GENAZZANO, Italy (AP) — Pope Leo XIV returned Monday to a sanctuary where he prayed just after his election and revealed a permanent sign of his devotion to the place: a fresco depicting him praying that now adorns an upper cornice of the basilica.
Leo unveiled the portrait before celebrating Mass with his fellow Augustinian brothers at the Sanctuary of Our Mother of Good Counsel in the medieval village of Genazzano south of Rome. He joins a handful of past popes whose visits to the sanctuary were commemorated with portraits that adorn its walls, going back to Pope Urban VIII in 1630.
Leo visited the sanctuary on May 10, 2025, just two days after his election and in his first outing as pope. The former Robert Prevost had been there many times before, since the place has special significance for the pope's Augustinian religious order.
The sanctuary is managed by Augustinian friars and has been a place of pilgrimage since the 15th century. Leo's namesake, Pope Leo XIII, elevated it to a minor basilica and expanded the adjacent convent in the early 1900s.
Leo referred to that 2025 outing during his homily at the basilica Monday, which commemorates the birth of Mary. Leo recalled what he wrote then in the sanctuary's guest book.

#pope #basilica #Monday

After 14 years of marriage to Alec Baldwin, Hilaria Baldwin has learned a thing or two about what it takes to make a relationship last — and she's sharing the rule she passes along to her friends.
The couple met in February 2011 and tied the knot the following year at the Basilica of St. Patrick's Old Cathedral in New York City. Hilaria, 42, has boiled down what she's learned from her marriage to Alec, 68, to one simple rule. "You both have to want to be there," she said, according to an article Fox News Digital published on Sunday, August 9.
"Whenever my friends are coming to me, and they're like it's a new relationship, or they're having a ***** p in it, I say, if both people don't really want to be there through your difficult moments, through your best moments, then it's just not going to probably work out," the Nation's Dumbest contestant explained.
Instagram/Hilaria Baldwin
For Hilaria and Alec, that mutual effort has been the glue. "Both Alec and I, through our ups and our downs and our sideways, we've wanted to be there," she said, the outlet reported. "And I think that that's what's kept us strong."

#baldwin #learned

Camila Alves McConaughey shared a memorable moment in Vatican City this week as she and husband Matthew McConaughey met Pope Leo XIV during his weekly general audience at St. Peter's Basilica.
The Brazilian-American model, entrepreneur, and philanthropist joined the Oscar-winning actor for the special meeting while the couple continues spending time in Italy, where Matthew is filming his upcoming Netflix movie Positano. The visit combined faith, family, and their European summer.
Camilla Alves, Matthew McConaughey on June 29, 2025 (WWD via Getty Images)
The couple greeted Pope Leo XIV during the Wednesday general audience in Vatican City on August 5. Photos from the event show Matthew shaking hands with the pontiff while Camila smiled beside him as they shared the brief but meaningful encounter.
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#alves #shared

The transfer market is reaching boiling point while institutional football goes through turbulent times. This August 5 comes loaded with top-level meetings in Madrid and Morocco, tensions in Vallecas, moves involving young South American prospects heading to Serie A, and an emotional tribute that has broken the hearts of both Barça and Milan fans alike.
FC Barcelona sporting director Deco has urgently traveled to Madrid to hold a summit meeting with Julián Álvarez's camp. The Blaugrana club is looking to draw up the final strategy and try to sign the Argentine striker before the market closes, with the player's own approval to push for his departure.
Franco Mastantuono's move to Fiorentina is on the verge of being unblocked. Real Madrid views a loan or a transfer with an option to buy for the Argentine gem to a top-level Serie A club very positively, in order to guarantee his development in a highly competitive league.
Milan turned out in force for the final and emotional farewell to legend Franco Baresi. Thousands of fans packed the Basilica of Sant'Ambrogio for a funeral where historic figures such as Maldini, Van Basten, and Baggio said goodbye through tears and applause to the eternal Rossonero captain.
Gianni Infantino has called an emergency meeting in Rabat alongside top FIFA executives and figures such as Arsène Wenger. Pressure is mounting on the organization's president following disagreements with member ****** ociations over commercial plans and the global calendar.

#madrid #franco #market

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Tadej Pogačar will start his quest for a record-equaling fifth Tour de France **** le when the race kicks off in neighboring Spain on Saturday.
The elite Grand Tour begins with a team time trial in Barcelona, an opening stage which will take riders past the city’s famous Sagrada Familia basilica and finish with a short climb up a hill overlooking the popular tourist destination.
Pogačar is the overall favorite thanks to his Tour victories in 2020, 2021, 2024 and 2025, as well as his strong form this year.
The Slovenian sensation is aiming to join the select crowd of Belgian Eddy Merckx, Spaniard Miguel Indurain and Frenchmen Jacques Anquetil and Bernard Hinault as the only riders to have won cycling's most prestigious race on five occasions.
Jonas Vingegaard is once again his biggest challenger. The Dane took home the yellow jersey in 2022 and 2023 and is aiming to complete the men’s Giro-Tour double.

SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, Spain (AP) — Even popes have travel delays. Lucky for Pope Leo XIV, King Felipe VI offered a way out, and a way home.
Leo's Iberia charter, due to take him back to Rome after a weeklong visit to Spain, was grounded by a technical problem Friday, prompting Spain's king to offer his private jet instead.
Felipe escorted Leo to his Falcon on the tarmac at the airport in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, in the Canary Islands. Leo and members of his delegation boarded the plane and took off, more than three hours after he was originally due to leave.
The glitch marked an unusual end to an otherwise successful trip to Madrid, Barcelona and the Canary Islands. Leo pressed his migration message and also inaugurated the new tower of the Sagrada Familia basilica.
The Iberia pilot said the engine had failed to start after Leo had boarded. Initial efforts to fix it failed, forcing all passengers to disembark. Iberia said it was sending another plane from Madrid to fetch the Vatican officials and journalists who were not with Leo on the Falcon. The Spanish archipelago is closer to Africa than the Iberian Peninsula.

Catholic leaders visited the basilica beneath Lake Iznik, believed to be the site of the First Council of Nicaea, after falling water levels revealed the submerged ruins.
In 2014, the remains of a large basilica under Turkey’s Lake Iznik were discovered by an archaeologist following an aerial photo revealing its outline. This weekend, global Catholic leaders traveled to this ancient site, believed to be the location of one of the most important events in Christian history.
Mustafa Sahin, a Turkish archaeologist, ultimately uncovered what new evidence suggests is the location of the First Cou

When it was discovered a decade ago, the 4th-century basilica of Nicaea was totally submerged, its importance to early Christian history hidden beneath a lake in northwestern Turkey.
Now, the church in Iznik, a small town several hours from Istanbul, stands on dry land, its ruins exposed as the waters that engulfed it for more than 700 years have receded due to climate change.
Known as the Basilica of the Holy Fathers, it marks the site of one of the early Church's most important gatherings which took place in Nicaea 12 years after the Roman Empire legalised Christianity, ending years of per