who did die of cancer and would actually publish, I think on a weekly basis, the intentions that he was praying for and how he was offering his suffering for the faithful and for various intentions, which is, I think, a saintly example,\u201d Father White said.<\/p>\n Father White also noted the \u201csaintly example\u201d of St. John Paul II\u2019s battle with Parkinson\u2019s and said both pontiffs\u2019 examples were \u201cmeant to speak to all of us as Christians and just human beings about the constructive living of suffering, despite its objectively bad character, to make something constructive of it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/a>A meaning to suffering<\/h3>\n