2011: Best of Pope Benedict XVI

What were the highlights of the papal year? Here's the Top 10 list from John Thavis of Catholic News Service:

An interfaith meeting in Assisi, a new book on Jesus of Nazareth and a website-launching tap on an iPad were among the highlights of 2011 for Pope Benedict XVI.

Although the year saw a further cutback in individual papal audiences, the 84-year-old pope still enjoyed a productive and busy 12 months, meeting privately with nearly 400 church or civil leaders, addressing more than 180 groups and presiding over about 40 public liturgies.

He traveled to Croatia, Spain, Germany and Benin, delivering 60 speeches on the road. In weekly talks at the Vatican, attended by nearly half a million people, he gave a series of reflections on the great teachers of the church and on prayer -- a continuation of the "back to basics" approach that has marked his pontificate.

The reduction of papal meetings and the introduction of a rolling platform for his entrance into St. Peter's Basilica fueled speculation about the pope's health. Close observers say that, like most octogenarians, the pontiff tires more easily today, but that he suffers no serious health problems.

The year 2011 saw two of Pope Benedict's favorite themes come into clearer focus: new evangelization and religious liberty. Increasingly, he has linked the two topics, telling bishops that both tasks require courageous truth-telling in sometimes hostile environments.

No doubt the pope has his own favorite remembrances of the closing year. From a journalist's point of view, here's a "top 10" list of moments from 2011 that seemed to capture what Pope Benedict is all about: Read the Top 10 list HERE.