Questions Surround Pope Leo's Health and What the Vatican Knew

Pope Leo XIV, the leader of the world's 1.4 billion Catholics, announced this week that he has lung cancer and will have surgery to remove a tumor. The news surprised many people around the world. But it also raised a big question: Did the pope already know he was sick when he visited a famous healing site in France just weeks ago?

Last month, Pope Leo traveled to Lourdes, France, where millions of people visit each year hoping to be healed. He prayed quietly in front of a statue of the Virgin Mary. He touched a rock wall, drank water from a spring, and lit a candle — just as pilgrims have done there for generations.

Now that the Vatican has confirmed the pope has cancer, people are wondering if his visit to Lourdes had a deeper meaning. The Vatican has not answered that question directly. But spokesman Matteo Bruni pointed to the pope's own words, suggesting they might explain 'what he was going through' at the time.

During a press conference on his flight home from Lourdes, Leo described the site as a place where people search for meaning 'even in the midst of sickness or disability or pain of different kinds.' Those words now sound very personal. Some Italian media believe the pope may have known about his condition as early as mid-September.

The Vatican has a long history of keeping its leaders' health very private. In 1963, Pope John XXIII's cancer was only confirmed four days before he died. Pope John Paul II had Parkinson's disease for years, but it wasn't officially confirmed until a cardinal accidentally mentioned it in 2003.

Earlier this year, when Pope Francis was in the hospital, so little information was released that some people spread rumors he had already died. He passed away just over two months after being hospitalized. This history helps explain why reporters pay close attention to every detail the Vatican shares — or doesn't share.

Many church experts were impressed that Pope Leo announced his own surgery before it happened. Archbishop Timothy Broglio said he was glad the pope chose to speak openly, 'avoiding all the speculation and conjecture of the past.' Cardinal Pietro Parolin, one of the Vatican's top officials, said he was happy the pope had been frank about his health.

Still, some questions remain. The Vatican called it a 'growth' on Sunday but did not confirm it was cancerous until after Tuesday's surgery. Doctors said that tests done before the operation — including a CT scan, a PET scan, and a bronchoscopy — would most likely have already shown the tumor was cancerous. This left reporters asking why the word 'cancer' came so late.

The pope's brother, Louis Prevost, also has a type of blood cancer called multiple myeloma. He said the pope told him about the tumor before the surgery. He recalled the pope saying the tumor was small and that surgery should be 'relatively easy,' adding that he had no reason to doubt what he had been told.

Experts say the Vatican handled this health news better than in the past. Church historian Alberto Melloni said communication this week was a real improvement. Another expert, Giovanni Maria Vian, called it 'revolutionary' that the Vatican named the doctors giving updates — something that has rarely happened before.