Joseph Zwilling

Joseph Zwilling is the Director of Communications for the Archdiocese of New York. 

Born in 1959 and raised in Levittown at Saint Bernard’s parish, he is a 1981 summa cum laude graduate of the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University.  He worked briefly in the fund-raising department of WGBH-TV, the Boston public television station, before returning to New York to begin work for the Archdiocese in May 1982 as Assistant Director of Communications.  He was promoted to Director of Communications in 1990 by John Cardinal O’Connor.

Among the significant events he has undertaken in his role as Director of Communications and spokesman for the Archdiocese, Zwilling has coordinated the media coverage of two papal visits to the Archdiocese of New York, helped to organize the visits of five different Presidents of the United States to meet with the Archbishop of New York, helped to guide the Church in New York through the sexual abuse crisis, served as the public voice of the Archdiocese during the illness and death of Cardinal O’Connor, and worked closely with the Holy See press office and colleagues from around the United States during the papal conclaves that elected Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis.  He has been proud to serve four Cardinal-Archbishops of New York: Terence Cardinal Cooke, John Cardinal O’Connor, Edward Cardinal Egan, and Timothy Cardinal Dolan. 

In 2006, Zwilling founded, under the direction of Edward Cardinal Egan, the Catholic Channel on Sirius Satellite Radio (now Sirius XM).  The Catholic Channel is a 24/7 radio station dedicated to the Catholic Church and its teaching, and reaches the entire United States and Canada. 

Zwilling, his wife, Cathy, and their three teenage children, are members of Saint Catherine of Sienna parish in Franklin Square.