Russell Shaw, who was presented with the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars’ Founders Award in 2022, passed from this life on January 6, 2026. We are pleased to reprint with permission the fine obituary written by Jonah McKeown for the National Catholic Register here.
Russell Shaw, an esteemed veteran of Catholic media and communications whose career spanned more than six decades, died the morning of Jan. 6 at the age of 90.
A prolific author and commentator, Shaw wrote more than two dozen books and countless articles for a wide variety of Catholic publications, including the Register, which ran dozens of his columns over a period of nearly 30 years.
Former colleagues and friends recalled Shaw as a disciplined man of great intellect and tremendous insight regarding the Catholic Church in the United States, as well as a warm, quick-witted and attractive follower of Christ.
Matthew Bunson, vice president and editorial director of EWTN News and a mentee of Shaw’s, called him “one of the greatest minds in the American Catholic press.” Shaw, Bunson said, was an astute observer of the U.S. Church who had his “finger on the pulse” of many important trends — especially during his lengthy time working for major Church institutions, but also long afterward, even into old age.
Championed the Role of the Laity
Bunson noted that Shaw was very interested in championing the role of the Catholic laity and interpreting the teaching of the Second Vatican Council, as well as exploring the concept of papal primacy. Other key themes in his considerable body of work included advocating for transparency in the Church, speaking out against clericalism and drawing attention to the concept of one’s personal vocation.
“His legacy was his institutional memory — he had the ability to contextualize American Catholic history in a way that was truly extraordinary,” Bunson recalled.
Bunson said the most enduring lesson that observers can take from Shaw’s full life is that Shaw understood the fundamental importance of proclaiming the Gospel in a rapidly changing world by means of Catholic social communications — heeding the call of the Second Vatican Council to “use all the means of social communications, but doing it faithfully,” Bunson said.
On a personal note, Bunson also described Shaw as a “delightfully well-rounded” person with a sense of humor who could discuss The Simpsons as readily as he could discuss Catholicism.
“He was an authentic Christian gentleman, at a time when they’re hard to find,” Bunson said.
Communications Chief
A Washington, D.C., native, Shaw spent several decades working as head of communications for the U.S. bishops’ conference, and a further decade working in communications for the Knights of Columbus, the prominent Catholic fraternal and charitable organization.
From 1997 onward, after “retiring” to a life of freelance journalism, Shaw’s written work reached readers of a wide variety of Catholic publications, including Our Sunday Visitor (OSV), America magazine, and L’Osservatore Romano, as well as secular publications like The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Times.
Shaw also served as a consultor to the Pontifical Council for Social Communications and was a member of Opus Dei, the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem, and the Knights of Columbus.
‘A Man of Deep Catholic Character’
Francis X. Maier, who was editor-in-chief of the Register during the years that Shaw was running the bishops’ communications and counted Shaw as a friend for 45 years, called him a “man of deep Catholic character, exceptional intellect, and great professional skill.”
“He was one of the best writers I ever worked with, and no one excelled him in his knowledge of American Catholic history and issues. He had the well-earned admiration of scores of bishops, including my former boss, Archbishop Charles Chaput [of Philadelphia],” Maier told the Register.
“Above all, Russ was the model of lay Catholic discipleship: committed to God’s Word and the pursuit of holiness, and faithful to his family, to Jesus Christ, and to his Church,” Maier said. “He’ll be sorely missed by everyone who had the gift of knowing him.”
Georgetown Grad
Shaw was born on May 19, 1935, and grew up in the nation’s capital. He received a bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University in 1956 and a master’s degree in English literature, also from Georgetown, in 1960.
Soon after graduation, Shaw spent a year working as a reporter for the newspaper of the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., The Catholic Standard. From there he joined the staff of what at that time was called the National Catholic Welfare Conference News Service (NCWC), the bishop-owned outlet which was later became Catholic News Service (now OSV News). In his nine years at NCWC, he covered the national news desk, writing about the Supreme Court and covering other beats.
In 1966, Shaw became director of publications and information of the National Catholic Educational Association (NCEA). Three years later, he joined the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB) and United States Catholic Conference (USCC) — the precursor to what would eventually become the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) in 2001 — as director of the National Catholic Office for Information.
U.S. Bishops’ Conference
He spent 18 years at the conference shaping the bishops’ communication and media relations strategy, ghostwriting pastoral letters, served as press secretary of the U.S. delegations to world Synods of Bishops held in Rome between 1971 and 1987, and as press secretary to the U.S. cardinals taking part in the two papal election conclaves of 1978. He also coordinated media relations for Pope St. John Paul II’s pastoral visits to the U.S. in 1979 and 1987.
Upon leaving the bishops’ conference in 1987, Shaw became director of information for the Knights of Columbus, a position he held until 1997. While he had been moonlighting as a freelance writer for decades prior, he began writing full-time after leaving the Knights.
In addition to his journalism and columns, Shaw authored “close to 25 or even 30” books, including a couple of novels, according to his daughter, Elizabeth Shaw. He also contributed to the New Catholic Encyclopedia and the Catholic Social Sciences Encyclopedia. His career, his daughter said, was a “veritable alphabet soup.”
Shaw married Carmen, now deceased, in 1958 and the couple had five children and numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren during their nearly 64 years of marriage.
Wise Counselor
Mike Aquilina, co-founder of the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology, told the Register that when he took his full-time job in Catholic publishing in 1993, someone suggested he call Shaw and ask his advice.
“He was very generous with his time and counsel. I’ve gone back to that well many times over the decades. I could ask Russ about anything and expect a straight answer. He was frank, candid, always respectful of others, often funny, never uncharitable,” Aquilina recalled.
Whether the wider Catholic public knows his name or not, Aquilina argued that because of Shaw’s prominent roles in the U.S. Church over the course of decades, “much of what you and I learned about the faith, we learned from Russell Shaw” — he wrote statements for the bishops and for the Knights that made news headlines, and further told the Church’s story as a prolific journalist in his own right.
Aquilina recalled going with friends to visit Shaw a few months ago in the assisted living facility where he was. Even in a weakened state, Aquilina said Shaw was still getting up early every day and writing — this time, a book on Flannery O’Connor.
“God had given Russ great gifts, and Russ was not about to set them aside. … He was very much like an older brother to many journalists of my generation,” Aquilina said.
“For many decades, he was the voice of the Church,” he added. “As spokesman for the U.S. bishops and then for the Knights of Columbus, he gave us words for understanding the great events of our times: the Second Vatican Council, the changes in the liturgy, the election of popes, and the scandals.”
‘Unsung Hero’ of Catholic Journalism
Greg Erlandson, a Catholic journalist and editor who first met Shaw when Erlandson worked at the Register back in the early 1980s, told the Register that he considers Shaw an “unsung hero” of Catholic journalism and a singular personality — not always narrowly predictable, hopeful for the future even if not always openly optimistic, and fiercely interested in the role of the laity in Catholic life.
Recalling Shaw’s love of and loyalty to the Catholic Church despite the challenges it has faced during his lifetime, Erlandson recalled a quote found in one of Shaw’s books, Revitalizing Catholic America, from Blaise Pascal: “There is a pleasure in being in a ship beaten about by a storm, when we are sure that it will not founder.”
“[Shaw] embraced Catholic history, and the Catholic experience,” Erlandson said. “He was always challenging us to look beyond overly simplistic ways of examining things.”