The Pontiff, reciting the Angelus from the balcony less than 24 hours after resigning from Gemelli, also thanked the hospital's healthcare staff. Leone made it known that he will now gradually resume his activities: "This experience made me feel in a particular way the closeness to those who are going through illness and a condition of infirmity".
The day after resigning from the Agostino Gemelli polyclinic, Pope Leo XIV recited the Angelus from the window of the Apostolic Palace in St. Peter's Square. “Thanks to those who prayed for me, I felt your support,” said the Pontiff, who appeared in good shape, and then thanked in particular the healthcare staff of the Gemelli Polyclinic. The Pope added: "This experience made me feel in a particular way the closeness to those who are going through illness and a condition of infirmity", and made it known that he will now gradually resume his activities.
Today's Angelus
"In Jesus we contemplate a God who does not fear history and instead comes to live in it. His Kingdom does not take away human roles and responsibilities. However, he asks us to live without compromise, free from bad ambitions and unjust interests, putting the Kingdom of God and his justice before everything", said the Pontiff, commenting on the Gospel passage which describes the confrontation between the Pharisees and Jesus, and the famous phrase "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God."
The return to the Vatican
Yesterday afternoon, Leone, smiling, walked out of the main entrance of the Roman hospital: "I'm much better", he said in English, greeting those waiting for him at the entrance to the Gemelli before returning to the Vatican. The Pontiff approached a patient in a wheelchair and with an IV drip, and shook hands with patients and doctors. And he dedicated a few minutes to a Ukrainian girl. Varvara, 13 years old, has been in Italy for a year to treat a tumor. She gave him a puppet that represents him, he blessed her.
The opinion of doctors
The surgeon who operated on him, Professor Stefano Margaritora, assured that the Pope will be able to make the trip to South America in November. "He was an ideal patient", he commented to the Vatican media. The doctors, Dr. Luigi Carbone and Margaritora, had issued a reassuring bulletin in the morning: "In consideration of the blood tests, the chest x-ray performed this morning and the evaluation of the clinical picture, the Holy Father was deemed fit for discharge." Ed Leone left the hospital a couple of days before the week that was originally planned, despite having removed the lower lobe of his right lung to completely eliminate the tumor, "discovered by chance", as the surgeon reports, during a routine abdominal check-up.
Healing
The Pontiff has returned to the Apostolic Palace, at home with his 'family', the two secretaries, Don Edgard Iván Rimaycuna Inga and Father Marco Billeri, and the four nuns who assist him. But no particular medical aids will be necessary. It is conceivable, for several more days, a daily visit from your personal doctor and, if necessary, from the physiotherapist. Already at the beginning of the week, probably on Tuesday, the same surgeon Margaritora could go to the Vatican for a check-up.
Upcoming commitments
Apart from today's Angelus, the first public event should be the general audience on Wednesday 21 October, which appears in the calendar of the Prefecture of the Papal Household but is to be confirmed. Then there is the trip to Assisi on the 27th but the convalescence times indicated by the medical staff, around ten days, could make this appointment difficult. Then the trip to South America (between Uruguay, Argentina and Peru). The decision is up to Leone who is very keen on it, also because he would return to his native Peru where he was, first a missionary and then a bishop, for twenty years.
