SEPTEMBER 9, 2025 • ARCHGH.ORG/TCH
SHEPHERD’S MESSAGE Archbishop Vásquez reflects on suffering, God’s love and a papal homily ▪ SEE PAGE 2
SEPTEMBER 9, 2025
texas catholic herald 1
A CHURCH FOR ALL PEOPLE Welcoming all into Church’s heart ▪ SEE PAGE 8
Proclaiming the Good News to the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston since 1964
VOL. 62, NO. 6
YOUNG PILGRIMS OF HOPE
SPIRITUALITY
Contemplating the ‘seven sorrows’ of the Blessed Mother BY JAMES RAMOS Texas Catholic Herald VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Around the world, Catholics recall the suffering of the Blessed Virgin Mary on the Sept. 15 Memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows. In 2020, just as the Church and the world entered the global pandemic, on the Friday before Holy Week, Pope Francis asked people to keep a long tradition of Catholic piety by focusing on “the suffering and sorrows of Our Lady.” “Honor Our Lady and say, ‘This is my mother,’ because she is mother. This is the title that she received from Jesus precisely there, at the cross,” the pope said at an April 2020 Mass. Jesus “did not make her prime minister or give her ‘functional’ titles [but] ‘mother.’” “Just disciple and mother — and in that way, as mother, we must think about her, seek her out, pray to her,” Pope Francis said. “She is
CNS PHOTO/LOLA GOMEZ
See SORROWS, page 3
Pope Leo XIV carries the Jubilee Cross as he walks to the altar before the start of a prayer vigil with young people gathered in Tor Vergata in Rome Aug. 2 during the Jubilee of Youth. Some 300 pilgrims from the Archdiocese journeyed to Rome for the special gathering.
FAITH SHINES AT JUBILEE OF YOUNG PEOPLE Young adults sent out as Pilgrims of Hope during the Jubilee Year
COLUMNISTS
A letter to Young Latino Catholics of Houston
BY ELIZABETH MORALES Texas Catholic Herald HOUSTON — Over 300 people from parishes and ministries throughout the Archdiocese traveled to Rome to attend the Jubilee of Young People, held July 28 to Aug. 3. One of many Jubilee events organized by the Vatican during the Holy Year as a way for pilgrims to encounter Christ, the Jubilee of Young People attracted more than half a million throughout its week-long series of events. More than one million from 146 countries attended the Aug. 3 closing Mass with Pope Leo XIV. Among the people attending were from music, ethnic, youth and various ministries of all ages from the Archdiocese. Auxiliary Bishop Italo Dell’Oro, CRS, accompanied 70 young adults on
SEE PAGE 12
WITHIN THE ARTS
New statue in Assisi celebrates Millennial saint SEE PAGE 17 THE FIRST WORD † 3
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a pilgrimage hosted by Angie Pometto, director of the Office of Young Adult and Campus Ministries. “My presence with them is part of my ministry here as an auxiliary bishop,” Bishop Dell’Oro said. “Being with them, walking with them, laughing with them, looking for a gelato with them.” He said one of his highlights was meeting Pope Leo XIV at the Aug. 6 general audience and being the main celebrant for a July 31 daily Mass for the pilgrimage group at the Altar of the Chair of St. Peter inside St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican. There, Father Tucker Redding, S.J., a pilgrimage chaplain and director of St. Mary at the Rice University Catholic Student Center, and Father Zachary Muldrow of the Archdiocese, along with 20 to 30
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See JUBILEE, page 10
Eucharist and charity: The traits that unite Frassati, Acutis BY JAMES RAMOS Texas Catholic Herald VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Leo XIV presided over his first canonization Mass Sept. 7, declaring the sainthood of two young Italians whose devotion to the Eucharist nourished a deep involvement in the cultures of their day. Pier Giorgio Frassati was born April 6, 1901, in Turin and died there July 4, 1925, of polio at the age of 24. Carlo Acutis was born to Italian parents May 3, 1991, in London and died in Monza, Italy, Oct. 12, 2006, of See SAINTS, page 4
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