- Father Mtshengiseni Dlamini of Imbali, Pietermaritzburg, travelled to Rome to meet Pope Leo XIV but joined Catholics in prayer instead.
- The 71-year-old Pope had part of a lung removed on 13 October. The Vatican says his recovery is progressing normally.
Father Mtshengiseni Dlamini, a parish priest from Imbali township in Pietermaritzburg, travelled to Rome to meet Pope Leo XIV. He ended up praying for the Pope instead, after the Vatican announced that the Pope has lung cancer.
Dlamini serves at Ikhwezilokusa parish in the Archdiocese of Durban. He told Reuters he had been looking forward to seeing the Pope, but joined other Catholics in prayer because the Pope is sick.
“Let me pray for the holy father,” he said.
On Sunday 11 October, the Pope told the faithful that doctors had found a small nodule in his lung, detected at a very early stage. He had the lower lobe of his right lung removed at Rome’s Gemelli hospital on Tuesday, 13 October. Hospital staff prayed the rosary in the chapel as the operation began.
The Vatican said the surgery confirmed the cancer. Oncologists told the Associated Press before the operation that his outlook is excellent because the cancer was removed early. The Vatican also cancelled all his audiences until 20 October.
On Thursday, the Holy See Press Office said a morning chest X-ray showed good recovery of the lung. It said the Pope did his daily activities on his own and took part in a full physiotherapy session. His recovery is progressing normally, it said.
Dlamini said he was glad to hear the surgery went well, and thanked God for Pope Leo. People who know him in Pietermaritzburg and Durban have praised his trip on social media, thanking him for representing South Africa.
