Vatican says pope suffers from lung cancer and has part of his right lung removed

A clergyman who saw Leo on Monday, Tokyo Cardinal Kikuchi Tsutomu, said Leo told him he felt well and decided to have surgery immediately so he would not have to change his travel plans in Latin America.

But the decision clearly came as a surprise: While Gemelli owns a specific papal apartment that past popes have used, with a private chapel on the 10th floor, Leon actually resides in a neighboring room since the papal apartment is currently under renovation, according to the Vatican press office.

The nodule was discovered during regular checks, the Vatican said.

Kikuchi, the archbishop of Tokyo who is also head of the Vatican charity Caritas Internationalis, said Leo told him he felt no different than usual and was looking forward to the trip.

“He has decided to have surgery soon so as not to change his plans for future trips abroad. So there is no need to worry, as it is not an emergency,” Kikuchi wrote on the Tokyo Archdiocese’s Facebook page.

Tuesday would be the second hospitalization for Leo, known to be athletic and in good shape, with weekly tennis and swimming matches.

As a young missionary priest, he contracted typhoid fever in 1985, shortly after arriving in Chulucanas, Peru.

The illness and hospitalization was a cathartic moment for him to decide to remain in the poverty and discomfort of Peru after living in relative comfort in Rome — a decision that ultimately paved the way for his papacy, according to an interview Leo gave to Elise Ann Allen in 2025 for “Pope Leo XIV: The Biography.”

According to the book, Leo said he prayed to God to let him die rather than suffer the “horrible” pain of the fever. “I was hooked up to an IV and I said, ‘If that’s your sense of humor, Lord, I think you could do a little better.’

“Obviously I survived, I recovered, but it turned out to be a very important moment for me, because it was like, ‘Well, you’ve already dealt with the disease; you already see what the needs are here – the order, the Augustinians, the Church are telling you: “We need you here; Go for it. » I never looked back.