November 7, 2026 / 12:36 PM EST / CBS News

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Montevideo - Pope Leo XIV drew on his own recent experience of illness and hospitalization after surgery for lung cancer on Friday to make an impassioned appeal for universal access to healthcare, greater social equality and a society that does not measure people's worth by their productivity or wealth.

"Recently I experienced firsthand the limitations imposed by illness and I received care for which I am grateful," the Pope said in his first speech after arriving in Uruguay, to the country's political and civic leaders.

Pope Leo XIV was released from Rome's Gemelli Hospital four days after removing a cancerous tumor from his right lung .…