Pope Leo’s cancer is ‘game changer’ for papacy, Vatican foreign minister says

Pope Leo’s lung cancer diagnosis and surgery has affected how Catholics view his health and papacy, the Vatican’s foreign minister said on Tuesday, in an unusual acknowledgement by one of the Church’s most senior officials.

“It’s a bit of ‌a game changer,” Archbishop Paul Gallagher told journalists at an event in Rome.

Leo, 71, had part of one lung removed in surgery on October 13. His doctors have said the cancer was localised and had not spread, and the pope will not require further treatment.

Gallagher said that given Leo’s relatively young age for a pope and his physical fitness, ⁠some Catholics had thought he was a “Superman” pope.

The illness revealed that Leo “is a poor mortal like ‌the rest of us”, said the archbishop.

“I think that is going to change how we see him and possibly how he sees himself as well,” ‌said Gallagher, a Briton who has served in his Vatican role since 2014.

Separately, Gallagher also addressed the recent ceasefire agreed by Russia and Ukraine to allow aid into the Russian-controlled Ukrainian town ‌of Oleshky.

He said that while Leo had recently spoken with both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, he ‌did not ‌believe the Vatican was involved in arranging the ceasefire.

“I don’t think we were,” Gallagher said.

He ‌also spoke about the Vatican’s ongoing agreement with China on the appointment of Catholic bishops ⁠in the communist state, and acknowledged “imperfections” with the accord.

The deal, first signed in 2018, gives Chinese ⁠officials some input into whom Leo appoints as bishops in the country.

“It’s not easy, the dialogue is not easy. The imperfections of the agreement are evident, but there ‌is a commitment to persevere ‌in dialogue … and that is what will continue to happen,” Gallagher said.

The archbishop also said he expected Leo, the first US-born pope, could visit the United States “in the not too distant future”. But he said the visit might not occur in 2027, depending on the pope’s commitments.