Pope Francis celebrates Mass at the Shrine of Czestochowa, July 28, 2016. (L'Osservatore Romano / CNA.)
Pope Francis celebrates Mass at the Shrine of Czestochowa, July 28, 2016. (L'Osservatore Romano / CNA.) (photo: Screenshot)

News Highlights of 2016 (12/31/2016)

This weekend on Register Radio, Matthew Bunson talks with Register correspondents Peter Jesserer Smith and Joe Pronechen about the most important news stories of 2016. Then he talks to Register Managing Editor Tom Wehner about what it was like to cover the news in the wild and unpredictable year that was. Join Matthew Bunson, senior editor with the National Catholic Register, for a Year End special edition of Register Radio.

Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki of Cologne attends a German Synodal Way assembly on March 9, 2023.

Four German Bishops Resist Push to Install Permanent ‘Synodal Council’

Given the Vatican’s repeated interventions against the German process, the bishops said they would instead look to the Synod of Bishops in Rome. Meanwhile, on Monday, German diocesan bishops approved the statutes for a synodal committee; and there are reports that the synodal committee will meet again in June.

Palestinian Christians celebrate Easter Sunday Mass at Holy Family Church in Gaza City on March 31, amid the ongoing battles Israel and the Hamas militant group.

People Explain ‘Why I Go to Mass’

‘Why go to Mass on Sundays? It is not enough to answer that it is a precept of the Church. … We Christians need to participate in Sunday Mass because only with the grace of Jesus, with his living presence in us and among us, can we put into practice his commandment, and thus be his credible witnesses.’ —Pope Francis