OCTOBER 28, 2025 • ARCHGH.ORG/TCH
COURAGE AND COMPASSION TO SERVE Firefighters Mass honors fallen first responders ▪ SEE PAGE 8
OCTOBER 28, 2025
texas catholic herald 1
KINDER AWARDS
Two Catholic school teachers earn life-changing awards ▪ SEE PAGE 9
Proclaiming the Good News to the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston since 1964
FROM ALOYSIUS TO ZÉLIE
VOL. 62, NO. 9
MINISTRY
East meets West for Nov. 22 St. Charbel Mass Maronite saint known for monastic simplicity, healings BY ANNETTE BAIRD Herald Correspondent HOUSTON — For the first time in the Archdiocese, there will be an encounter of Catholics from Eastern and Western traditions to celebrate the life and legacy of St. Charbel Mahklouf, the first Maronite saint inscribed on the Latin rite calendar. The gathering, to be held at the CoCathedral of the Sacred Heart, 1111 St. Joseph Pkwy., on Nov. 22 — a significant date in the celebration of St. Charbel, has been years in the making. The Maronite community of Our Lady of the Cedars in southwest Houston had always hoped to offer an opportunity for Catholics See CHARBEL, page 5
SPIRITUALITY PHOTOS COURTESY OF ST. ANTHONY OF PADUA PARISH - THE WOODLANDS
Above, a woman prays before a row of relics during an All Saints’ Day event at the Our Lady of the Angels Chapel at St. Anthony of Padua Parish in The Woodlands in 2024. The parish will once again open its chapel with hundreds of relics available for veneration during an All Saints’ Day celebration on Nov. 1. The parish is also hosting a festival on the same day. Below, a close up view of a reliquary of the Holy Innocents.
St. Anthony of Padua in The Woodlands opens doors to largest parish reliquary in Archdiocese
HOUSTON (OSV News) — It seems unusual that our Church liturgical calendar schedules two major celebrations on days that are back-to-back. But that is precisely the situation with the solemnity of All Saints, a liturgical feast, and the Commemoration of the Faithful Departed (All Souls), a liturgical observance. All Saints is a Churchwide holy day of obligation and normally celebrated on Nov. 1. If the first day of November falls on a Saturday or Monday, at least in the U.S., the obligation to attend Mass is abrogated, as it is in the Archdiocese of GalvestonHouston. All Souls’ Day takes place on Nov. 2, unless it falls on a Sunday, then the celebration is held on Nov. 3. During these early November celebrations, those of us still living (the “church militant”) unite our hearts with, and in a special way remember,
THE WOODLANDS — On with Jesus and the saints, such as Nov. 1, the Solemnity of All Saints, St. bones and other body fragments, their Anthony of Padua personal belongings Catholic Church in or items touched to BY ELIZABETH MORALES The Woodlands will their bodies or tombs. Texas Catholic Herald open the doors of Our The chapel Lady of the Angels Chapel to one of the opened in 2022 with 28 relics during largest reliquaries in the Archdiocese, the aftermath of the pandemic and has with 180 relics, at from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. accumulated over six times the number of The relics, usually housed in glass relics in less than three years. cases on the chapel’s walls, will be Jerry Trzeciak, director of Kolbe displayed inside the chapel throughout Prison Ministries North and St. Anthony the day and labeled for visitors to of Padua parishioner, chaired the identify and venerate. effort with his wife Jean in August 2019 to With relics from the Holy Family, the raise $7 million to build the chapel. 12 Apostles, the first martyrs, Fathers of Launched in November the Church and many more, the special 2019, the parish raised half of the amount day is an opportunity to be surrounded See RELICS, page 4 with physical objects directly associated
A SHEPHERD’S MESSAGE † 2
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COLUMNISTS † 10 - 11
The history behind All Saints’ and All Souls’ Days
See HISTORY, page 3
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ESPAÑOL † 15 - 16
| AROUND THE ARCHDIOCESE † 18