Although the total was slightly higher from the 3.2 million visitors received by Pope Francis in 2015, for a jubilee year it still fell short of the 5.9 million pilgrims who visited in 2014.

Besides politics, readers were interested in stories about liturgy, racism, interfaith issues and gender.

Though he turned 80 a couple of weeks ago, Pope Francis did not slow down in 2016.

He prayed for people across the globe, and especially for the people of Aleppo.

“There are more martyrs in the world today than in the early centuries of Christianity,” Francis told thousands of pilgrims.

As the head of the Archdiocese of Brisbane on the east coast of Australia, the archbishop was a delegate to the meeting of the Synod of Bishops in Rome in 2015.