利奥十四世的癌症诊断考验了长期教皇任期的假设。对于一位看似时间站在他这边的教皇来说，癌症引发了对他寿命的质疑，并为他关于教会的计划带来了新的紧迫感。
Leo XIV’s Cancer Diagnosis Tests the Assumption of a Long Papacy For a pope who appeared to have time on his side, cancer has raised questions about his longevity and brought a new urgency to his plans for the Church.
利奥十四世在不到18个月前当选教皇时，似乎有充足的时间来塑造罗马天主教会。当时他69岁，按近期教皇的标准来看算是年轻的，信徒们惊叹于他的精力和看似健康的身体状况。他以经常打网球而闻名，且没有报告过任何健康问题。他恢复了夏季假期，以确保自己保持精力充沛和充分休息。
When Leo XIV was elected pope less than 18 months ago, he seemed to have years ahead of him to shape the Roman Catholic church. At 69, he was young by recent papal standards, and the faithful marveled at his energy and apparently robust health. He was known to play tennis regularly and had no reported medical problems. He reintroduced summer vacations to make sure he remained fresh and rested.
作为第一位出生于美国的教皇，利奥标志着与其前任方济各的决裂。方济各在76岁时开始其教皇任期，但早在年轻时就已患有肺部疾病。方济各担任教皇一年后告诉记者，他认为自己只会担任教皇两到三年，然后就“去见天父”。方济各最终担任了十二年教皇，但在任期末期出现了严重的膝盖问题、肠胃问题，最终双肺肺炎。
Leo, the first pope born in the United States, marked a break from his predecessor, Francis, who started his papacy at age 76 but had already had a lung condition at a young age. A year into his papacy, Francis told reporters that he thought he would serve as pope for only two or three years before going “off to the house of the Father.”Francis lasted a dozen years, but toward the end of his papacy had a bad knee, intestinal problems and finally, pneumonia in both lungs.
如今，利奥在周二被诊断出患有肺癌，突然面临着曾笼罩在方济各身上的同样紧迫感和对寿命的质疑。
Now, Leo, who was diagnosed with lung cancer on Tuesday, suddenly faces the same sense of urgency and questions of longevity that had hung over Francis.
这一诊断对一位因相对年轻和健康而被认为能够执政数十年的教皇的前景造成了突变。它对他旅行安排、议程以及团结教会的努力带来了不确定性。而在最坏的情况下，它引发了关于继任的问题——而大多数人原本认为这些问题多年后才需要面对。
The diagnosis poses a lurching shift in the outlook for a pope whose relative youth and health indicated he had decades to reign. It casts uncertainty over his travel schedule, his agenda and his efforts to unite the Church. And in the worst-case scenario, it raises questions about succession that most thought would not have to be addressed for years to come.
“共识是他很年轻，我们将迎来一个漫长的教皇任期，”乔治城大学天主教社会思想与公共生活倡议项目的高级研究员、《教皇利奥十四世：深入枢机主教会议与新教皇任期的黎明》一书的作者克里斯托弗·怀特说。
“The common consensus was he’s young, we’re in for a long papacy,” said Christopher White, a senior fellow at the Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life at Georgetown University and the author of “Pope Leo XIV: Inside the Conclave and the Dawn of a New Papacy.”
虽然利奥在1978年当选时的年龄不及当时58岁当选的若望·保禄二世，但利奥显然健康的生活方式增强了人们对其活力的印象。“利奥展现出一个注重自我保养的人的形象，”怀特先生说。“因此这增加了震惊感。”在圣彼得广场的每周例行公开接见或国际访问期间，他未表现出健康受损的迹象，并保持着繁忙的日程。在罗马，他的日程安排满载会议，夏季期间他还发布了一份关于人工智能的重要文件。
While Leo was not as young as Pope John Paul II, who was just 58 when he was elected in 1978, Leo’s apparent healthy lifestyle added to an impression of his vitality. “Leo has the profile of someone who takes care of himself,” Mr. White said. “So that has added to the shock.”At his weekly general audiences in St. Peter’s Square or on international journeys, he showed no signs of impaired health and kept a hectic schedule. In Rome, his agenda was packed with meetings and over the summer he released a major document on artificial intelligence.
自成为教皇以来，利奥——本名罗伯特·弗朗西斯·普雷沃斯特，出生于芝加哥——表现得像是相信自己有足够时间的人。在最初的几个月里，他被认为行动缓慢。他很少进行人事变动，也没有通过戏剧性的声明或政策举措立即吸引头条新闻。他似乎更倾向于缓和紧张局势和倾听。
From the beginning of his papacy Leo, born Robert Francis Prevost in Chicago, behaved like someone who believed he could take his time. In the early months, he was considered slow to act. He made few personnel changes and did not immediately grab headlines with dramatic pronouncements or policy moves. He seemed more interested in soothing tensions and listening.
即便利奥后来变得更为强硬——例如当他批评特朗普政府对伊朗的战争时——他也仅在总统特别攻击他时才作出回应，随后便退后，表示他不想卷入冲突。凭借其安静而稳重的举止，他给人一种不急于求成的感觉。
And even when Leo became more strident, as when he criticized the Trump administration’s war in Iran, he responded only when the president specifically attacked him, and then retreated, saying he did not want a fight. With his quiet, steady demeanor, he gave the sense that he was in no rush.
在方济各动荡的教皇任期之后——在此期间，保守派基督徒对方济各提倡的进步天主教持保留态度——利奥被视为能够平息教会内部矛盾的领袖。利奥不仅受到进步派和保守派天主教徒的欢迎，也受到信仰之外人士的尊敬，他们在他眼中看到的是动荡时代中的道德领袖。
After Francis’s tumultuous papacy, during which conservative Christians balked at the progressive Catholicism he elevated, Leo was seen as a leader who could calm the Church. Leo has been popular not only with both progressive and conservative Catholics, but with people outside the faith who see him as a moral leader in troubled times.
他的病情不可避免地会令教会感到不安，尤其是考虑到梵蒂冈在教皇治疗进展方面的透明度如何。“这种事情只会引发不安，”福特汉姆大学宗教与文化中心主任大卫·吉布森（David Gibson）表示。
His illness will inevitably unsettle the Church, particularly depending on how transparent the Vatican continues to be about the pope’s progress through treatment. “This kind of thing just creates disquiet,” said David Gibson, director of the Center on Religion and Culture at Fordham University.
目前，最近曾前往西班牙和法国访问的教皇表示，他将坚持原定于11月前往拉丁美洲的行程。不可避免的是，他日程上的任何变动都将受到密切审视。
For now, the pope, who recently traveled to Spain and France, has said he will keep to his plan to travel to Latin America in November. Inevitably, any changes to his schedule will be scrutinized closely.
教皇的医生宣布，切除其右肺下叶的手术非常成功，且没有出现并发症。梵蒂冈发布的信息显示，癌症是在早期阶段被发现的。
The pope’s doctors announced that the surgery to remove a lower lobe of his right lung was successful and had no complications. Information released by the Vatican suggested the cancer was caught at an early stage.
吉布森先生表示，如果利奥（Leo）能强力康复，这种癌症可能会成为他英雄叙事的一部分，从而提升利奥的声誉。教皇约翰·保罗二世最初身体状况极佳，但在1981年的一次暗杀企图中受重伤，并在医院住了三个月。吉布森先生说，他的康复过程成为了“围绕他成长起来的神话”的一部分。
If Leo makes a strong recovery, Mr. Gibson said, the cancer could become part of a heroic narrative that buoys Leo’s reputation. Pope John Paul II, who started out in excellent health, was seriously wounded by an assassination attempt in 1981 and spent three months in the hospital. His recovery became part of “the mythology that grew up around him,” said Mr. Gibson.
虽然很少有人能在暗杀企图中幸存，但许多人却能与癌症共存。教皇利奥的病情以及他在治疗期间的表现，可能会成为其他疾病患者的灵感来源。
And while few people survive assassination attempts, many people live with cancer. Pope Leo’s illness and how he behaves during treatment could serve as an inspiration to others suffering from disease.
“对于他来说，这也是一个机会，让他能在这段脆弱时期，像他在教皇任期的头一年半里那样，为许多人带来巨大的慰藉，”吉布森先生说。
“There’s also an opportunity for him in this vulnerability to be as great a comfort to many people as he was in the first year and a half of his papacy,” Mr. Gibson said.
望月崇子（Motoko Rich）是《纽约时报》驻罗马分社社长，负责报道意大利、梵蒂冈和希腊的新闻。
Motoko Rich is the Times bureau chief in Rome, where she covers Italy, the Vatican and Greece.