The Pope continues his postoperative period with "normality." This is what is known from the latest official statement from the Holy See, which reports that the Pontiff, after his second night at the Gemelli Hospital in Rome, is carrying out his daily activities "autonomously." Throughout today's day Robert Prevost has carried out new routine checks, the results of which are "within normality". The physical response of the Holy Father is positive, based on the fact that in the physiotherapy sessions Leo XIV is performing "complete motor activities."
After having undergone surgery due to lung adenocarcinoma - one of the most common lung cancers - which finally led to the removal of the right lower lobe through minimally invasive surgery; His latest chest x-ray revealed "the good recovery of the operated lung", as reported by the Vatican, citing the assessments of the Pope's doctor, Luigi Carbone, and the surgeon responsible for his operation, Stefano Margaritora. Prevost has been walking, eating, moving and concelebrating Mass regularly for two days in a row; while the Catholic Church continues to govern. Just yesterday, in fact, he appointed an Italian bishop to the diocese of Ponta de Pedras, in Brazil. Based on the information shared by the Holy See, the Pontiff is in "good humor."
"It was known for three weeks"
According to information from the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, Robert Prevost's lung adenocarcinoma had been known for three weeks, starting "after mid-September, around Leo XIV's birthday, on the 14th"; The well-known transalpine newspaper explained yesterday. The discovery of the cancerous tissue present in the lung would have been the result of what is known in medical nomenclature as an incidentaloma, that is, a tumor detected by chance, in this case, after "a control MRI in the abdomen."
The succession of events has been relatively rapid taking into account that, if it were true that the lung adenocarcinoma would have been detected around mid-September; given that between the 25th and 28th of last September the Pontiff made his first apostolic trip to France -Paris, Lourdes and Metz- and that a few days before the Holy See had published the official program of Leo XIV's next trip to Latin America -Uruguay, Argentina and Peru-; trip, which for the moment, the Vatican continues to keep on the Pontiff's calendar.
According to the reconstructions of the events prepared by La Repubblica, the Pope would have traveled to France "without being certain" about the possible tumor, so that it would be at "the end of September" when Prevost would have carried out the first diagnostic checks. The definitive medical test, according to the transalpine newspaper, was performed last Saturday through a "robotic bronchoscopy with biopsy"; just before the Pontiff himself announced, personally and appearing from the Apostolic Palace in San Pedro during the Sunday Angelus, that he was going to undergo surgery due to a "lung nodule" in the "initial phase."
Recovery schedule
Like the last three weeks, the next three will also mark the Pontiff's recovery schedule. Throughout the current week-long post-operative phase for Robert Prevost, which will end next Tuesday; The tests will determine if you are recovering normally, if therapy will be necessary and, if so, what. Experts advise that, even in the best of cases, a standard recovery ranges between three and four weeks. This would conflict with the next apostolic trip of Leo XIV to Latin America, scheduled for exactly three weeks from now, between November 6 and 17. The Holy See has not canceled possibly to wait for the end of the post-operative period and the beginning of home convalescence in the Vatican, scheduled a priori for Tuesday of next week.
The size of the trip to Uruguay, Argentina and Peru is considerable, taking into account that it will be a 12-day trip with subsequent plane trips and even a visit to the Peruvian town of Cuzco, at more than 3,400 meters above sea level. All of this, when precisely one of the elements to take into account is what Prevost's respiratory capacity will ultimately be after the removal of the right lower lobe. Three weeks could be sufficient for an acceptable medical recovery for the resumption, full or adapted, of Leo XIV's Vatican agenda. But the logistical dimension of the Pontiff's first trip to America still invites us to opt for prudence at the calendar level.
