Russell Shaw

Pro-life sign /

Abortion politics

Russell Shaw

Apr 14, 2019

By Russell Shaw

Let us agree that the 44 Democratic senators whose votes last month blocked the Born Alive Protection Act aren’t monsters.... Read more

Sticking With the Church

Russell Shaw

Feb 28, 2019

By Russell Shaw

This column is being written on the eve of a much-publicized summit meeting of bishops from around the world whom... Read more

The Peace Cross in Bladensburg, Md.

The Court and the Cross

Russell Shaw

Feb 26, 2019

By Russell Shaw

Two years after his death, the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia is missed for many reasons, not least among... Read more

Man in the pews /

The laity and the crisis

Russell Shaw

Feb 6, 2019

By Russell Shaw

Can a one-day conference at a university breathe life into a cause that lately appears to have stalled: involving the... Read more

Man reading the newspaper /

Vatican PR

Russell Shaw

Feb 4, 2019

By Russell Shaw

One day back when I was doing media relations for the American bishops’ conference, a journalist asked me what my... Read more

St Peter’s Basilica /

Primacy vs. synodality

Russell Shaw

Jan 19, 2019

By Russell Shaw

Something that happened at a bishops’ meeting nearly half a century ago raises questions about the Vatican’s action last month... Read more

The March for Life in Washington, D.C., Jan. 27, 2017.

Prolife Prospects Hopeful but Uncertain

Russell Shaw

Jan 4, 2019

By Russell Shaw

When thousands of prolifers turn out for the annual March for Life in Washington on January 18, four days before... Read more

In Praise of Rudolph, et alia

Russell Shaw

Dec 14, 2018

By Russell Shaw

Deploring the commercialization, secularization, and general thinning-out of the spiritual meaning of Christmas is part of the stock in trade... Read more

Wedding cake /

The roots of secularist coercion

Russell Shaw

Nov 30, 2018

By Russell Shaw

When, several weeks ago, a Christian couple who own a bakery in Northern Ireland won a court ruling allowing them... Read more

Four Horsemen of Apocalypse /

End times

Russell Shaw

Nov 28, 2018

By Russell Shaw

As I stood in line waiting to go to confession recently (yes, I still do that), a man who’d lately... Read more

Detail from Michelangelo's fresco The Last Judgement, in the Sistine Chapel (1536-41).

On current interest in the End Times

Russell Shaw

Nov 8, 2018

By Russell Shaw

As I stood in line waiting to go to confession recently (yes, I still do that), a man who’d lately... Read more

U.S. Supreme Court in Washington D.C. /

The Kavanaugh hearings

Russell Shaw

Oct 26, 2018

By Russell Shaw

As I think about the Senate hearings on Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court, the entire affair takes on... Read more

Official Portrait of Saint Pope Paul VI / Public Domain

The canonization of Pope Paul VI

Russell Shaw

Oct 25, 2018

By Russell Shaw

“Am I Hamlet or Don Quixote?” Pope Paul VI once asked that question about himself, and whatever his answer might... Read more

How Catholics are responding to the scandals

Russell Shaw

Oct 4, 2018

By Russell Shaw

What do serious, practicing Catholics think about the sex abuse crisis? To find out, you can commission a public opinion... Read more

Smoke of Satan Again?

Russell Shaw

Sep 17, 2018

By Russell Shaw

The speaker was a highly sophisticated layman, possessor of a doctorate and professor of theology at a major Catholic university.... Read more

Archbishop Theodore McCarrick.

We Need Truth

Russell Shaw

Sep 6, 2018

By Russell Shaw

Statements by Pope Francis and American bishops reacting to the Church’s sex abuse scandal suggest they are serious about getting... Read more

Birth control pills /

The ‘reception’ of Humanae Vitae 

Russell Shaw

Jul 23, 2018

By Russell Shaw

In the half-century since Pope Paul VI published his encyclical Humanae Vitae reaffirming that contraception is always wrong, opponents of... Read more

Peace sign in front of the U.S. flag /

The Trump-Kim summit and human rights

Russell Shaw

Jul 12, 2018

By Russell Shaw

On the eve of the Trump-Kim summit in Singapore, Pope Francis led a crowd of 20,000 in St. Peter’s Square... Read more

Gavel /

The Kennedy succession

Russell Shaw

Jul 10, 2018

By Russell Shaw

For Americans on both sides of social issues like abortion and same-sex marriage, the retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy from... Read more

Evelyn Waugh.

Evelyn Waugh's The Loved One at 70

Russell Shaw

Jun 18, 2018

By Russell Shaw

Just 70 years ago this month a slender novel bearing the innocuous title The Loved One made its appearance in... Read more