Long Island Catholics react with shock after Pope Leo's cancer surgery

Shock and concern rippled across Long Island's Catholic community on Wednesday over news that a relatively young pope — and the first U.S. pontiff — has cancer.

Pope Leo XIV went for what appeared to many to be a routine medical procedure on Tuesday, followed by the Vatican announcing that doctors had removed a cancerous lower lobe of his right lung.

Catholics on Long Island were stunned, they told Newsday in interviews.

"I wasn’t aware that he had any health issues, so when I heard, my heart just broke," said Maryann Brown, 69, as she got ready to attend a Wednesday morning Mass in Bohemia. "I love our pope."

Leo, 71, has special significance for her because she attended one of his first papal audiences in Rome in June 2025, she said. He was elected pontiff on May 8, 2025.

"I could have reached my hand out and shook his. He was amazing," Brown said. "I have so much respect and love for him, and my prayers are with him."

Leo spent a peaceful night in Rome’s Gemelli hospital after doctors performed the surgery on Tuesday and confirmed the pope has the most common type of lung cancer, adenocarcinoma, the Vatican said in a medical bulletin.

The Vatican press office said doctors performed a "radical" removal of the lobe, indicating they took out all suspect tissue in hopes of removing any traces of the cancer.

Doctors were waiting for the results of further tests before deciding on a course of treatment, the Vatican said.

He continued: “I ask you please to pray for me, as I pray for you.”

Kathy Walsh, 78, said she also felt a special affinity to the pope because she had the same surgery two years ago.

"I’m very sad it has happened, but I’m happy with all the modern technology that they have" to try to eliminate the cancer, she said as she walked into an 8 a.m. Mass on Wednesday at The Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Patchogue.

She has fully recovered from her surgery, she said.

Another Patchogue parishioner, Mike Smith, 66, said he was praying for the pope "and a quick recovery. Hopefully they caught it in time."

He called the news a surprise: "We were looking forward to a long reign of his."

 Paul Scollan, 70, an attorney, was on his way to Mass in Bohemia.

"I was upset by the news because initially" it was reported he was only having a nodule removed, Scollan said. "It didn’t seem like anything serious, and then all of a sudden they are taking out a piece of his lung."

"I’m concerned for the pope," Scollan said. "He’s a good man, and I wish him nothing but good health and I wish him a quick recovery." 

Rosemary Jantzen, of Oakdale, said she was hopeful the pope would pull through.

"It’s a common cancer, and from what we are told he was caught in an early stage, and we are praying that he will be healed," she said.

Oscar Mejia, 49, said he came to St. Anne’s Roman Catholic Church in Brentwood on Wednesday afternoon to pray for the pope.

"Only the hand of God can save him," Mejia said in Spanish, as other worshippers trickled into the church for a 5 p.m. Mass in Spanish.

Another parishioner, Maria Cajamanca, 62, said she was filled with pain by the pope’s illness.

"He is the one who calls us to be with God, "she said in Spanish. 

Bishop John Barres, head of the Diocese of Rockville Centre and its 1.2 million baptized Catholics, said in a statement the diocese "asks the faithful and invites all people of good will to join in prayer for the Holy Father’s recovery from surgery and any further treatment he may require."