Pope Leo is to embark on a gruelling 11-day South America tour just weeks after lung cancer surgery

Pope Leo XIV, 71, departs Friday on an 11-day, 12-flight, 19,000-mile tour of Uruguay, Argentina and Peru — presiding over more than 50 events — just three weeks after a surgical procedure on his right lung, in which the lower lobe was excised to treat adenocarcinoma.

Doctors have confirmed the cancer was contained and shows no sign of spreading, meaning Leo will need no additional treatment.

His first stop is Borro, a Montevideo neighbourhood so gripped by drug-gang violence that residents dive to the ground when machine-gun fire starts.

In Argentina, Leo will meet President Javier Milei — a Trump ally who has had an already fraught relationship with the Church.