Cathedral of the Sacred Heart, Rochester, New York. | Credit: DanielPenfield via Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Jan 7, 2026 / 09:07 am (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV on Wednesday named New York Auxiliary Bishop John S. Bonnici to lead the Diocese of Rochester, New York.

Bonnici, 60, was made an auxiliary bishop for New York in March 2022 after 30 years as a priest of the archdiocese. In Rochester, he succeeds Bishop Salvatore R. Matano, who is 79.

Bonnici holds a doctorate from the Pontifical John Paul II Institute in Washington (1995) and a licentiate degree from the Pontifical John Paul II Institute (1992) in Rome, where he also studied at the Pontifical North American College and the Gregorian University (1987–1990) before his ordination.

He was born in New York on Feb. 17, 1965, and earned bachelor of science degrees in biology and philosophy from St. John’s University in Queens, New York, in 1987.

The Diocese of Rochester serves approximately 306,000 Catholics in the upstate region of the state of New York.

Cardinal Timothy Dolan, archbishop emeritus of New York. | Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/EWTN News

Jan 7, 2026 / 07:00 am (CNA).

As the new year gets underway, Cardinal Timothy Dolan has issued a simple yet profound invitation to the faithful: to “recover” things that are worthwhile in order to nourish one’s daily life of faith.

In a Jan. 5 X post, the now archbishop emeritus of New York kicked off a series of reflections about what he called “things worth recovering. In other words, devotions, practices, the essentials, some of the essentials of Catholic life, that maybe we’ve lost track of over the last decades.”

“Let’s start with what I think is one of the basics: In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. The sign of the cross. Almost a hallmark of being a Catholic. The identifying feature,” the cardinal continued.

“When we make the sign of the cross reverently, never in some superstitious breezy way, when we make that sign of the cross with faith, you’re expressing faith in the Most Blessed Trinity: God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit,” the cardinal emphasized.

Dolan added that the sign of the cross expresses one’s faith “in the power of the most holy cross of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, as we trace his cross on our body.”

“To say that before meals, to say that when we get up in the morning, to do that before we go to bed, to make the sign of the cross before and after our prayers during the day. Hallelujah! Worth recovering,” he concluded.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

From left to right: Sister Catherine Joy, Sister Virginia Joy, and Sister Israel Rose of the Sisters of Life at SEEK 2026 in Denver. | Credit: Francesca Fenton/EWTN News

Jan 7, 2026 / 06:00 am (CNA).

Hundreds of young women filled a ballroom on Jan. 4 at the 2026 SEEK Conference in Denver to hear Sister Virginia Joy Cotter, SV, discuss how to follow God’s call and determine one’s vocation.

“When we think about vocation, it’s ultimately a call to love and be loved,” Sister Virginia Joy said during her talk, titled “The Adventure of the Yes: Following God’s Call.”

“Growing up, or even now, you’re probably asked, ‘What are you going to do when you grow up? What’s your major? What do you want to do with your life?’” she said. “I would guess no one has probably asked you, ‘What are you going to do with your love? How do you plan to make a gift of yourself?’ But these are the questions that sit behind a vocation.”

“For some, the word vocation might be completely foreign to you. For others, maybe it provokes a stream of emotions from wonder to anticipation to anxiety. Whatever it means to you, it’s good to take stock of where it sits with you right now and open your heart to whatever God wants to give you this morning.”

Sister Virginia Joy shared that “ultimately, our vocation is not a problem to be fixed or a riddle to be solved … Vocation is deeply relational, personal, and distinct. It comes from the Latin ‘vocare,’ meaning to call, to name, to summon. There’s one who calls and there’s one who responds. It’s a relationship between each individual and God.”

Here are seven ways a person can discern his or her vocation based on Sister Virginia Joy’s talk:

Pay attention to where and how you are called to love

Sister Virginia Joy shared that the questions behind one’s vocation are fundamentally about “what are you going to do with your love” and how you are called to “make a gift of yourself,” not merely what career or role you will have.

Receive God’s love first

She emphasized that the prerequisite for hearing God’s call is first receiving his love, since vocation flows from a relationship.

“When I think about a vocational call, I think of two things: First, God is the one who calls, and it is always a call of love. Second, we are the ones to respond to that call and to love in return. So first, the prerequisite to hearing God’s call is receiving his love,” Sister Virginia Joy said.

Develop a real prayer life and speak honestly to God

God makes himself known in prayer, especially when a person speaks from the heart — expressing longing, confusion, loneliness, or desire for meaning.

Sister Virginia Joy highlighted that “God is looking for a place to break in and make himself known. I trust you’ve experienced it here at SEEK. It’s real. He’s real. And he is in pursuit of your heart. He knows you and he desires that you come to know him. This happens in prayer.”

“But prayer can be challenging because we’re used to instant gratification. We want to see results. And yet relationships, they’re not about results,” she added. “Relationships take time, patience, and trust. Sometimes I think we settle or we allow ourselves to get distracted because real love means facing our weakness and searching for the Lord in times of loneliness, doubt, and even pain.”

Stay close to the sacraments, especially confession and the Eucharist

Sister Virginia Joy emphasized that living in grace and regularly receiving the sacraments helps ensure that a person does not miss God’s call and gains the strength to respond in his time.

She shared with those gathered that she has always found herself making life decisions after “a good confession — decisions to move across the country, decisions to become a missionary, decisions to accept a particular job or begin or end a dating relationship.”

“I know there can be a lot of fear about somehow missing what God is calling me to,” Sister Virginia Joy said. “And I just want to crush that fear because the truth is if you’re staying close to the sacraments, if you’re living in grace, you will not miss what God is calling you to. And because of the grace of the sacraments, you will have the strength to respond in God’s time.”

Live your call to love daily, even before knowing your definitive vocation

Sister Virginia Joy stressed that holiness and vocation are lived now, through everyday acts of love, even before one enters marriage, religious life, or another permanent state.

She asked those gathered: “Where are we called to love?”

“It’s not a complicated question. All the love happens right where God has you — with family, friends, roommates. We are each given so many opportunities to love every day. You might not be in your definitive vocation right now or five years from now, but your call to love is now. Your call to make a gift of yourself is now,” she said.

Recognize your unique gifts

Especially for women, discerning vocation involves recognizing the “uniquely feminine” capacity for receptivity, generosity, spiritual maternity, and leading others to God, Sister Virginia Joy explained.

“As women, we possess a unique capacity for love … Written into our very makeup by design, we as women have space for another, room for another. And the physical capacity — we’ve heard this over the days — the physical capacity to receive and carry life sheds a much deeper reality within the heart of each woman,” she said. “Our bodies and souls are intimately connected and together they tell us something — that our love is receptive, sensitive, generous, maternal.”

Observe where your heart becomes undivided and free

A key sign of vocation is interior freedom and unity of heart, where fear gives way to peace and clarity about where, as Sister Virginia Joy said, one is called “to make a gift of oneself in a total way.”

She shared that while discerning her own vocation her heart was divided — seeing the beauty in both married life and religious life. It wasn’t until she asked in prayer, “What do you want, Lord?” while on retreat with the Sisters of Life that she heard him say, “You. You. All of you for myself.”

“And in an instant, my heart was undivided,” she recalled. “I knew where I was being called to give my love and my life, and I felt more free than I ever had.”

“Your love story is going to be perfectly unique to you,” Sister Virginia Joy added. “God has been preparing something far beyond your expectations and he desires your freedom to respond with an undivided heart. Whether it be marriage, religious life, lay life, there is no doubt he wants you and your unique love. God loves you.”

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The teachings of the Second Vatican Council are still "the guiding star" the Catholic Church is meant to follow, Pope Leo XIV said.

Rereading all of its teachings "is a valuable opportunity to rediscover the beauty and the importance of this ecclesial event," he said Jan. 7, and because its work remains "a guiding principle for us today."

"We have yet to achieve ecclesial reform more fully in a ministerial sense and, in the face of today's challenges, we are called to continue to be vigilant interpreters of the signs of the times, joyful proclaimers of the Gospel, courageous witnesses of justice and peace," he said. 

Speaking to visitors gathered in the Paul VI Audience Hall for his weekly general audience, the pope said that with the conclusion of the Holy Year Jan. 6, he was beginning a new series of talks dedicated to the Second Vatican Council.

The council, which convened for four sessions from 1962 to 1965, produced 16 documents, addressing everything from liturgy to Scripture, missionary activity to ecumenism and interfaith relationships, and the functions of clergy and laity to religious freedom.

"Vatican Council II rediscovered the face of God as the Father who, in Christ, calls us to be his children," he said in his talk.

The council looked at the Catholic Church "as a mystery of communion and sacrament of unity between God and his people; it initiated important liturgical reform, placing at its center the mystery of salvation and the active and conscious participation of the entire people of God," he said.

"At the same time, it helped us to open up to the world and to embrace the changes and challenges of the modern age in dialogue and co-responsibility, as a Church that wishes to open her arms to humanity, to echo the hopes and anxieties of peoples, and to collaborate in building a more just and fraternal society," he said. 

For the past six decades, the popes have repeatedly underlined the importance of Vatican II, its teachings and its fuller implementation.

However, since the council was held so long ago, that means that "the generation of bishops, theologians and believers of Vatican II is no longer with us," said the pope, who would have been 10 years old when the council ended in December of 1965.

"It will be important to get to know it again closely, and to do so not through 'hearsay' or interpretations that have been given, but by rereading its documents and reflecting on their content" directly, he said.

"Indeed, it is the Magisterium that still constitutes the guiding star of the Church's journey today," he said.

Pope Leo begins catechesis on Vatican II

A look at Pope Leo's general audience Jan. 7, 2026. (CNS video/Robert Duncan)

Catholic News Service produced a significant documentary in 2015 called, "Voices of Vatican II," in which twelve men who took part in the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) look back at that historic event. It features abundant archival footage of the council, much of it rarely seen, and exclusive interviews with those who recount the history they witnessed and helped to make.

All the voices heard in this film are of bishops and priests --including the late-Pope Benedict XVI-- who participated in Vatican II and who, in most cases, have played important roles in the life of the Catholic Church over the subsequent decades.

Length: 49 mins.

Voices of Vatican II

In Voices of Vatican II, twelve men who took part in the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) look back at that historic event, half a century after the fact. It features abundant archival footage of the council, much of it rarely seen, and exclusive...

WASHINGTON – Pope Leo XIV has accepted the resignation of Most Reverend Salvatore R. Matano, 79, from the pastoral governance of the Diocese of Rochester, and has appointed Most Reverend John S. Bonnici, currently auxiliary bishop of New York, as his successor. 

The resignation and appointment were publicized in Washington, D.C. on January 7, 2026, by Cardinal Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the United States.

The Diocese of Rochester is comprised of 7,107 square miles in the State of New York.

###

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin. | Credit: U.S. Department of State Flickr, public domain; Daniel Ibáñez/EWTN News

Jan 6, 2026 / 18:30 pm (CNA).

The U.S. State Department announced that Secretary of State Marco Rubio has spoken with Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin about the situation in Venezuela.

During the Jan. 6 call, the State Department indicated that “the two leaders discussed pressing challenges, including efforts to improve the humanitarian situation, particularly in Venezuela, as well as the promotion of peace and religious freedom globally.”

Both leaders “reaffirmed their commitment to deepening cooperation between the United States and the Holy See in addressing shared priorities around the world,” the State Department added.

At the time of this publication, the Vatican had not provided details about the call. Parolin served as apostolic nuncio to Venezuela from 2009 to 2013.

On Sunday, Jan. 4, during the Angelus prayer, Pope Leo XIV expressed his concern about the situation in the country and called for full respect for Venezuela’s national sovereignty following the Jan. 3 U.S. military operation that resulted in the capture of Nicolás Maduro and Cilia Flores.

“With a heart full of concern, I am following the evolution of the situation in Venezuela,” the pope stated, emphasizing that “the good of the beloved Venezuelan people must prevail above any other consideration.”

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

President Donald Trump talks to Republicans about their stance on the Hyde Amendment on Jan. 6, 2026. | Credit: Mandel NGAN/AFP via Getty Images

Jan 6, 2026 / 18:10 pm (CNA).

President Donald Trump is asking congressional Republicans to be more flexible on taxpayer funding for abortions as lawmakers continue to negotiate an extension to health care subsidies related to the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.

Some federal subsidies that lowered premiums for those enrolled in the Affordable Care Act expired in December.

The Kaiser Family Foundation estimates that the average increase to premiums for people who lost the subsidies will be about 114%, from $888 in 2025 to $1,904 in 2026. The exact costs will be different, depending on specific plans.

Trump has encouraged his party to work on extending those subsidies and is asking them to be “flexible” on a provision that could affect tax-funded abortion. Democrats have proposed ending the restrictions of the Hyde Amendment, which bans direct federal funding for abortions in most cases.

“Let the money go directly to the people,” Trump said at the House Republican Conference retreat at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on Jan. 6.

“Now you have to be a little flexible on Hyde,” the president said. “You know that you got to be a little flexible. You got to work something [out]. You got to use ingenuity. You got to work. We’re all big fans of everything, but you got to be flexible. You have to have flexibility.”

The Hyde Amendment began as a bipartisan provision in funding bills that prohibited the use of federal funds for more than 45 years. Lawmakers have reauthorized the prohibition every year since it was first introduced in 1976.

A study from the Charlotte Lozier Institute estimates that the Hyde Amendment has saved more than 2.6 million lives. According to a poll conducted by the Marist Institute for Public Opinion, which was commissioned by the Knights of Columbus, nearly 6 in 10 Americans oppose tax funding for abortions.

However, in recent years, many Democratic politicians have tried to keep the rule out of spending bills. Former President Joe Biden abandoned the Hyde Amendment in budget proposals, but it was ultimately included in the final compromise versions that became law.

Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, criticized Trump for urging flexibility on the provision, calling its support “an unshakeable bedrock principle and a minimum standard in the Republican Party.”

Dannenfelser said Republicans “are sure to lose this November” if they abandon Hyde: “The voters sent a [Republican] trifecta to Washington and they expect it to govern like one.”

“Giving in to Democrat demands that our tax dollars are used to fund plans that cover abortion on demand until birth would be a massive betrayal,” she said.

Dannenfelser also noted that, before these comments, Trump has consistently supported the Hyde Amendment. The president issued an executive order in January on enforcing the Hyde Amendment that accused Biden’s administration of disregarding this “commonsense policy.”

“For nearly five decades, the Congress has annually enacted the Hyde Amendment and similar laws that prevent federal funding of elective abortion, reflecting a long-standing consensus that American taxpayers should not be forced to pay for that practice,” the executive order reads.

“It is the policy of the United States, consistent with the Hyde Amendment, to end the forced use of federal taxpayer dollars to fund or promote elective abortion,” it adds.

Cartoonist Scott Adams announced his intention to convert to Christianity in January 2026. | Credit: Art of Charm, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Jan 6, 2026 / 17:38 pm (CNA).

Scott Adams, the 68-year-old cartoonist who created the decades-long “Dilbert” comic strip, announced he is converting to Christianity amid his deteriorating health caused by terminal cancer.

Adams, who was diagnosed with prostate cancer in May 2025, had previously been critical of organized religion and expressed skepticism about traditional faiths in blog posts and two fiction books titled “God’s Debris” and its sequel, “The Religion War.”

On the Jan. 1 episode of his podcast “Real Coffee with Scott Adams,” the cartoonist expressed a change of heart following numerous conversations with Christian friends.

“I’ve not been a believer, but I also have respect for any Christian who goes another way to try to convert me,” Adams said. “Because how would I believe [that] you believe your own religion if you’re not trying to convert me? So I have great respect for people who care enough that they want me to convert and then go out of their way to try to convince me.”

Adams then informed his viewers “it is my plan to convert,” adding: “I still have time, but my understanding is, you’re never too late.”

“And on top of that, any skepticism I have about reality would certainly be instantly answered if I wake up in heaven,” he said.

Speaking to “my Christian friends,” Adams said: “It’s coming, so you don’t need to talk me into it.”

Adams appeared to invoke “ Pascal’s Wager,” which is an argument about the risks and rewards of following Jesus Christ, which was articulated by the 17th-century French Catholic philosopher and mathematician Blaise Pascal.

The argument was not meant to be a “proof” for God or even an argument about whether God exists. Rather, Pascal argued that accepting God can lead one to eternal life if he exists and it carries little risk even if he did not exist, but rejecting God will lead to eternal consequences if he exists and does not yield significant benefits even if he did not exist.

As Adams summarized his view: “If it turns out that there’’s nothing there, I've lost nothing, but I’ve respected your wishes, and I like doing that. If it turns out there is something there and the Christian model is the closest to it, I win.”

Adams’ cancer has spread through his bones and he is paralyzed below his waist. He is also suffering from heart failure.

Father Thomas Petri, a Dominican theologian, said this announcement is “very good news” and that he will continue to pray for Adams.

Petri said he has seen some Christians online try to suggest the conversion is not genuine because “he seems to be doing it merely as a wager in case God exists.” Yet, Petri said, “I’m fine with that wager.”

“Few people come to God with a perfectly formed faith,” he said. “Yet, because we believe God is love, it’s hard to think that Scott Adams’ gesture would not be received and blessed by him.”

“Naturally, as we approach death we become more focused on ultimate things and questions,” Petri added. “Trusting in God opens us to the possibility that death is not an end but an avenue to something greater. I pray that even the most hardened sinners have some desire for God even in their last moments. I think that’s enough for God to work with.”

Jimmy Akin, a senior apologist at Catholic Answers who debated Adams on assisted suicide in 2015, said he is “very glad that [Adams] has decided to seek out God in this difficult time.”

“God has many ways of drawing people to himself,” Akin said.

“On the human level, we’re built to think about events and challenges that we will soon be facing, so as we see that death is drawing near, it’s only natural for people to begin thinking about what may come after death and to try to make plans for it,” he said. “This can create an openness to the idea of God and to Christianity, even if a person was not religious previously.”

In other cases, Akin said some people “have become hardened by years of living without God” but that “God can still reach out by his grace … and being the person to him.”

“As Jesus taught us, it is never too late in this life for a person to turn to God,” he said. “That’s one of the major points of the parable of the workers in the vineyard.”

Elena Berti (left) was sleeping alone in her house when a projectile landed in her yard. Berti’s daughter, Patricia Salazar, is at right. | Credit: EWTN Noticias/Screenshot

Jan 6, 2026 / 16:20 pm (CNA).

What does large-scale bombing sound like? What does it feel like to be in the middle of a series of explosions? After Jan. 3, everyone in Caracas, the capital of Venezuela, is able to answer these questions.

Around 2 a.m. local time on Jan. 3, as the U.S. military carried out Operation Absolute Resolve to capture President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, terrifying explosions interrupted the sleep of millions. A family from east Caracas, the Bertis, along with their neighbors experienced the chaos firsthand.

Survival was ‘a miracle’

It’s one thing to be awakened by the relatively distant sound of planes and bombs, and quite another to be jolted awake by the devastating roar of a projectile landing less than 20 meters (65 feet) from your room.

Elena Berti, 78, was sleeping alone in her house when a projectile landed in her yard during the bombings. Berti lives in a small neighborhood near an area known as El Volcán, where there are antennas that were among the U.S. military’s targets.

The force of the explosion was devastating. “My house is destroyed, my house is destroyed!” was all Berti could manage to say on the phone to her daughter, Patricia Salazar, who was only able to help her mother hours later, when it was already daylight and the danger had passed.

“She always sleeps with a rosary behind her pillow and always has a number of statues of saints on her nightstand; some of them, unfortunately, lost their heads. I say a miracle was worked for her, as well as for my aunt and uncle who live upstairs,” Salazar said in an interview with ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner.

Two large windows, located above Berti’s head as she slept, were blown to pieces. A large piece of the headboard of her bed, made of heavy wood, also broke. Several doors and walls were destroyed. The kitchen was almost unrecognizable. There is such significant damage to the structure of the house that a large portion needs to be demolished.

But Berti was completely unharmed.

“In the morning, she started sending me the photos,” Salazar said, “very graphic ones, of the destroyed house, and the only thing I wrote back was a phrase from the Novena of Abandonment, which I’ve been reading: ‘Oh Jesus, I give myself totally to you, I abandon myself to you, you take care of everything,’” she recalled, visibly moved.

“Our dear God will help us; he’s the one who saved my mom and my aunt and uncle, who could have easily died because, well, what are the odds that a missile ... with all that power, comes falling in your garden and destroys, to say the least, half of your house? The windows shattered completely; they could have been cut in two. I can’t tell you what happened, but a miracle definitely occurred,” she said.

20 feet less and ‘it would have been a disaster’

Windows and doors of houses more than 660 feet from the point of impact were destroyed. Almost the entire neighborhood was affected, not only in terms of material damage but also psychologically.

On the second floor of Berti’s house, in a separate apartment, lives her brother Arturo. That night he stayed up very late: He had been reading in his living room until just a few minutes before the projectile hit. The living room ended up being the area most affected by the explosion.

“A little while later [after he had left the room] I heard a long whistling sound and then an impact, a phenomenal explosion, something incredible. Everything shook, the bed shook. I felt the building shake, all the windows shattered, the bed was covered in glass,” Arturo Berti recounted.

He immediately tried to take cover with his wife, not knowing exactly what had happened. Arturo said that those who have heard his story and seen the videos of the explosion have no explanation how they managed to come out alive.

“It has to be a miracle, it’s something incredible. If it had been six meters [20 feet] less, it would have fallen into the house, and I don’t know what would have happened; it would have been a disaster. Of course, I believe strongly in God, I have always believed in God, in the Virgin Mary, and in [St.] José Gregorio. That’s how it is, it was the hand of God,” he said, on the verge of tears.

Right next to the Berti residence live Gracia Mónaco and her daughter, Ana María Campos. The damage to their house was concentrated in their two bedrooms.

Amid the smoke and rubble, Campos went to her mother’s room, which no longer had windows. The frames were severely bent, and the walls were violently cracked.

Mónaco’s faith had clung to a small statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which she had just placed on her nightstand a few hours before the bombings.

“This Virgin Mary statue that’s here wasn’t here two days ago. I found it in the closet where I had stored it and I said: I’m going to put it out again,” she recounted.

“My window exploded here, debris came in, I suffered through the moment, but this Virgin Mary statue remained here without moving, without falling over, and for me that means something. You have to believe in that, that God exists, that he is with us,” she added.

Campos said her shock and nerves were eased by her mother’s faith.

“My mom tells me: Look, Ana María, I had this Virgin Mary statue put away, and I took it out. You should have seen how that statue was: Intact, it didn’t even fall. Everything else had fallen, and the Virgin Mary remained standing. She held it in her hand and placed it next to where it had been and said to me: Don’t you believe in God, don’t you have faith? That truth moved me,” she said.

Mónaco, her daughter, the Berti family, and all their neighbors are proof of the unwavering faith of Venezuelans, even in the most adverse conditions, which have been many in the last 25 years.

“This is important to me, it’s vital because I have faith, and faith is with me all the time. That’s why I tell her that we must always believe, not just occasionally. God is with us always, at all times and in all circumstances,” Mónaco said.

The Berti family has started a fundraising campaign where anyone can contribute to the reconstruction of their house. Those who wish to do so can also donate building materials for Mónaco’s house and those of the other neighbors.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

Russell Shaw. Credit: Ignatius Press

Jan 6, 2026 / 14:10 pm (CNA).

Russell Shaw, a Catholic writer and journalist whose prolific career spanned decades including years of work for the U.S. bishops, died Jan. 6 at the age of 90.

Catholic writer Mike Aquilina announced Shaw’s death on Facebook, describing him as a “pundit, journalist, novelist, virtuoso of friendship,” and a “mentor” to those in Catholic media.

Born May 19, 1935, in Washington, D.C., Shaw attended Gonzaga High School and then Georgetown University, at which he eventually obtained a master of arts degree in English literature in 1960.

He would subsequently go on to write for the Catholic Standard, the newspaper of the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., after which he joined the staff of the National Catholic Welfare Conference (NCWC) News Service.

Shaw’s work at NCWC began what would become years of association with the U.S. bishops — first at the welfare conference and eventually as the director of the National Catholic Office for Information at the National Conference of Catholic Bishops/United States Catholic Conference.

He served a variety of roles there including as associate secretary for communication and secretary for public affairs. He served as press secretary of the U.S. delegations to the world Synods of Bishops held in Rome between 1971 and 1987 and was the national coordinator of media relations during Pope John Paul II’s pastoral visits to the U.S. in 1979 and 1987.

Later in his career, Shaw worked as a freelance writer, including years of columns written for CNA as well as for CNA’s sister news partner the National Catholic Register.

The author of more than 20 books, including works on ethics and moral theology, he also contributed to the New Catholic Encyclopedia and the Catholic Social Sciences Encyclopedia.

Shaw was predeceased by his wife, Carmen, to whom he was married for more than 50 years. The Shaws leave behind five children and numerous grandchildren.

Aquilina in announcing his passing said Shaw “wrote thousands of articles and dozens of books” and described him as a “wise man.”

Catholic writer and National Review Institute Senior Fellow Kathryn Jean Lopez, meanwhile, called the news of Shaw’s death “heartbreaking” and described him as “a good/great man who loved Jesus.”

She told CNA on Jan. 6 that Shaw “loved God, his family, and was wise about the realities of the Church in the world.”

“He knew that the Church is not just the clergy, but all of us, working toward heaven together,” Lopez said.

She said he possessed a “unique gift for being able both to work for the institutions of the Church and retain the freedom of Christ at the same time.”

“God surely blessed us with the life of Russell Shaw,” she continued. “May we be worthy of the gift by answering the call to holiness he dedicated his life to.”

Shaw’s work, meanwhile, provides Catholics in media “a great example and legacy to learn from,” she said.