At the moment, my Google news feed is mostly politics-as-usual, along with regional items like “Todd County Reports Suspected Measles Cases” (Derek Sidian, Fergus Now (October 12, 2026)).
Meanwhile (11:03 a.m.), Vatican News has live coverage of folks praying the rosary. It’s also on YouTube:
- Live feed from Vatican City / Rome
[11:00 a.m.-11:38 a.m. Minnesota time: Cardinal Baldassare Reina, Vicar General of Rome, leads the recitation of the Holy Rosary in the St. John Paul II Chapel at Gemelli Hospital, to express the Church of Rome’s closeness and affection for the Pope.]
Vatican Media Live — English
Their YouTube channel may have mostly-English content, but this prayer is in Latin. Maybe Italian: despite having diverged the better part of two millennia back, they are still quite similar. To the ears of someone like me, whose cradle tongue, English, is a Germanic language, at any rate. And that’s another topic.
Excerpts from Vatican News
“Pope Leo XIV admitted to Gemelli Hospital ahead of surgery“
Vatican News (October 12, 2026)“…Pope Leo XIV has been admitted to Rome’s Agostino Gemelli University Hospital and will undergo surgery on Tuesday afternoon to remove a ‘small, localized nodule’ from his lung….
“…An update is expected in the evening….
“…The Pope held all his scheduled audiences on Monday morning, as messages of support continued to arrive from Churches and political leaders around the world.
“Greetings upon Pope’s arrival
“Pope Leo XIV arrived at Gemelli Hospital at 1:07 p.m. People waited outside applauded and called out greetings as his vehicle entered the hospital grounds.
“The Pope greeted members of the hospital’s leadership and briefly approached several patients, including people in wheelchairs, before going inside. Staff, patients, and visitors also gathered along his route through the hospital….
“…Some religious sisters remained in the hospital’s St. John Paul II Chapel to pray for the Pope. Cardinal Baldassare Reina, the Pope’s Vicar General for the Diocese of Rome, is scheduled to lead the Rosary there at 6 p.m., as parishes and religious communities across the diocese join in prayer….
“Pope Leo to be admitted to Gemelli Hospital on October 13”
Salvatore Cernuzio, Vatican News (October 12, 2026)“Pope Leo XIV is scheduled to be admitted to Rome’s Gemelli Hospital ‘late in the morning’ on Tuesday, October 13, for surgery to remove a localized nodule in his lung.
“According to the Prefecture of the Papal Household, all of the Pope’s audience[!] have been cancelled due to his hospitalization through Tuesday, October 20….”
Our Current Pope’s Health: Awareness, But Not Anxiety
It’s been about a year and a half since Pope Francis died, after a couple months of on and off health issues. That’s made my awareness of our current pope’s health and surgery a bit livelier than it might have been. But I don’t feel particularly anxious about what’s happening today.
Besides, there’s not much I can do about Pope Leo XIV’s current condition. I live in Minnesota: with about half of North America, the Atlantic Ocean, and a largish swath of southern Europe and the Mediterranean between me and Rome.
On the other hand, I’ll be doing a little extra praying on his behalf: which is pretty much the most I can do.
I’d be praying along with the folks at Gemelli Hospital if I was familiar with Latin and/or Italian. But I’m not, so I’m planning on doing a rosary in English later this afternoon.
I’d spend time talking about prayer, health, and related topics. But I did that last year, so I’ll just leave some links:
- “Easter Monday: Pope Francis Has Died” (April 21, 2025)
- “Pope Francis, Prayer, Health, and Perspectives” (February 24, 2025)
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