Pope will leave hospital, return to Vatican Saturday: Holy See

Pope Leo XIV attends the holy mass for the inauguration of the academic year of the pontifical universities at the St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican on October 8, 2026. [AFP]

Pope Leo XIV will leave the Rome hospital Saturday where he has been recovering from lung cancer surgery, the Vatican said, after doctors deemed him "fit for discharge".

Leo, 71, has been at the Gemelli hospital north of the Vatican since Tuesday, where doctors removed part of his right lung to extract a cancerous tumour.

"Considering the blood tests, the chest X-ray done this morning, and evaluating the clinical picture, the Holy Father has been deemed fit for discharge," wrote doctors Luigi Carbone and Stefano Margaritora in a note published by the Vatican.

The Vatican confirmed that "Pope Leo XIV will be discharged today from the Gemelli Polyclinic".

"He will leave the hospital in the early afternoon and return to the Vatican. Tomorrow he will recite the Angelus prayer from the window of the papal apartment," the Vatican said.

The Angelus prayer is typically given by the pope from the window of the Apostolic Palace, but in past years, former popes John Paul II and Francis similarly hospitalised at the Gemelli have delivered the prayer from the window of their hospital rooms.