Major global news moments of October, in AP photos
Pope Leo XIV, followed by, from left, surgeon Stefano Margaritora, Archbishop Petar Rajič, prefect of the Papal Household, and Commander of the Vatican Gendarmerie Gianluca Gauzzi Broccoletti, leaves Rome's Agostino Gemelli Polyclinic on Saturday, Oct. 17, 2026, after Tuesday's surgery to remove lung cancer.
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The surgeon who removed Pope Leo XIV's cancerous tumor says there are “no clinical reasons” to prevent the pontiff from traveling to Latin America next month. Vatican media reported this after the pope returned to the Vatican from the hospital. Dr. Stefano Margaritora told Vatican News that the pope is expected to recover fully from surgery in about 10 days. Leo had the lower lobe of his right lung removed on Tuesday. The surgery confirmed he had adenocarcinoma, the most common type of lung cancer. He left the hospital on Saturday, well ahead of the week-long hospital stay the Vatican had initially anticipated.
Pope Leo XIV is embarking on the longest and farthest trip of his pontificate three weeks after lung cancer surgery. The U.S.-born Leo is returning home to Peru, where the former Robert Prevost lived for two decades as a missionary priest and learned to be the pastor he is today. Leo is also going to Argentina, the home of his predecessor, Pope Francis. It will be a homecoming of sorts there, too, since Francis never returned to Argentina after his 2013 election, leaving a complicated legacy that Leo will now have to navigate. Leo starts his journey Friday in Uruguay, the least Catholic, most secular country in all of Latin America.
