Pope Leo’s lung cancer diagnosis and surgery has affected how Catholics view his health and papacy, the Vatican’s foreign minister said yesterday.
“It’s a bit of a gamechanger,” Archbishop Paul Gallagher told journalists at an event in Rome.
Leo, 71, had part of one lung removed in surgery on October 13. His doctors have said the cancer was localised and had not spread, and the pope will not require further treatment.
Gallagher said that given Leo’s relatively young age for a pope and his physical fitness, some Catholics had thought he was a ‘Superman’ pope.
The illness revealed that Leo “is a poor mortal like the rest of us,” said the archbishop.
Separately, Gallagher also addressed the recent ceasefire agreed by Russia and Ukraine to allow aid into the Russian-controlled Ukrainian town of Oleshky.
He said that while Leo had recently spoken with both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, he did not believe the Vatican was involved in arranging the ceasefire.
He also spoke about the Vatican’s ongoing agreement with China on the appointment of Catholic bishops in the communist state, and acknowledged ‘imperfections’ with the accord.
The deal, first signed in 2018, gives Chinese officials some input into whom Leo appoints as bishops in the country.
“It’s not easy, the dialogue is not easy. The imperfections of the agreement are evident, but there is a commitment to persevere in dialogue … and that is what will continue to happen,” said Gallagher.
As Pope Leo prepares to return to South America next week, many Peruvians remember him as the priest who helped feed hungry families, delivered aid after floods and walked alongside migrants in the country he would eventually call his own.
When the pandemic emptied the streets of northern Peru and one of the world’s longest quarantines left many struggling to eat, Bishop Robert Prevost, as Leo was known, helped launch a soup kitchen in 2020 in the small town of Zaña.
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