ROME (AP) — The mere fact Federica Brignone accepted being named as one of Italy’s four flag bearers for the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics is a significant step in her return from severe injury.
“If I wasn’t optimistic, I wouldn’t be here today and I wouldn’t have put my skis back on after eight months,” Brignone said after being handed the flag by Italy President Sergio Mattarella on Monday.
Brignone, the defending overall World Cup skiing champion, broke multiple bones in her left leg in April.
After two surgeries and months of rehab, she returned to the snow last month and is now ready to ramp up her training to racing pace.
“Over the last two weeks I’ve made a big leap forward. I’ve been able to use my racing materials,” she said. “But I still haven’t tested myself on race-worthy snow or on a real race course. Those are the next steps.”
Brignone will start gate training next.
“I was going to start yesterday but it was too foggy,” she said. "I’ve been really sick with a fever for a week, and now I'm here (in Rome), so I haven’t been able to train the way I wanted to.”
The 35-year-old Brignone has won a silver and two bronzes at the Olympics and these would be her fifth Games if she returns in time. At 34 last season, she became the oldest women’s winner in World Cup history — a record recently broken by 41-year-old Lindsey Vonn.
Brignone has limited training to her home Valle d’Aosta region but plans to be on her skis non-stop through the holidays.
“I’ve been staying at home because, with my leg, we don’t have the certainty that everything goes right all of the time,” she said. “That’s why I’m still making trips to Turin (for physical therapy).”
So, will Brignone be able to enter a World Cup race or two before the Olympics?
“That would be great but I don’t even know if I can do a giant slalom yet,” she said. “So let’s take it step by step ... then when the time is right, I'll rejoin the team."
AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
From left, Italian athletes Federica Brignone, Amos Mosaner, Federico Pellegrino, Arianna Fontana, Italian President Sergio Mattarella, Rene' de Silvestro, right, and Chiara Mazzel, second from right, pose for a group photo, during the hand over ceremony of the Italian flag for the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympic games, at the Quirinale Presidential palace, in Rome, Monday, Dec. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
Italy's Federica Brignone delivers her speech during the hand over ceremony of the Italian flag by the Italian President Sergio Mattarella for the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympic games, at the Quirinale Presidential palace, in Rome, Monday, Dec. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
ROME (AP) — Pope Leo XIV urged Vatican cardinals on Monday to put their ambitions of power and personal interests aside, as he followed in Pope Francis’ footsteps and used a Christmas greeting to gently criticize his closest collaborators.
“Is it possible to be friends in the Roman Curia?” Leo asked the cardinals and bishops who make up the Curia, as the Holy See bureaucracy is known. “To have relationships of genuine fraternal friendship?”
The fact that Leo asked the question suggests that the American pope knows well that the Curia remains a difficult and sometimes toxic workplace, one that Francis would often eviscerate in his annual Christmas addresses.
Leo didn’t repeat Francis’ more biting critique — that Vatican clergy sometimes suffer from “spiritual Alzheimers,” the “cancer” of cliques, the “corruption” of ambition and “self-absorbed” idle gossip — and his tone was far more gentle and constructive.
But the underlying message remained. Leo, who was very close to Francis and worked in the Vatican for two years before his election, didn’t shy away from Francis’ tradition of using the Christmas occasion to urge Vatican bureaucrats to examine their consciences and change their ways for the good of the church.
“At times this bitterness finds its way among us as well, when, after many years of service in the Curia, we observe with disappointment that certain dynamics — linked to the exercise of power, the desire to prevail, or the pursuit of personal interests — are slow to change,” Leo said.
“Amid daily toil, it is a grace to find trustworthy friends, where masks fall away, no one is used or sidelined, genuine support is offered, and each person’s worth and competence are respected, preventing resentment and dissatisfaction.”
After Francis’ sometimes tumultuous 12-year pontificate, in which the Argentine Jesuit at times alienated conservatives and some in the Vatican bureaucracy, Leo has generally sought to be more of a peacemaker prizing unity.
He called Monday for Vatican bureaucrats to work to forge communion within the church and beyond.
“In a world wounded by discord, violence and conflict, where we also witness a growth in aggression and anger, often exploited by both the digital sphere and politics, Christmas invites everyone to work for peace and universal fraternity," he said.
In a separate initiative Monday, Leo sought to encourage the world’s Catholic priests amid the “crisis” of their dwindling numbers, which the pope blamed on a variety of challenges including suspicion as a result of clergy abuse scandals, loneliness and economic troubles.
Leo offered some proposals to help each individual become “a joyful man and a joyful priest,” in a document marking the 60th anniversary of two Vatican decrees about the training of future priests.
The number of priests worldwide has been falling steadily for several years, with the latest statistics from 2023 showing the global total at 406,996, down another 734 from the previous year. Only Africa and Asia showed growth in vocations.
A decade prior, in 2013, the total number of priests in the world stood at 415,348 and had risen that year by 1,035 men, according to the FIDES missionary news agency which reports Vatican statistics. But the downward trend started two years later and has been continuing more or less steadily ever since.
Leo called for better training in seminaries to help priests persevere, noting the “painful reality” of priests who leave only a few years after ordination. He called for “economic equalization” between priests working in poor and wealthy parishes, and for bishops to consider more options for priests to live in community to work against isolation and loneliness.
Leo, a priest of the Augustinian religious order which prioritizes community life, said everyone should look to the church’s practices to understand the reasons for the priest shortage and how to address them.
“It is true that the reasons for this crisis can often be varied and manifold, and depend specifically on the socio-cultural context,” he wrote. “At the same time, we must have the courage to make strong and liberating proposals to young people” to encourage them to consider a vocation to the priesthood.
Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
Pope Leo XIV delivers the Angelus noon prayer in St. Peter's Square, at the Vatican, Sunday, Dec. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
Pope Leo XIV delivers the Angelus noon prayer in St. Peter's Square, at the Vatican, Sunday, Dec. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
