Pope Leo XIV left Rome’s Gemelli Hospital October 17th at 3:30pm, walking to the car on his own. The faithful outside the hospital greeted him cheerfully, after spending the past few days praying for his recovery.
Varvara, a 13-year-old Ukrainian girl who came to Italy for cancer treatment, waited by the Pope’s car. She embraced the pope last December during an audience on New Years Eve. She told him he had given her the strength to overcome the disease, and travelled from her home in Turin “to pray for him beneath his window and return that meaningful hug.”
