AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
Today at the Vatican, Pope Leo XIV made his first public appearance since undergoing surgery to remove part of his lung after a cancer diagnosis. Leo appeared at the window of the Vatican's Apostolic Palace overlooking St. Peter's Square to greet crowds, pray and speak about the gospel.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
POPE LEO XIV: (Speaking Italian).
(CHEERING)
RASCOE: It was exactly a week since Leo first announced, from the same spot, that he'd be heading to the hospital for surgery. NPR's Scott Detrow joins us now. He hosts All Things Considered and cowrote a new biography of Pope Leo. Scott, thank you for being with us.
SCOTT DETROW, BYLINE: Hey. Good morning, Ayesha.
RASCOE: What did Leo say this morning?
DETROW: Well, you know, first, he took care of business. He prayed with the crowd. He spoke about today's gospel reading. But then at the end, he did briefly address this past week. He was speaking Italian, as he usually does when he's in Rome. He thanked everyone who had prayed for him. He said he had felt that support. He thanked the doctors and the nurses who cared for him. And he did say at the end that this whole experience has made him feel closer to people suffering with illness all around the world.
RASCOE: Well, I mean, he looked pretty energetic in the video feed for someone who had just had surgery. How is he doing medically?
DETROW: Yeah. He's doing pretty well, given the serious surgery and the diagnosis. He walked out of the hospital yesterday, greeting crowds as he went through the front lobby. And the surgeon who operated on him talked to Vatican News and said Leo is in entirely satisfactory clinical condition.
NPR spoke to a friend of Leo's who visited with him in the hospital yesterday. He said Leo's voice is still a bit weak and that he's got recovery to do but that the pope feels good about where he is right now. And Ayesha, he was even exercising in the hospital room, so that's probably a good sign. And I should just note, we're not naming that friend 'cause he's not authorized to speak publicly about the pope's health.
RASCOE: OK. Well, exercising in the hospital room, that sounds, you know, very energetic.
DETROW: I'll take it.
RASCOE: You've been reporting and writing about Leo since he was elected a year and a half ago. Any sense of, like, what his response to this diagnosis tells us about Pope Leo?
DETROW: To me, I think it really underscores his resiliency. He's resilient in an understated way, which honestly feels pretty Midwestern, you know? For instance, he worked during his stay in the hospital. He was on the phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin. And the Vatican says on that call, Leo pressed Putin about the humanitarian crisis in Eastern Ukraine where people are starving under Russian occupation.
And apparently, Pope Leo is going to go forward, as of right now, with what will be a grueling trip to South America in a matter of weeks - dozens of flights. He even scheduled the surgery hoping he would have enough time to recover and go. It's an important trip to Leo because it's a return to Peru, where he spent 20 years of his life cumulatively.
And all of this actually reminds me of a moment from Leo's time in Peru. It was 2020. He was the bishop of Chiclayo in Northern Peru, and he had been placed in charge of a diocese more than 12 hours away by car, which was in kind of a dangerous spot. It was a city with a lot of crime, and a friend told him he was worried about how Leo would be driving by himself overnight. And Leo responded, I'm from Chicago, and I like to drive, and that was the end of the conversation.
RASCOE: What does it mean now that Pope Leo is living with and fighting cancer? Like, how do you think that changes his ministry?
DETROW: He glanced at this today in his comments, but facing a cancer diagnosis is very relatable. It's a moment when many people think a lot about their own faith, their own mortality, and knowing that a pope is in these same doctors' meetings, getting these same scans, I think that could be powerful. Pope John Paul II suffered for years in public as he aged and battled Parkinson's disease. Pope Francis was also frail for many years at the end of his papacy. Leo is 71 years old. As far as popes go, he remains a younger pope, an active pope, but now he is showing a bit of vulnerability on the world stage.
RASCOE: That's Scott Detrow, cohost of NPR's All Things Considered and coauthor of the new biography "American Pope." Scott, thank you so much.
DETROW: Thanks for having me.
(SOUNDBITE OF J DILLA SONG, "SO FAR TO GO") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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