From jubilant celebrations to moments of prayer and anguish, 2025 brought Catholics in Galveston-Houston and all around the world together for pilgrimages, liturgies and parish events marking a historic Jubilee Year.
A statue of Mary rests nearly untouched in the rubble of a destroyed home in Altadena, Calif., Jan. 17, 2025, in the aftermath of the Eaton Fire, which began Jan. 7. Fires across the Los Angeles area have killed at least 27 people, destroyed more than 12,000 structures and charred more than 60 square miles. The Palisades and Eaton wildfires continue to burn as of Jan. 17. (OSV News photo/Bob Roller)
Capt. Bryan Nassour of the Los Angeles Fire Department poses outside the destroyed Corpus Christi Church in Pacific Palisades on the west side of Los Angeles Jan. 15, 2025, in the aftermath of the wildfires. Nassour and other first responders help to recover items out of the church during the fire. (OSV News photo/Bob Roller)
Memorial Drive, a main road in Houston, is seen Jan. 21, 2025, covered in snow and empty during peak traffic hours as winter storm Enzo passes through the city. A rare frigid storm charged through Texas and the northern Gulf Coast, blanketing New Orleans and Houston with snow, closing highways, grounding nearly all flights and canceling school for millions of students more used to hurricane dismissals than snow days. (OSV News photo/Arathy Somasekhar, Reuters)
Newly appointed Archbishop Joe S. Vásquez greets a woman after concelebrating a Jan. 20, 2025, Mass at the Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart in Houston. Earlier in the day Pope Francis appointed then-Bishop Vásquez, head of the Diocese of Austin, Texas, to succeed Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo of of Galveston-Houston, 75, who is retiring. (OSV News photo/Jonah Dycus, courtesy Archdiocese of Houston)
Cardinal DiNardo ordains a new permanent deacon during an Ordination Mass in February. (Photo by James Ramos/Herald)
Archbishop Joe S. Vásquez smiles as he processes out of the Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart at the conclusion of his Installation Mass in March. (Photo by James Ramos/Herald)
A seagull rests on a statue of St. Paul near the chimney on the Vatican's Sistine Chapel May 8, 2025, the second day of the conclave. (OSV News photo/Kevin Coombs, Reuters)
Pope Leo XIV, right, stands in the Sistine Chapel among cardinals after being elected at the Vatican, May 8, 2025. He became the first American pope in history. (OSV News photo/Francesco Sforza, Vatican Media via Reuters)
U.S. cardinals receive a sendoff from seminarians at the Pontifical North American College in Rome May 6, 2025, as they prepare to travel to their temporary residences inside the Vatican where they will stay during the conclave to elect a new pope. From left they are Cardinals Blase J. Cupich of Chicago; Daniel N. DiNardo, retired archbishop of Galveston-Houston; Christophe Pierre, papal nuncio to the United States; and Canadian Cardinal Gérald C. Lacroix of Québec. (CNS photo/Kendall McLaren)
Pope Leo XIV, the former Cardinal Robert F. Prevost, waves to the crowds in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican after his election as pope May 8, 2025. The new pope was born in Chicago. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)
Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, who has chosen the papal name Leo XIV, speaks on the central balcony of St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican May 8, 2025, following his election during the conclave. He is the first American pope in history. (OSV News photo/Yara Nardi, Reuters)
Pope Leo XIV processes out of the Sistine Chapel May 9, 2025, after celebrating his first Mass as pope with the cardinals who elected him at the Vatican the previous day. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)
Priests process down the aisle of the Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart at Chrism Mass in March. (Photo by James Ramos/Herald)
Pope Leo XIV delivers a video message during a public celebration hosted by the Chicago White Sox and the Archdiocese of Chicago for the election of Pope Leo XIV, featuring a Mass at Rate Field in Chicago June 14, 2025. (OSV News photo/Carlos Osorio, via Reuters)
Pope Leo XIV presents the pallium to Archbishop Joe S. Vásquez of Galveston-Houston during Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican June 29, 2025, the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul. The pallium symbolizes the archbishop’s authority and unity with the pope. (CNS photo/Lola Gomez)
Crosses hang on a wall marked by the flood water at Camp Mystic in Kerr County, Texas, July 7, 2025, in the aftermath of deadly flooding. Flash floods in Texas killed more than 100 people over the Fourth of July holiday weekend, including girls attending a summer camp, and left others still missing. (OSV News photo/Sergio Flores, Reuters)
El Papa León XIV lleva la Cruz del Jubileo mientras camina hacia el altar antes del inicio de la vigilia con los jóvenes reunidos en Tor Vergata, Roma, el 2 de agosto de 2025, durante el Jubileo de los Jóvenes. (Foto CNS/Lola Gomez)
Pope Leo XIV holds the Jubilee Cross as young people gather around him during a prayer vigil at Tor Vergata in Rome Aug. 2, 2025, part of the Jubilee of Youth celebrations. (CNS photo/Lola Gomez)
A man prays near crosses outside Annunciation Church in Minneapolis Aug. 28, 2025, following a shooting the previous day. A shooter opened fire with a rifle through the windows of the school's church and struck children attending Mass Aug. 27 during the first week of school, killing two and wounding 21 people in an act of violence the police chief called "absolutely incomprehensible." (OSV News photo/Tim Evans, Reuters)
Pope Leo XIV prays before a statue of Mary and the Child Jesus behind the relics of Sts. Carlo Acutis and Pier Giorgio Frassati during the Mass for their canonization in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican Sept. 7, 2025. (CNS photo/Lola Gomez)
Pope Leo XIV smiles as he receives a purebred Arabian horse donated by a Polish horse breeder at the Vatican Oct. 15, 2025. The pope often traveled by horse when serving as a missionary in Peru. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)
Pope Leo XIV is welcomed to the presidential palace in Ankara, Turkey, by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan Nov. 27, 2025, the first stop on Pope Leo's first foreign papal trip. (CNS photo/Lola Gomez)
Pope Leo XIV greets members of the Little Sisters of the Poor during a visit to their nursing home in Istanbul, Turkey, Nov. 28, 2025. The pope met with residents and religious in one of his first stops in the city during his apostolic journey to Turkey and Lebanon. (CNS photo/Lola Gomez)
Pope Leo XIV and Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople attend a prayer service Nov. 29, 2025, in the Patriarchal Cathedral of St. George in Istanbul. (CNS photo/Lola Gomez)
Pope Leo XIV greets the crowd from a mini popemobile during an event with Lebanese young people in the square in front of the Maronite Patriarchate of Antioch in Bkerké, Lebanon, Dec. 1, 2025. (CNS photo/Lola Gomez)
Pope Leo XIV greets people who came to pray with him by a Marian statue near the Spanish Steps in the center of Rome Dec. 8, 2025, the feast of the Immaculate Conception. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)
