ROME – Pope Leo XIV greeted a crowd as he left a Rome hospital and returned to the Vatican on Saturday afternoon, four days after undergoing lung cancer surgery, Vatican officials said. Leo’s departure, after a surgery described as successful by his doctors, in which a malignant nodule and part of his right lung were removed, comes after post-operative blood tests and chest X-rays taken on Saturday morning indicated he was fit to be discharged, officials added. In what was the first public sighting of the Pope since his admission, he walked confidently, smiled and exchanged a few words with supporters as he left the hospital in front of a cheering crowd.
