India, Oct. 14 -- When Pope Leo XIV stood at the window of the Apostolic Palace on Sunday and told the thousands of faithful gathered in St Peter's Square that doctors had found a nodule in his lung "at a very early stage," the calm with which he delivered the news was itself reassuring to those who heard it.

Two days later, the reassurance was qualified by a harder truth.

Pope Leo XIV underwent surgery on Tuesday to remove the lower lobe of his right lung, and doctors confirmed a diagnosis of lung adenocarcinoma, the Vatican announced Tuesday evening. The operation lasted 90 minutes and Leo spent approximately three hours in the operating room at the Agostino Gemelli University Hospital in Rome. "Following the operation, the Pope woke ...