Doctors say pontiff is ‘fit for discharge’ after operation to remove cancerous tumour from his lung
Pope Leo has been discharged from hospital in Rome after undergoing an operation to remove a cancerous tumour from his lung.
Leo, 71, was deemed “fit for discharge”, his doctors, Luigi Carbone and Stefano Margaritora, said in a statement published by the Vatican.
Continue reading...Pontiff has begun walking in his hospital room and is eating normally after operation to remove growth, doctors say
Pope Leo’s recovery from a lung cancer operation is progressing as planned, his doctors have said, as the pontiff received good wishes from around the world, including from Britain’s King Charles.
Leo, who had a cancerous mass removed from his right lung late on Tuesday, began walking in his hospital room after respiratory therapy on Wednesday. He was eating normally, his doctors Luigi Carbone and Stefano Margaritoria said in a statement issued by the Vatican.
Continue reading...Vatican says pontiff had lower lobe of right lung removed in ‘successful, on schedule and as planned’ operation in Rome
Pope Leo has lung cancer, the Vatican said late on Tuesday.
Leo, 71, underwent an operation and had the lower lobe of his right lung removed, with tests confirming a diagnosis of lung adenocarcinoma, the Vatican said in a medical bulletin, which followed an earlier statement saying the pope’s operation had concluded “successfully, on schedule and as planned”.
Continue reading...Pontiff says it was detected at an early stage and procedure will take place in the coming days
Pope Leo XIV has said he will undergo surgery in the coming days to remove a nodular lesion on his lung that was recently discovered during medical checks.
The 71-year-old said the nodule was found at an early stage and was “circumscribed” or well localised. The Vatican later said Leo would undergo surgery in the first days of this week, with an expected recovery time of a week.
Continue reading...First US memorial for suicide victims dedicated by Chicago archdiocese earlier this year at Queen of Heaven cemetery
The Chicago archdiocese has recognized the Rev Charles Rubey’s work supporting families whose loved ones died by suicide this year by dedicating in his honor a memorial to the lives lost to suicide and the victims’ surviving families.
In 1979 Rubey founded the Loving Outreach to Survivors of Suicide, a counseling and support program run by Catholic Charities of the archdiocese of Chicago.
Continue reading...Pontiff also uses visit to Catholic shrine at Lourdes to criticise assisted dying as ‘false compassion’
The pope has called on the Catholic church to heal “deep wounds” and “painful errors”, before a meeting with survivors of child sexual abuse as he continues his four-day visit to France.
Addressing a crowd in a large field near the Catholic shrine of Lourdes on Sunday, Pope Leo XIV called on the church to reckon with its past, without directly referencing sexual abuse scandals in France that affected at least 330,000 children over seven decades.
Continue reading...Crowds line Place de la Concorde on second day of pontiff’s first official papal visit to France in 18 years
Hundreds of thousands of people lined the Avenue des Champs-Élysées in Paris on Saturday to attend an open-air mass with Pope Leo, on the second day of his visit to France.
The Vatican estimated 700,000 people turned out for the outdoor mass with the 71-year-old American pope – about 100,000 more than the number of people who had registered to attend.
Continue reading...Pontiff says artificial intelligence must remain at service of people in first official papal visit to country in 18 years
Pope Leo has warned against losing humanity in a “paradise of machines” as he addressed global concerns over the dangers of artificial intelligence at the start of a three-day visit to France.
“If we are to avoid losing our humanity amid a paradise of machines invading and conditioning our daily lives, there is an urgent need for people to be educated in ethical discernment, capable of seeing what is morally right,” he said in a speech at the Élysée.
Continue reading...Pope Leo urges Americans to live up to ideals of Declaration of Independence in first key address to US
Pope Leo has used his first key address to his home country to praise the US history of welcoming migrants, urging Americans to live up to the ideals put forward in the Declaration of Independence.
In his latest implicit rebuke to Donald Trump, the first US leader of the Roman Catholic church said the word “America” had become a “byword for freedom” across the world because of the way the country welcomed migrants.
Continue reading...As completion of 144-year basilica nears, questions swirl over resemblance of church to architect’s original plans
It has been a long wait but 144 years after work began, Pope Leo XIV has blessed the recently completed central tower of Antoni Gaudí’s Sagrada Família church in the presence of members of the Spanish royal family, the prime minister and hundreds of bishops.
With the completion of the Jesus Christ tower, the tallest of 18 in the temple, the basilica has reached its full height of 172.5 metres. It is now not only the world’s tallest church but Barcelona’s tallest building. It was consecrated in 2010 by Pope Benedict XVI.
Continue reading...Pontiff appeals in Catalan for harmony on Barcelona leg of Spain tour after making football foes in city
To the delight of many, Pope Leo XIV kicked off the Barcelona leg of his week-long visit to Spain with a few words in Catalan, calling on the faithful who had gathered in the city’s cathedral on Tuesday “to build harmony and communion beyond all polarisation”.
The pontiff’s familiar and commendable plea for people to set aside their differences may, however, have come a little late. Three days earlier, while chatting to journalists on the flight to Spain, Leo had made an awkward confession.
Continue reading...Addressing lawmakers, Leo XIV also highlights migration at a time when Madrid is bucking European trends
Pope Leo XIV has used an address to the Spanish parliament to warn the world is undergoing “a deep spiritual and cultural crisis” and to urge the international community to tackle the causes and consequences of what he termed “the tragic drama of migration”.
In a wide-ranging speech delivered to lawmakers in Madrid, the pontiff also touched on conflict, artificial intelligence, the climate emergency, and the issues of abortion and euthanasia.
Continue reading...Pontiff to make marginalised a focus of first papal visit since 2011 including meeting with migrants in the Canaries
Pope Leo has urged political leaders to seek unity, rather than divide their populations for political gain, and said they must fight for peace, in the opening speech of his tour in Spain.
The pope has made the marginalised a focus of his visit – his first tour of an EU country, apart from Italy – including meeting homeless people in Madrid and migrants in the Canary Islands. The pope, who has clashed with the US president, Donald Trump, over his immigration policies and war with Iran, said his visit was aimed at setting an example of respecting “every human being”.
Continue reading...Pontiff’s resolve to highlight plight of migrants has aligned him with Spanish PM, whose inner circle and party are mired in corruption allegations
While Pope Leo XIV isn’t due to touch down in Madrid until 10.30am on Saturday, his presence in the Spanish capital is already verging on the ubiquitous.
The smiling, avuncular face of the first US pontiff greets visitors from posters, from the sides of buses, from commemorative travel cards and even from the digital screens on the metro system, where it flickers up between adverts for sun cream and banking deals.
Continue reading...US secretary of state speaks with Leo and officials after tensions following attacks by Trump over Iran war
The Vatican has said it raised the “need to work tirelessly in favour of peace” in talks with the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, who is in Rome on a trip widely regarded as an effort to ease tensions after Donald Trump’s repeated criticisms of Pope Leo.
Amid unprecedented strain on relations between the Holy See and Washington, Rubio was received by the pope on Thursday at the Apostolic Palace, before holding a series of meetings with Vatican officials
Continue reading...Pontiff responds after US president accuses him of ‘endangering a lot of Catholics’ with stance on Iran war
Pope Leo has said he has never supported nuclear weapons and that those who criticise him need to speak the truth, in response to Donald Trump’s latest tirade accusing him of “endangering a lot of Catholics” with his stance on the Iran war.
Speaking to journalists on Tuesday night after leaving the papal retreat in Castel Gandolfo, near Rome, the first US-born pontiff said: “The mission of the church is to preach the gospel, to preach peace.”
Continue reading...US president directs fresh criticism at pontiff days before secretary of state Marco Rubio’s visit to Vatican
Donald Trump has issued another verbal attack against Pope Leo, accusing the pontiff of “endangering a lot of Catholics” because “he thinks it’s fine for Iran to have a nuclear weapon”.
The remarks come two days before Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, meets Leo at the Vatican in an effort to ease the tensions sparked by Trump’s previous broadside against the Chicago-born pontiff over his condemnation of the US-Israeli war on Iran.
Continue reading...US secretary of state’s two-day visit reportedly intended to thaw Washington’s frosty relations with Vatican and Italy
The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, will meet Pope Leo on Thursday, weeks after Donald Trump’s unprecedented broadside against the pontiff.
Rubio will meet the first US-born pope privately in the Vatican’s apostolic palace at 11.30am (10.30 GMT), the Holy See’s press office confirmed on Monday after media reports on Sunday.
Continue reading...US secretary of state will be in Italian capital on Thursday and Friday, the one-year anniversary of Pope Leo’s papacy
The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, is to travel to Rome this week for a visit reportedly aimed at thawing frosty relations with the Italian government and the Vatican.
Rubio is scheduled to be in the Italian capital on Thursday and Friday, which will also mark the one-year anniversary of the papacy of Pope Leo, the first US-born pontiff.
Continue reading...Leo, who has criticized Trump’s hardline immigration policy, selected Evelio Menjivar-Ayala as state’s new bishop
Pope Leo XIV has appointed a man who had once entered the United States as an undocumented immigrant, hidden in the trunk of a car, as the new bishop of West Virginia.
The pope approved the resignation of Bishop Mark E Brennan of Wheeling-Charleston, West Virginia, and selected Bishop Evelio Menjivar-Ayala, 55, of Washington to take his place, reported OSV News.
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