Tim Russert, who passed away June 13th, will best be remembered as the host of NBC’s “Meet the Press”. In addition, he was a political analyst for other NBC news programming. A widely know, hard working, highly respected professional that earned him many awards, including an Emmy in 2005. In 2008 he was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine. I would see him from time to time on television and enjoy his work. As it happens with many public figures, much of the public never gets a real sense of how much good someone has done until they are dead. Then their story is told. After all these years of watching him, I never heard any reference to him being Catholic. Although, he did fit the profile of a certain type of Catholic; hard working guy that is respected within his community, has concern for his fellow man, does charitable acts, and has strong ties with his family and friends. But it took his death for the fact that he was Catholic to be generally acknowledged by the media. Maybe now, others can look to him as a Catholic who was able to succeed in our culture while still being strongly connected to his religion.
Here is an article that discusses how connected he was to the Catholic Church: http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=12999