VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Leo XIV had a full day of meetings, audiences and appointments on Monday, and seemed in fine form a day after revealing he would have an operation this week to remove a lung nodule discovered during recent medical tests.

The 71-year-old Leo presided over an audience with members of a Rome-based charity, the Circolo San Pietro, and received a donation from them. He spoke in a strong, clear voice, praising their service and sacrifice. The crowd gave him a rousing round of applause afterward.

Leo revealed the discovery during his Sunday noon prayer and said he was following doctors’ advice to remove the nodule “in the coming days.” The Vatican said surgery was planned in the first days of the week and predicted a weeklong recovery.

The Vatican press office said Monday that no particular issue precipitated the tests, denying Italian media reports suggesting an inflammation had prompted Leo to undergo a medical checkup.

It was business as usual at the Vatican on Monday, with Leo presiding over six private audiences, including with the head of the U.S. military chaplains, Archbishop Timothy Broglio, and the San Pietro gathering. He also made three appointments, and the Vatican released a letter he had penned to the outgoing dean of the College of Cardinals, thanking him for his service. The letter was signed on Sunday.

In the afternoon, he was expected to rejoin a weeklong conference he convened on ministering to families.

A first medical event for the papacy

Leo’s surgery marks the first major health event of his 17-month pontificate. It was significant because the pope himself revealed the news, in perhaps the most public way possible: at the end of his Sunday noon blessing, with thousands of people in St. Peter’s Square.

The Vatican has for centuries zealously guarded the pope’s health and has often sent out confusing information, or none at all, about papal illnesses. Pope Francis tried to change that by being upfront about his frailties and musing on his eventual death. But even during his pontificate, information was tightly controlled.

Leo’s decision and reveal suggested an unusual level of transparency by the American pope.

A lung nodule is a small abnormal area measuring less than 3 centimeters (1 inch) that sometimes appears on a CT scan of the chest or abdomen. Often, the scans are done to investigate trauma or a lung infection, unrelated to a lung cancer screening. A nodule can be benign or malignant, and oftentimes surgical removal is recommended to ascertain whether it is cancerous since performing a lung biopsy by needle can be difficult.

Oncologists say if the nodule turns out to be cancerous, Leo’s prognosis is “excellent” since it will have been removed at an early stage.

Unlike his predecessor Pope Francis, whose decade-long respiratory problems made him speak in a whisper, Leo tends to project his voice and frequently sings his prayers.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Christa Pike has begun walking and eating again at a hospital a week after surviving Tennessee’s attempt to execute her with lethal drugs, her attorneys said Thursday.

Pike, 50, survived two doses of pentobarbital as the state sought to giver her a lethal injection eight days ago for the 1995 beating and stabbing death of classmate Colleen Slemmer. The drug didn’t kill her, and her arms were left burned and blistered, according to her lawyers. For the first few days of her hospitalization, Pike was unconscious and on a ventilator.

Her first steps on Wednesday were “limited” and she required some assistance as she walked on Thursday, her lawyers said in a statement. She is also regaining mobility in her arms, and she was able to eat for the first time.

But the lawyers warned uncertainty remains about her physical recovery and her legal standing after the attempt to carry out her death sentence.

Questions remain about Pike’s recovery and legal case

The failed execution on Sept. 30 has renewed scrutiny of how states carry out the death penalty. Texas on Wednesday carried out the first execution in the U.S. since the Tennessee attempt.

“While her physical recovery has been remarkable, significant questions remain about the long-term effects of what she endured,” her attorneys said in Thursday’s statement. “Christa is dealing with the profound psychological trauma of having survived a failed execution, including the terror, pain and uncertainty of believing she was about to die.”

Pike regained consciousness Tuesday and was able to speak after awakening, they said.

They initially described her as “confused” soon after regaining consciousness, and said Thursday that she continued to struggle with concentration and memory. Doctors say it is too early to assess the long-term impacts, the attorneys added.

It also remains unclear whether Tennessee will try to execute her again. Her attorneys have said that they will urge Republican Gov. Bill Lee to commute her death sentence to life in prison without parole.

“She should never be subjected to another execution attempt,” they said in the statement.

What went wrong with the execution remains unclear

Lee has since postponed the state’s only other scheduled execution this year and ordered a review of why the execution failed. The state’s prison chief resigned after the execution attempt.

Medical and lethal injection experts have focused on whether a problem with the IV line caused the drug to pool in her tissue instead of entering her bloodstream.

Pike’s attorneys wrote in a court filing that “apparently at no point did any member of the execution team realize that the IV lines were not correctly placed.”

State officials have offered no explanation of what occurred.

As the process got underway Pike was asked if she had a final statement and she spoke of being at peace. About five minutes later, she raised her head and said her arm hurt. Later, she appeared to lose consciousness but could be heard breathing heavily until media witnesses were escorted from the witness room nearly 90 minutes into the execution. An ambulance took her to a hospital.