Atalanta's hopes of silverware fading after more disappointment and Napoli held again

MILAN (AP) — Atalanta is losing hope of silverware match by match.

It followed up Wednesday’s disappointing — and controversial — defeat at Club Brugge in the Champions League with a goalless draw at home to relegation-threatened Cagliari in Serie A on Saturday.

However, third-placed Atalanta remained five points behind Napoli after the league leader was held to a third straight draw, this time 2-2 at fourth-placed Lazio.

That means Inter Milan can move to the top of Serie A with a win at bitter rival Juventus on Sunday.

Atalanta has won just one of its past six matches in all competitions and hosts Brugge on Tuesday in the return leg of the knockout playoff round.

Cagliari inched to five points above the relegation zone.

Atalanta had a number of players out with injuries and coach Gian Piero Gasperini opted to rest a host of other regulars between the Champions League matches.

Both Atalanta and Cagliari defended well in Bergamo and there was just one shot on target in the first half.

Atalanta thought it had broken the deadlock on the hour but Marco Brescianini’s effort was ruled out for a foul by Stefan Posch on Cagliari goalkeeper Elia Caprile.

Atalanta finished the match strongly and Caprile had to make a number of important saves.

Napoli was keen to get back to winning ways after draws against Roma and Udinese.

It looked like it turned the match around when it fought back to lead 2-1 in the 64th minute following a comical own goal.

Matteo Politano whipped in a cross from the right and Giacomo Raspadori’s shot went in off Lazio defender Mario Gila’s bottom and teammate Adam Marusic.

Lazio thought it levelled almost immediately — and in spectacular fashion — but Mattia Zaccagni’s acrobatic overhead kick was ruled out for offside.

The home side snatched a point three minutes from time when Boulaye Dia combined with Zaccagni on the right and cut inside to fire into the far bottom corner.

Gustav Isaksen gave Lazio the lead in the sixth minute with a powerful strike from 30 yards but it was cancelled out by Raspadori seven minutes later.

Isaksen hadn't scored since a late winner in the last league match against Napoli in December.

Santiago Giménez is proving well worth the 30 million euros ($31 million) AC Milan paid Feyenoord for him.

The Mexico forward netted his second goal in as many league matches — and his first at San Siro — to help Milan beat Hellas Verona 1-0.

Alex Jiménez started the move, sending Rafael Leão into the left of the area and he delicately lobbed it over a defender for Giménez to nod into an empty net in the 75th minute.

Milan was seventh, five points below fourth place. The Rossoneri host Feyenoord on Tuesday in the Champions League after losing the first leg 1-0.

Verona was three points off the drop zone.

AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

AC Milan's Rafael Leao crosses the ball from which AC Milan's Santiago Gimenez scores the opening goal during the Italian Serie A soccer match between AC Milan and Hellas Verona, at the San Siro Stadium in Milan, Italy, Saturday, Feb.15, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

AC Milan's Santiago Gimenez celebrates after scoring the opening goal of the game during the Italian Serie A soccer match between AC Milan and Hellas Verona, at the San Siro Stadium in Milan, Italy, Saturday, Feb.15, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

Napoli's Giacomo Raspadori, fourth from right, is congratulated after scoring his side's first goal during a Serie A soccer match between Lazio and Napoli in Rome, Italy, Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Napoli's goalkeeper Alex Meret fails to save the goal from Lazio's Gustav Isaksen during a Serie A soccer match between Lazio and Napoli in Rome, Italy, Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Napoli's players celebrate after Lazio's Adam Marusic scored an own goal during a Serie A soccer match between Lazio and Napoli in Rome, Italy, Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Lazio's Boulaye Dia, right, scores his side's 2nd goal during a Serie A soccer match between Lazio and Napoli in Rome, Italy, Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Lazio's Boulaye Dia (19) celebrates scoring his side's 2nd goal during a Serie A soccer match between Lazio and Napoli in Rome, Italy, Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Napoli's Stanislav Lobotka, front, applauds to fans at the end of a Serie A soccer match between Lazio and Napoli in Rome, Italy, Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Cagliari's Tommaso Augello reaches for the ball during the Italian Serie A soccer match between Atalanta and Cagliari at the Gewiss Stadium in Bergamo, North Italy - , Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025. (Spada/LaPresse via AP)

Atalanta's Ibrahim Sulemana goes for a header during the Italian Serie A soccer match between Atalanta and Cagliari at the Gewiss Stadium in Bergamo, North Italy - , Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025. (Spada/LaPresse via AP)

Atalanta's Mateo Retegui eyes the ball during the Italian Serie A soccer match between Atalanta and Cagliari at the Gewiss Stadium in Bergamo, Italy, Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025. (Spada/LaPresse via AP)

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Leo XIV laid out the vision of his papacy Saturday, identifying artificial intelligence as one of the most critical matters facing humanity and vowing to continue with some of the core priorities of Pope Francis.

But in a sign he was making the papacy very much his own, Leo made his first outing since his election to a sanctuary south of Rome that is dedicated to the Madonna and is of particular significance to his Augustinian order and his namesake, Pope Leo XIII.

Townspeople of Genazzano gathered in the square outside the main church housing the Madre del Buon Consiglio (Mother of Good Counsel) sanctuary as Leo greeted them and blessed them. The sanctuary, which is managed by Augustinian friars, has been a place of pilgrimage since the 15th century and the previous Pope Leo elevated it to a minor basilica and expanded the adjacent convent in the early 1900s.

After praying in the church, Leo greeted the crowd and told them they had both a gift and a responsibility in having the Madonna in their midst. He offered a blessing and then got back into the passenger seat of the car, a black Volkswagen, with Vatican security alongside.

The after-lunch outing came after Leo presided over his first formal audience, with the cardinals who elected him pope. In it Leo repeatedly cited Francis and the Argentine pope's own 2013 mission statement, making clear a commitment to making the Catholic Church more inclusive and attentive to the faithful and a church that looks out for the "least and rejected.”

Leo, the first American pope, told the cardinals that he was fully committed to the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, the 1960s meetings that modernized the church. He identified AI as one of the main issues facing humanity, saying it poses challenges to defending human dignity, justice and labor.

Leo referred to AI in explaining the choice of his name: His namesake, Pope Leo XIII, was pope from 1878 to 1903 and laid the foundation for modern Catholic social thought. He did so most famously with his 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum, which addressed workers’ rights and capitalism at the dawn of the industrial age. The late pope criticized both laissez-faire capitalism and state-centric socialism, giving shape to a distinctly Catholic vein of economic teaching.

In his remarks Saturday, Leo said he identified with his predecessor, who addressed the great social question of the day posed by the industrial revolution in the encyclical.

“In our own day, the church offers everyone the treasury of its social teaching in response to another industrial revolution and to developments in the field of artificial intelligence that pose new challenges for the defense of human dignity, justice and labor,” he said.

Toward the end of his pontificate, Francis became increasingly vocal about the threats to humanity posed by AI and called for an international treaty to regulate it. He warned that such powerful technology risks turning human relations into mere algorithms. Francis brought his message to the Group of Seven industrialized nations when he addressed their summit last year, insisting AI must remain human-centric so that decisions about when to use weapons or even less lethal tools always remain made by humans and not machines.

The late Argentine pope also used his 2024 annual peace message to call for an international treaty to ensure AI is developed and used ethically, arguing that a technology lacking human values of compassion, mercy, morality and forgiveness is too perilous to develop unchecked.

Francis in many ways saw the Chicago-born Augustinian missionary Robert Prevost as something of an heir apparent: He moved him to take over a small Peruvian diocese in 2014, where Prevost later became bishop and head of the Peruvian bishops conference, and then called him to Rome to take over one of the most important Vatican offices vetting bishop nominations in 2023.

The Vatican revealed Saturday that Leo would retain the motto and coat of arms that he had as bishop of Chiclayo, Peru. The motto, “In Illo uno unum,” was pronounced by St. Augustine in a sermon to explain that “although we Christians are many, in the one Christ we are one.”

In the speech, delivered in Italian in the Vatican’s synod hall — not the Apostolic Palace — Leo made repeated references to Francis and the mourning over his death. He held up Francis’ 2013 mission statement, “The Joy of the Gospel,” as something of his own marching orders.

He cited Francis' insistence on the missionary nature of the church and the need to make its leadership more collegial. He cited the need to pay attention to what the faithful say “especially in its most authentic and inclusive forms, especially popular piety.”

Again, referring to Francis' 2013 mission statement, Leo cited the need for the church to express “loving care for the least and rejected” and engage in courageous dialogue with the contemporary world.

Greeted by a standing ovation, Leo read from his prepared text, only looking up occasionally. Even when he first appeared to the world on Thursday night, Leo read from a prepared, handwritten text that he must have drafted sometime before his historic election or the hour or so after. He seemed most comfortable speaking off-the-cuff in the few words he pronounced in Spanish.

Prevost was elected the 267th pontiff on Thursday on the fourth ballot of the conclave, an exceptionally fast outcome given this was the largest and most geographically diverse conclave in history and not all cardinals knew one another before arriving in Rome.

Cardinals have said Prevost did not make any major speech during the pre-conclave discussions, and he carried into the conclave the traditional taboo precluding a pope from the United States given America's superpower status. But Prevost was already known to many.

They said he made an impression in smaller groups where English was the key language of communication in a conclave that brought together 133 cardinals from 70 countries.

Madagascar Cardinal Désiré Tsarahazana told reporters on Saturday that on the final ballot, Prevost had received “more” than 100 votes. That suggests an extraordinary margin, well beyond the two-thirds, or 89 votes, necessary to be elected.

Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican secretary of state who had been considered one of the top contenders to be pope, offered his congratulations on Saturday in a letter published in his hometown paper, Il Giornale di Vicenza.

Parolin praised Leo's grasp of today's problems, recalling his first words from the loggia when he spoke of the need for a peace that is "disarmed and disarming." Parolin said he had appreciated Prevost's leadership in Chiclayo, saying he helped handle a particularly thorny problem — with no details — and grew to appreciate his governance more closely at the Vatican handling the bishops' office.

Specifically, Parolin praised Leo's understanding of people and situations, his “calmness in argumentation, balance in proposing solutions, respect, care and love for everyone.”

A vendor sticks pictures of newly elected Pope Leo XIV onto rosaries in a religious souvenir shop in Rome, Saturday, May 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

Pope Leo XIV, left, is flanked by Monsignor Leonardo Sapienza, second from left, after his meeting with the College of Cardinals in the New Synod Hall at the Vatican, Saturday, May 10, 2025. (Vatican Media via AP)

Pope Leo XIV meets the College of Cardinals in the New Synod Hall at the Vatican, Saturday, May 10, 2025. (Vatican Media via AP)

Pope Leo XIV meets the College of Cardinals in the New Synod Hall at the Vatican, Saturday, May 10, 2025. (Vatican Media via AP)

Pope Leo XIV meets the College of Cardinals in the New Synod Hall at the Vatican, Saturday, May 10, 2025. (Vatican Media via AP)