Vatican

Vatican confirms the pope submitted a mail-in ballot in his native Chicago ahead of November 3 midterm elections

Pope Leo XIV has become the first pontiff to vote in a United States general election after casting a mail-in ballot in Chicago, where he was born.

The Vatican confirmed on Friday that the pope submitted a mail-in ballot in the city ahead of the November 3 midterm elections, citing his longstanding belief in civic participation.

Leo, formerly Robert Prevost, “has exercised his right to vote as a United States citizen”, as he has done “whenever he was eligible to do so”, the Vatican’s press office said.

“The Holy Father expresses his belief in the right and the duty of citizens to participate in democratic processes,” it added.

The Vatican did not say which candidates Leo voted for.

In a note commenting on Leo’s vote, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops urged Catholics to put “our faith before our politics” and “uphold human dignity and the common good”.

“In voting, our Holy Father sets the example that encourages each citizen to exercise their civic responsibility,” said the conference’s director of public affairs, Chieko Noguchi.

Leo is a citizen not only of the US but also of Peru, where he lived as a priest and bishop for more than 20 years, as well as of the Vatican, where he is head of state.

US federal law allows citizens living abroad, even those working for foreign governments, to vote via absentee ballot.

Americans working for foreign governments are not automatically at risk of losing their US citizenship, but the US State Department says on its website that it may “actively review” the citizenship status of Americans who “serve as a foreign head of state, foreign head of government, or foreign minister”.

A regular voter

In this year’s midterm elections, voters in the solidly ⁠Democratic state of Illinois, where Chicago is located, will select a successor to retiring Senator Dick Durbin and choose whether to re-elect Governor JB Pritzker.

Leo requested a mail-in ballot on October 3, just 10 days before he underwent surgery to remove a cancerous tumour from his right lung. He has slowly been resuming his activities at the Vatican after being released from the hospital on October 17.

Since 2000, Leo has voted in five primary elections as Prevost, requesting Democratic ballots twice and Republican ballots three times, according to records held by the Illinois State Board of Elections, which do not show which candidates he supported.

Illinois voters must declare a party preference to receive a primary ballot.

While registered in heavily-Democratic Cook County, Prevost requested Democratic primary ballots in 2008 and 2010. After moving to the more conservative Will County, he requested Republican primary ballots in 2012, 2014 and 2016.

Clashes with Trump

Since Leo’s ascent to the papacy in May 2025, US President Donald Trump has clashed with the pontiff several times.

Trump criticised the pope for repeatedly condemning the US-Israel war on Iran and for challenging his administration’s crackdown on immigrants.

Earlier this year, Trump called Leo “weak” and captive to the “radical left”, kicking off a remarkable back-and-forth argument.

Leo responded by telling reporters: “I’m not afraid of the Trump administration or of speaking out loudly about the message of the Gospel, which is what the church works for.”

Doctors say they are seeing ‘continued improvement’ after the US-born pope had a lump removed from his lung on Tuesday.

Pope Leo has returned to the Vatican, four days after receiving surgery for lung cancer in Rome.

The pope said he was feeling “much better” when asked about his health as he was driven away from the Gemelli University Hospital against cries of “holiness” from onlookers on Saturday.

Leo had the lower lobe of his right lung removed on Tuesday. The surgery confirmed he had adenocarcinoma, which is the most common type of lung cancer.

He is set to resume some duties on Sunday, when he greets the faithful with the Catholic Church’s traditional Angelus blessing.

Doctors have said tests confirmed his “continued improvement”.

Since having surgery, the pope has had a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, held meetings with senior aides and celebrated mass in a makeshift hospital chapel.

Leo thanked staff in the Rome hospital for the work they do every day “taking care of the sick in their fragility”, as well as for “what they had done for him”, a Vatican spokesperson said.

Pope Leo’s next major engagement is a trip to Latin America in mid-November, giving him about three weeks to recover for an ambitious journey that includes a dozen flights and two helicopter trips.

Leo is the first pope from the United States, hailing from Chicago. However, he has spent decades living and working across South America and is a naturalised Peruvian citizen.

The 71-year-old is recovering in Rome’s Gemelli hospital after surgery to remove a cancerous growth on his lung.

Pope Leo XIV has been diagnosed with cancer after an operation to remove the lower lobe of his right lung, according to a medical bulletin published by the Vatican.

Tests confirmed a diagnosis of lung adenocarcinoma, the Vatican added, noting the diagnosis had been suspected by preoperative tests. It did not provide details on the recovery outlook or course of treatment.

In a statement released Tuesday, the Vatican said the procedure lasted 90 minutes and that the surgery “was successful, and there were no complications”.

The 71-year-old has returned to his room at Rome’s Gemelli hospital, where he is expected to recover for a week, with all his audiences through October 20 cancelled.

The Vatican said doctors are not currently discussing chemotherapy or other therapies pending the results of other tests.

The Holy See’s press office noted the medical statement spoke of the “radical” removal of the lobe as an indication that doctors removed all suspect tissue in the hope of eliminating any lingering traces of the cancer.

Before the procedure, Leo waved to dozens of well-wishers gathered at the hospital’s main entrance.

In an unusually transparent update on papal health, Leo first revealed that doctors found a small nodule during his Sunday noon prayer in St Peter’s Square.

“The doctors believe it’s best to take action, so, following their advice, I’ve decided to have surgery to remove it,” he said during remarks delivered in Italian.

Latin American tour

The pope has no reported history of serious illness and is considered physically active, routinely swimming and playing tennis.

The surgery comes ahead of an official Latin America tour scheduled for November 6-17, with stops planned across Uruguay, Argentina and Peru.

It is unclear whether his recovery will affect the ambitious itinerary, which includes a dozen flights, two helicopter rides and significant altitude changes in Peru.

The pope told reporters on Sunday that he intends to make the journey.

Vatican officials expect a one-week hospital recovery for the 71-year-old religious leader ahead of his scheduled Latin America tour.

Pope Leo XIV is to undergo surgery to remove a lung nodule, the Vatican has announced.

The 71-year-old leader of the Catholic Church will enter Rome’s Gemelli Hospital late on Tuesday morning for the procedure, which is expected to require about a week of inpatient recovery and has forced the cancellation of upcoming papal audiences.

During his weekly blessing in St Peter’s Square on Sunday, Leo told pilgrims that a small nodule was found on his left lung during a routine checkup and said it was “well-contained” and had been spotted early.

“The doctors believe it’s best to take action, so, following their advice, I’ve decided to have surgery to remove it,” he said during remarks delivered in Italian.

Later, the Vatican said a week of recovery time is expected after Leo’s surgery, and his audiences have been cancelled until October 20.

Spokespeople did not clarify whether the nodule is believed to be malignant.

The pope has no reported history of serious illness and is considered physically active, routinely swimming and playing tennis.

The upcoming surgery comes ahead of an official Latin America tour scheduled for November 6–17, with stops planned across Uruguay, Argentina, and Peru.

Whether the operation and subsequent recovery will force changes to the itinerary remains unclear, though the pontiff told reporters on Sunday that he intends to make the journey.

The late Pope Francis, Leo’s predecessor, died at age 88. Francis was hospitalised several times and grew frail in his later years. He did not usually announce his hospital visits in advance, sometimes sparking intense media speculation about his health.

Pope Leo XIV describes capital punishment as an ‘attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person’ in post on X.

Pope Leo XIV has declared that the death penalty is “inadmissible” while his home country, the United States, announces plans to livestream an execution by firing squad.

Marking World Day Against the Death Penalty on Saturday, the pope reiterated the Catholic Church’s teaching on capital punishment, writing on X that it was “inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person”.

“The common good can be safeguarded and the requirements of justice can be met without recourse to capital punishment,” his post said.

“Effective systems of detention have been developed that protect citizens while at the same time do not completely deprive those who are guilty of the possibility of redemption,” added the leader of the Catholic Church.

The American Pope’s comments come days after US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said on Thursday that the firing squad execution of Nidal Malik Hasan on December 3 will be livestreamed.

Hasan was convicted of killing 13 people and wounding 32 others in a shooting at the Fort Hood military base in 2009.

Pope Leo did not specifically refer to the planned execution, or last month’s botched execution attempt on Christa Pike, who survived two doses of the lethal injection in Tennessee.

But his post came hours after his top deputy, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican secretary of state, told Vatican News that the plan to livestream Hasan’s execution was “unacceptable”.

It was Leo’s predecessor, Pope Francis, in 2018 who first amended official Catholic teaching to declare capital punishment “inadmissible” in all circumstances.

Previously, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the official compendium of church teaching, said the church did not exclude recourse to capital punishment “if this is the only possible way of effectively defending human lives against the unjust aggressor.”

The planned livestream of Hasan’s execution has sparked outrage across the US political divide. Republican representative Austin Scott said he supported executing Hassan but that “livestreaming executions is what Jihadists do. America is better than that.”

Senator Mark Kelly, a Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said Hasan should “face justice”, but that public executions are “the kind of thing that Iran and the Taliban do. Is this who we want to be associated with?”

On Thursday, a Pentagon official confirmed the plans, but on Friday, Vice President JD Vance, who is a practising Catholic, expressed doubt on whether the livestream would be going ahead, telling reporters that if it is, “I’m not going to be watching it.”