The Prefecture of the Pontifical Household has cancelled all audiences of Leo XIV until Tuesday, October 20, due to his admission to the Gemelli Polyclinic, scheduled for Tuesday the 13th, where he will undergo surgery for a pulmonary nodule. The hospitalization also requires reorganizing the meeting on Amoris laetitia, whose final report will not be made public at the Pope’s request.
The communiqué, released this Monday, October 12, in the Bulletin of the Holy See Press Office, is brief: on account of the Holy Father’s hospital admission, all audiences are cancelled until Tuesday, October 20. The note confirms in writing the schedule that the Director of the Press Office, Matteo Bruni, had announced hours earlier.
One week of hospitalization expected
According to Vatican News, Leo XIV will be admitted to the Gemelli Polyclinic late in the morning of Tuesday the 13th to undergo removal of a “circumscribed nodule in the lung.” The Pontiff himself announced the procedure during the Angelus on Sunday, noting that the nodule had been detected in recent check-ups. When asked by journalists, Bruni described them as “routine” examinations and maintained the forecast of a postoperative stay of “approximately one week.”
The Pope kept all morning audiences on his schedule this Monday, although he will not attend the afternoon sessions of the meeting being held in the Paul VI Hall on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of Amoris laetitia. Since the Sunday announcement, the Vatican portal reports, messages of support have reached the Pontiff from Churches and political authorities on five continents.
Tagle to preside at Wednesday’s Mass
The operation requires changes to the program of the summit, which brings together in Rome the heads of the Eastern Churches, the presidents of episcopal conferences, married couples, and experts. This was explained at a press conference by Father Giacomo Costa, head of the meeting’s methodology and consultant to the General Secretariat of the Synod.
The Mass scheduled for Wednesday the 14th in St. Peter’s Square with all participants will not be presided over by the Pope. Leo XIV has entrusted the celebration to Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, whom Vatican News presents as the recently elected Dean of the College of Cardinals. Costa indicated that special prayers will be offered for the Pontiff’s health and for families.
The synthesis report will not be published
The most far-reaching change affects the final document. The meeting was expected to conclude with a public Synthesis Report, but the Pope has asked that it not be released. According to Costa, Leo XIV wishes to receive it, examine the materials once he is discharged, and then express his opinion. The Jesuit positively assessed the Pontiff’s desire not to let the meeting conclude without his personal intervention.
The decision is significant. Amoris laetitia, the post-synodal apostolic exhortation of Francis published in 2016, has been one of the most debated texts of the previous pontificate, especially because of its eighth chapter and the divergent interpretations regarding access to the sacraments for the divorced and civilly remarried, which prompted the dubia of four cardinals that same year. With his request, the Pope expressly reserves the evaluation of what was discussed before any text on the balance of this decade is disseminated.