Mass in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican on Wednesday. The service was held by Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle in Pope Leo’s absence, and included special prayers for the pontiff’s health.
The pontiff, 71, is expected to spend about a week in the hospital recovering from surgery that found lung cancer. Messages of support have flooded in from far and wide.
Pope Leo XIV was diagnosed with a common form of lung cancer. The Vatican said that he had celebrated Mass at the hospital three days after an operation to remove a cancerous nodule.