The history of the National Catholic Register mirrors the history of the Catholic Church in America in the 20th century. That’s because that history wasn’t just observed by Register writers. It was made by Register readers.

The Register exists for its readers. Its readers form a kind of family that has a lot in common with real families. We have shared disappointments (as in our coverage of 2002’s scandals) and joys (as in our coverage of the Great Jubilee Year 2000).

We shared sadness, as when Cardinal John O’Connor died, but we also shared a common perspective on that sadness (our headline: “Thank You, Lord, for Giving Him to Us”). In a book that was made of front pages worldwide announcing the death of Pope John Paul II, the Register’s headline stands out: “John Paul, Pray for Us!”

We have shared great hope, also. Think of headlines like “Vocations Surge” or the headline that quoted Pope Benedict XVI’s own description upon seeing the enormous crowd awaiting him at World Youth Day in Cologne: “An Explosion of Joy.”

Readers share in the discussion on the letters page, they share the direction of the paper in the story ideas they send in, and they even share their baby pictures in our Baby Mugs feature.

But most importantly, they carry out the Church's mission, of which we are only a messenger.

The Register has a long history as the launching pad of apostles.

Father Robert Fox was born in 1927, the year our national edition was founded. He tells the story of how his parents sustained the family’s faith on a farm in a part of South Dakota where there were few opportunities for faith formation.

“We grew up under very poor circumstances. We didn’t have a Catholic high school in Watertown, but our family did receive the National Catholic Register. I would wait for it to arrive in the mail every Tuesday and I would read it cover to cover.”

Our first readers were Catholics in the mold of Father Fox and of our founder, Msgr. Matthew Smith.

They were from immigrant families. They were people who had the spirit, imagination and courage to strike out for a new world, leaving their comfortable mode of existence behind (to use John Paul's phrase).

If you read our Travel: History and Saints page regularly, you have seen many of their stories. They constructed the nation’s most beautiful monuments to the faith. And they often did it by hand, harnessing the skills of craftsmen in their own community who were willing to give their time after work.

They built the Catholic institutions of America with a little money and a lot of determination. They were entrepreneurs of the faith, creating structures to plant the faith in the hearts and minds of Americans.

The Register shared in their struggle.

The paper wasn’t a product of “ghetto Catholicism” — it was savvy and substantial, showing a mature Church that could handle itself in the modern world.

We hear Father Fox’s story again and again from readers today.

We hear it from well-known Catholic leaders like George Weigel, who said, “The Register in its present form is an indispensable source of news and insight for Catholics who are serious about the renewal of the Church.”

But we also hear it from leaders like the teacher who wrote and told us, “You have expertly blended the local, national and international aspects in your paper so that it gently refuses me to be complacent in my Catholicity on any level.”

Thus, from one source — the Register — the Church’s riches reach not just our readers, but those our readers touch, whether they touch a worldwide audience or classrooms of students.

We know that the Church is changing the world. It’s not the other way around, and Register readers’ mark will be felt not just in our times, but in eternity.

As we chronicle how this is happening, we want to communicate the excitement we feel at successes, and the optimism we feel about the next chapter in the Church’s history.

As we said at the beginning of our anniversary celebration, the Register doesn’t think the Church in America is a shadow of its former self —  we know it’s a flicker of its future glory. This isn't a foolish hope. It’s the serious hope of the cross.

There aren’t many places you will find that perspective, but the Register has brought it to you for four generations.

And our prediction was correct: In 2007, we spent a year celebrating the 80th anniversary of the Register. But our anniversary didn’t look so much like an old institution passing a landmark as like a young apostolic initiative making a new beginning.

In our 80th anniversary year, your weekly Register came to your home with a new look to your computer with a new website.

We are renewed and ready for the future. As another headline put it — in a phrase that became an unofficial motto for our anniversary year — we aren't just looking back with gratitude at 80 years. We are “Looking Forward With Hope” to many more.