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Pope Leo XIV Unveils Fresco at Sanctuary After Election Prayer
Confirmed
In Short: Pope Leo XIV has unveiled a fresco at the Sanctuary of Our Mother of Good Counsel, a place of pilgrimage for his Augustinian religious order, during a visit that also included a Mass and a call for unity amid societal divisions.
The fresco, depicting the pope praying, now adorns an upper cornice of the basilica, joining a handful of past popes whose visits were commemorated with portraits on the sanctuary's walls.
Pope Leo XIV, who visited the sanctuary on May 10, 2025, just two days after his election, emphasized the importance of interior life and warned of the "paradox" in Western societies where individual freedom coexists with a fear of judgment.
The sanctuary, managed by Augustinian friars and a place of pilgrimage since the 15th century, has special significance for the pope's Augustinian religious order.
What's still developing
- During his address, the pope called for a renewed commitment to unity as a response to the divisions afflicting the contemporary world.
- Addressing the participants as heirs to Lubich’s spiritual legacy and ministers of the Church in a fragmented world, the pope urged them to bear witness to the unity of the human family.
- “Indeed, we must become contemplatives!” the pope told the bishops, encouraging them to strengthen their interior lives.
- (OSV News) — The following is the full text of Pope Leo XIV’s general audience address given Sept.
- Leo recalled what he wrote then in the sanctuary’s guest book.
- 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.
- Leo’s namesake, Pope Leo XIII, elevated it to a minor basilica and expanded the adjacent convent in the early 1900s.
- The new pope wrote at the time that he felt the “need and profound desire” to come to the sanctuary after his election to pray before the Madonna of Good Counsel “who has accompanied me all my life with her maternal presence, with her wisdom and example of love for her son who is always the center of my faith.” Leo and the Vatican are stepping up activities after a summer lull.