Most popular print stories for 2016

By Jim Lackey

Well, this might be a surprise! Or maybe not. Our list below of the year’s most popular print stories looks nothing like our list of most popular video stories for 2016.

But if we’ve learned anything in the last seven or eight years that we’ve been supplying video stories to our clients, print storytelling and video storytelling are like the proverbial apples and oranges — each appealing in different ways to different types of news consumers.

Following is our list of most-read print stories, according to our mobile-friendly public site, “CNS top stories.”

Actor Jim Caviezel pays his respects at the casket of Mother Angelica before her April 1 funeral Mass at the the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Hanceville, Ala. Mother Angelica, who founded the Eternal Word Television Network and turned it into one of the world’s largest religious media operations, died March 27 at age 92. (CNS photo/Jeffrey Bruno, EWTN) See MOTHER-ANGELICA-FUNERAL April 1, 2016.

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Actor Jim Caviezel pays his respects at the casket of Mother Angelica before her April 1 funeral Mass. (CNS/Jeffrey Bruno, EWTN)

1. Homily: ‘God was full of surprises when it came to Mother Angelica’

2. For Catholic astronauts, flying to space doesn’t mean giving up the faith

3. Pope announces 17 new cardinals, including three from U.S.

4. Christians should apologize for helping to marginalize gays, pope says

5. Final resting place: Vatican releases instruction on burial, cremation

6. Pope offers red hat to priest whose story moved him to tears

Pope Francis arrives for Mass in Malmo, Sweden, Nov. 1. (CNS/Paul Haring)

7. Pope offers new beatitudes for saints of a new age

8. Military mantra, Catholic faith drove terminally ill woman to meet the pope

9. Pope meets parents of U.S. student found dead in Rome

10. Pope snaps at pilgrim who caused him to fall into boy in wheelchair