“He’s still quite young and I really wasn’t expecting this. I thought he was in better health,” he said, noting that “thankfully it was caught in time.”
The Vicar General for the Diocese of Rome, Cardinal Baldassare Reina, led a rosary prayer for the pope inside the hospital chapel which was broadcast by the Vatican. Dozens of people attended and Reina asked all the city’s parishes to join in.
The Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, told ANSA news agency that Leo had been “very calm” about his condition when they met on Monday.
The Vatican told AFP the nodule was found during routine health checks, and there were no symptoms that led to checking the pope’s lungs.
Chicago-born Leo, the first US pope, is sporty and believed to generally be in good health.
He is scheduled to travel to South America from Nov 6-17 to visit Uruguay, Argentina and Peru.
It was not immediately clear what would happen if the pope was forced into a longer recovery.
Under Church law, a figure known as the Cardinal Camerlengo – or chamberlain – takes over administrative duties if the pope dies, but pontiffs do not have a deputy to replace them if they become incapacitated.
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