It was one of the year’s biggest stories — the selection of the first American pope — and an Associated Press journalist was interviewing the pope’s brother at his home in suburban Chicago. Suddenly, they heard a ringing coming from the basement. “That might be the pope,” the new pontiff’s brother said.
Indeed, the man who had emerged hours earlier on the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica as Pope Leo XIV was calling to catch up with his older brother. Obed Lamy, a video journalist, listened and recorded as the conversation played out on speaker.
“I was shaking because I didn’t know what the pope would say,” Lamy said. “Am I supposed to say something or not say anything?”
In a year marked by political strife, natural disasters, and other calamities around the world, 2025 also had its share of uplifting moments. AP journalists were in the middle of many of them.
Some found stories of joy amid disaster, including a wedding in a typhoon-flooded church in the Philippines and a youth theater group that staged a production weeks after a devastating wildfire in California. Some became part of the stories they were covering, simply by being there. In Seattle, an AP photographer broke the news to a scientist that she had won a Nobel Prize.
The pope was on the line
Obed Lamy was among many reporters who went to the home of John Prevost in New Lenox, Illinois, after his brother became the pope.
I had arrived at Prevost’s home in the early evening after driving three hours from Indianapolis, where I am based. After walking by other media outside, I knocked on the door. Prevost let me in.
As we talked, a ringing came from the basement. Prevost hurried to a tablet downstairs and I followed, my camera on. He found he had a few missed calls from his brother. He called the pope back, using a speaker to play the audio out loud. The pope picked up.
I got the shot — the new pontiff’s voice speaking to his older brother, asking him why he hadn’t been answering his calls.
“Well, first you need to know you’re on the air right now,” the older brother responded. “This is the first time I’m hearing that this thing rang.”
The conversation went on for just a few minutes. They talked like any other pair of siblings. He told the pope, “Oh, we’re coming to Rome.” And the pope said, “Oh, where are you going to sleep?” It was interesting the pope himself did not know what the accommodations for his family would look like.
Weddings Amid Floods
Photographer Aaron Favila raced to cover a wedding at a flooded church just north of Manila after getting a tip from a photographer colleague. I had an hour window to make it to the venue and had to drive out of town, crossing several flooded roads during a heavy downpour.
The flooding in the area was too deep for our vehicle, so we had to stop. Luckily, a rescue truck passed by, and I rode that.
The groom, Jade Rick Verdillo, told me they were eager to go ahead with the ceremony despite the floodwaters. “We’ve been through a lot. This is just one of the struggles that we’ve overcome,” he said.
If I was shooting for a deadline story, I would have run out after the first kiss. But for this one, I stuck till the end to make sure I captured every moment … just like a wedding photographer.
Youth Theater Productions Rise from Wildfire Ashes
Reporter Jocelyn Gecker covered opening night of a Southern California youth theater group after the Palisades wildfire destroyed their theater and many cast members’ homes. Rehearsals for the group’s upcoming musical, “Crazy for You,” had started on Jan. 6. The next day, the Palisades Fire ripped through their community. But the show would go on, said director Lara Ganz, whose family also lost their home.
Witnessing opening night was a gift. It was an evening of such intense emotions jumbled together: joy and pain, heartbreak and happiness, grief and pride. It was a light in the darkness, as one father told me.
