Pope Leo XIV has lung cancer, the Vatican confirmed Wednesday, after surgeons in Rome removed the lower lobe of the pontiff’s right lung during a Tuesday afternoon operation. The diagnosis, described by the Holy See as “lung adenocarcinoma,” came from tissue examined during the procedure and confirmed what pre-operative tests had already suggested.
Hours earlier, several miles south of downtown Chicago, a small group of Catholic faithful gathered outside the Pope’s childhood home in Dolton, Illinois — the same working-class suburb where Robert Francis Prevost grew up before he would one day lead the global Church. According to ABC7, which spoke with several attendees, the vigil drew local Catholics alongside Vatican officials visiting the Chicago area.
Many told the station the news landed less like a distant headline and more like a diagnosis in their own family.
“We see him as our pope, but we see him as a member of our community and a fellow Chicagoan, and because of that our prayers even more ardent today,” Joe Boland, chief mission officer of the Catholic Extension Society, told ABC7.
Father Tom McCarthy, prior provincial of the Midwest Augustinian Province — a religious order the Pope once led under his birth name — said the outpouring of support had been constant.
“Everyone’s praying,” McCarthy said. “It’s been very wonderful.”
He added that messages had been streaming in from friends, co-workers, and those the province ministers to. “So many of our friends, those we work with, those we minister to have been sending us texts, calling us saying they’re praying for Pope Leo because they know he’s our brother,” he told the station.
Two other attendees, Natalie Debartolomeis and Deanna Ludwin, each told ABC7 they hoped Catholics would remain united in prayer for the Pope’s recovery — Ludwin voicing her wish for a full return to health and her appreciation for “everything he’s trying to do to bring people together, all humans together.”
A 90-Minute Operation and a Quiet Night
The surgery took place at Rome’s Gemelli Hospital, the same facility where the Pope had been admitted earlier in the week after a medical examination turned up a localized nodule in his lung. Vatican officials said the operation lasted roughly 90 minutes and proceeded without complications. The Pope woke normally afterward and returned to his room on the hospital’s tenth floor following a period of observation, according to the Holy See’s account.
Per Vatican News, the Holy See Press Office said Wednesday morning that the pontiff had a “calm night” following the procedure. More details on his current condition were expected later in the day.
Further examinations are planned on the removed tissue in the coming days. As of press time, neither the Vatican nor Gemelli Hospital’s staff had publicly revised the previously announced estimate of approximately one week of hospitalization. The Pope’s audiences had already been suspended through Tuesday, October 20.
A Chicago Connection That Runs Deep
Pope Leo XIV was born Robert Francis Prevost in Chicago before spending years in leadership roles that took him from Peru to Rome, including a stint heading the Midwest Augustinian Province. His elevation to the papacy made him the first American-born pontiff, a fact that has kept a steady stream of local attention trained on his health and his travels.
That connection was on full display in Dolton on Tuesday. The gathering outside his boyhood home was modest in scale, but those present framed it as an act of neighborly solidarity as much as religious devotion — a community treating one of its own as family even as he lay in a hospital bed thousands of miles away.
The coming days will bring more clarity on both fronts: from Rome, where post-operative pathology work continues and the Vatican is expected to release further updates, and from the Chicago area, where the faithful who claimed the Pope as a fellow Chicagoan say they intend to keep praying.
Source: www.breitbart.com — https://www.breitbart.com/faith/2026/10/14/chicago-catholics-pray-outside-pope-leo-xivs-childhood-home/