Summer Slowdown

June 21 is the first day of summer, and the inevitable slowing down has begun. School has ended in most places. Families have fewer commitments, vacation schedules are beginning, and the Register is slowing down, too.

Next week, the Register will come as usual, but we’re planning ways to make it count for more, because its issue dates will stretch over two weeks instead of one.

For subscribers, this is good news and bad news. The good news: Your subscription will last longer, because we will deliver the same number of issues over a longer period of time now. The bad news is somewhat mitigated: Yes, we will be biweekly in our print edition, but our new website means you can go online to get a daily, not just weekly, dose of the Register.

We’ll see you there! God bless.

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