Pope Leo XIV

With Pope Leo’s recent diagnosis and extra prayers for the Holy Father added to every parish’s Prayers of the Faithful, conversations on cancer have taken center stage.

Bishops also considered the role of marriage tribunals and the need to form the consciences of those responsible for accompanying families.

Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said that during Mass, Pope Leo distributed Communion to those present and remained in “good spirits.”

Following Pope Leo XIV’s Oct. 13 diagnosis of lung cancer, OSV News spoke with several medical experts about its prevalence, likely treatments and outcomes.

On Oct. 14, the Archdiocese of Lima postponed a session of preparations for the papal trip to the Peruvian capital and instead called for a day of prayer.

The Vatican confirmed that Pope Leo had concelebrated a Mass in the hospital chapel on the 10th floor Oct. 14, the day after his surgery.

“Dear Pope Leo. We hope you feel better. We are all praying for you and the doctors that are helping you,” student Sawyer Nolot said.

Prior to his surgery, the pope requested that the meeting’s final synthesis report not be made public until he has had time to personally review it.

“I wanna see Pope Leo get well,” he said to reporters on an Arizona tarmac Oct. 14.

In the first medical update provided by the Vatican since the pope’s lung cancer diagnosis, the pope’s doctors said Oct. 14 that the pope’s “recovery is proceeding as expected.”