The assassination of the young conservative leader Charlie Kirk, which occurred on September 10 during an event at Utah Valley University, has shaken both American politics and the Catholic world. According to the diocesan newspaper Angelus, Kirk was about to take a decisive step toward the Catholic Church.
The writer Robert Brennan, brother of Mons. Joseph Brennan, bishop of Fresno (California), recounted on September 18 that the prelate had a personal conversation with Kirk just one week before his death, during a prayer breakfast in Visalia.
In that meeting, Kirk spoke of his Catholic wife and his children, with whom he used to attend Mass. “I’m this close,” he told the bishop, admitting that he was one step away from embracing the Catholic faith.
Admiration for the Virgin Mary
In his column, Brennan also recalled a recent video in which Kirk acknowledged doctrinal differences with the Church but emphasized the centrality of the Virgin: “We don’t talk enough about Mary, we don’t venerate her enough. She is the solution to toxic feminism in the United States.”
The columnist highlighted the providential nature of that testimony: “How fitting that one of Charlie Kirk’s last videos was about the supreme mediator of time and space. On his own path, he was drawing closer to her, and now I am convinced that she is returning the favor.”
Catholic Reactions: from Müller to the Pro-Life Movements
Kirk’s death has sparked a wave of condolences among Catholic leaders. The German cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller described him as “a martyr for Jesus Christ” and denounced as “satanic” the rejoicing of some sectors hostile to his faith and activism.
For her part, Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America and a close friend of Kirk, assured on September 13 that his death “will be a turning point” for the nation. From the political sphere, the president of the Heritage Foundation, Kevin Roberts, highlighted that the young activist’s work “restored hope in the future of the United States to millions of people.”
A Life Cut Short in Full Mission
Charlie Kirk was shot while answering questions from the audience during a stop on his “American Comeback Tour”. He was 30 years old and leaves behind his wife, Erika Frantzve, along with his two young children: a three-year-old girl and a one-year-old boy.
The figure of the young conservative had become a symbol of cultural resistance in the United States. Today, his final gestures of faith reveal a spiritual journey that, according to those who knew him, was leading him toward the fullness of Catholicism.