Bishops conclude Vatican family meeting as Pope Leo recovers
The Vatican meeting of the world’s bishops’ conference presidents and the heads of Eastern Catholic churches marking the 10th anniversary of “Amoris Laetitia” concluded on the evening of Oct. 14 with prayers for Pope Leo XIV’s recovery from lung cancer surgery.
Jesuit Father Giacomo Costa, a consultant to the General Secretariat of the Synod who helped to organize the meeting, said Oct. 14 that “accompaniment” was one of the key words in the week’s discussions of marriage and family.
Reflecting on the significance of the experience at the event’s final press conference, Archbishop Charles Scicluna, the archbishop of Malta, said that he is bringing with him from this meeting “a renewed commitment to put the family at the center of the Church’s pastoral mission.”
“‘Amoris Laetitia’ 10 years ago stimulated, provoked, an invitation for pastoral conversion, an attitude of listening to families, before judging, and also discerning situations with … open hearts, seeking the will of God, but also facilitating the meeting with God’s mercy,” Archbishop Scicluna said.
Following the intense work during the first days of the meeting, Oct. 11 was scheduled as a recess. However, Pope Leo’s surgery announcement during his Sunday Angelus address shifted the pre-programmed schedule and shocked the participants.
Pope recovering well, doctors report
Doctors treating Pope Leo XIV said Oct. 15 that tests show “good recovery of the operated lung” two days after his cancer surgery.
A joint statement from Dr. Luigi Carbone, the pope’s personal doctor, and Dr. Stefano Margaritora, the chief surgeon for his operation, said that Pope Leo underwent routine checks in Rome’s Gemelli Hospital on the morning of Oct. 15 which “showed normal results.”
“The chest X-ray revealed good recovery of the operated lung,” the doctors added, noting that the pope’s physical therapy session that day also “included a full range of motor activities.”
“Overall, his postoperative recovery is proceeding as expected,” the statement said.
Pope Leo carried out his daily activities independently, it said, something Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni described as including doing a bit of normal work activities from the hospital.
On the night of Oct. 14, the Vatican confirmed that Pope Leo had concelebrated a Mass that day in the hospital chapel on the 10th floor on the day after his surgery.
Pope Leo was admitted to Gemelli Hospital Oct. 13 a few hours before his lung cancer surgery, following the pope’s Oct. 11 disclosure that recent medical examinations had revealed a “well-contained” lung nodule that had been “detected at a very early stage.”
Final synthesis on hold
In the closing session of the Vatican family summit, participants listened to a presentation of the meeting’s synthesis report. Due to the personal request of Pope Leo prior to his surgery, the meeting’s final synthesis report will not be made public until the pope has had time to personally review it. Father Costa said that the pope requested to postpone the meeting’s final report, noting that Pope Leo “wanted to listen to it and be able to offer his own word on it himself.”
“I will read the fruits of your work and discussions, and offer my reflections in due course,” Pope Leo wrote in a brief message to the participants signed on the day of his surgery.
“I encourage you to begin to share with your Episcopal Conferences and Dioceses what you have lived and received, and to continue proclaiming the Gospel with families, drawing on the richness of ‘Amoris Laetitia,'” the pope said.
‘The whole world is waiting for him to get well’
Pope Leo had been an active participant in the Vatican meeting up until he was admitted to the hospital. During the meeting’s closing Mass the morning following the pope’s surgery, Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle read aloud a homily that had been prepared by the pope prior to the operation.
Cameroonian Archbishop Andrew Nkea of Bamenda, one of the bishops participating in the meeting, told OSV News that despite the pope’s absence on the meeting’s final days, those present in the assembly “were not discouraged, but we were very, very strongly united with him in prayer.”
“Every morning before we started the meeting, we prayed for his health and for his quick recovery,” he said. “It really didn’t affect the meeting in the sense that it didn’t kill our spirits, because we have hope in God and trust in his healing power. But at the same time, we missed him in the meeting.”
“We thank God that it was an early discovery,” Archbishop Nkea said. “So, we are hoping that he will recover very fast, and he will get back to his duties because the whole world is waiting for him to get well.”
This article was written by Courtney Mares and Junno Arocho Esteves for OSV News. It combines two reports and been edited for length by Jersey Catholic.
Featured image: Prelates attend a Mass celebrated by Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, pro-prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization, in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican Oct. 14, 2026, on the final day of a meeting in which the presidents of bishops’ conferences are marking the 10th anniversary of “Amoris Laetitia” (“The Joy of Love”). The Mass also included special prayers for the health of Pope Leo XIV, following his lung surgery the previous day and diagnosis of cancer. (OSV News photo/Stoyan Nenov, Reuters)
