King Charles III is writing privately to Pope Leo XIV to pass on his best wishes after surgeons removed a cancerous tumor from the pontiff’s right lung, a royal source said Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2026. The roughly 90-minute operation was performed Tuesday, Oct. 13, at Rome’s Gemelli University Hospital.

The exact contents of the king’s message are not known. Charles, 77, is supreme governor of the Church of England and has been treated for an undisclosed cancer since his diagnosis in early 2024, following a routine procedure.

What the Vatican Said About the Surgery

Surgeons removed the entire lower lobe of the pope’s right lung. Humans typically have three lobes in the right lung and two in the left. Pre-operative tests had pointed to adenocarcinoma, and examination of lung tissue during the procedure confirmed it. The Vatican said the operation was successful with no complications, and that Leo woke normally and returned, after a brief period of observation, to his room on the hospital’s 10th floor.

Adenocarcinoma is the most common form of lung cancer, accounting for about 40 percent of all lung cancers. The pope is awaiting the results of further tests to determine whether the disease has spread.

Leo, 71, disclosed the planned operation himself during his weekly Sunday noon blessing in St. Peter’s Square on Sunday, Oct. 11. He said his doctors had recommended surgery and that he had followed their advice. “I thank you for your spiritual closeness and entrust myself to your prayers,” he told pilgrims.

By Oct. 14, the Vatican reported that his recovery was proceeding as expected and that he was awake and moving about his hospital room. He is expected to remain hospitalized for about a week, with audiences and public engagements canceled until Oct. 20. It is the first major health crisis of his 17-month tenure.

Leo, who leads the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics, is relatively young for a pope and physically active: he swims and plays tennis, often on his days off at the papal retreat at Castel Gandolfo. He has not been known to smoke, but cancer runs in his family. His older brother, Louis, who lives in Florida, is being treated for multiple myeloma, his wife told CBS News on Oct. 13. Their mother, Mildred, died of cancer in 1990.

A Historic Prayer at the Sistine Chapel

Charles and Queen Camilla met Leo privately at the Apostolic Palace in October 2025, during a rescheduled state visit to Vatican City. In a service presided over by the pope at the Sistine Chapel and broadcast live on Vatican media, Charles became the first British monarch to pray publicly with a pope in 500 years — a span reaching back beyond Henry VIII’s 1534 break with Rome. The couple had visited the Vatican in April 2025, meeting Pope Francis.

The Church of England was created in the 16th century when Henry VIII split from the Roman Catholic Church. Relations between the two churches improved steadily over the following centuries, although fractures emerged in 2016, particularly over the ordination of women. Leo was elected head of the Catholic Church on May 8, 2025, after the death of Pope Francis that April at age 88, becoming the first American pope.

Royal Tributes and Prayers

Prince Albert II and Princess Charlene of Monaco sent the pope a personal letter dated Oct. 12, signed with Albert’s official signature and written on behalf of their family, including their 11-year-old twins, Prince Jacques and Princess Gabriella. “Princess Charlène and I, along with our Family and the entire Principality, wish to assure You of all our filial support and our fervent prayers,” Albert wrote. The couple met Leo in September 2026 at a conference called “At the Roots of Europe: For Peace and Unity,” and the pope traveled to Monaco in March 2026, the first apostolic journey by a pope to the principality in the modern era; Pope Paul III was received on the Rock in 1538.

Archbishop Richard Moth, the Archbishop of Westminster and president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, said there was a sense of gratitude and relief at news that the surgery had succeeded, and asked Catholics in England and Wales, along with all people of goodwill, to pray that Leo is restored to full health after rest and recuperation. President Donald Trump said he wanted to see the pope get well. Dozens of well-wishers greeted the pope as he walked into the Gemelli before the operation.

Charles said in December 2025 that his own cancer treatment would be reduced in the new year, and he has urged people across the U.K. to attend cancer screenings, promoting a national Screening Checker that lets them verify their eligibility online. The Vatican has yet to announce any further treatment for Leo, who is scheduled to visit Uruguay, Argentina and Peru in November.