San Juan, TX (KRGV) — The Vatican canceled all the Pope's meetings through next Tuesday, as he is expected to enter a hospital soon for surgery to remove a lung nodule.

According to The Associated Press, Pope Leo XIV will be operated on to remove "a localized nodule" in his lung that was "detected at a very early stage."

Channel 5 News reached out to the Catholic Diocese of Brownsville for comment on the operation.

“Something similar happened to Pope Francis and to Pope Benedict, but we never found out until he was in the hospital after that,” Brownsville Diocese Vicar General Fr. Jorge Gomez said. “Pope Leo wanted to make it known to the world that he's going to go into surgery. There's no secrecy on that and I think it's nothing to be alarmed about.” 

Bishop Daniel Flores of the Catholic Diocese of Brownsville is in Rome this week as part of a week-long Vatican meeting and has already had two meetings with the Pope during this visit.

READ MORE: What to know about Pope Leo's planned lung nodule surgery