Charlie Kirk’s death was a horrible tragedy by any measure. A young, intelligent, and very promising conservative activist who accomplished more in his thirty-one years than many would hope to accomplish in a lifetime, Kirk was also a married man with two very young children. Both privately and professionally, the future looked bright. Charlie Kirk was likely to continue influencing public discourse not only in America, but abroad, for many years to come.

All that came to an abrupt and shocking end with an assassin’s bullet on September 10, 2025. I condemn this madness with all my heart, and I pray for his lovely widow, Erika, and their now fatherless children.

We Must Condemn Indifferentism

The point of this short piece is neither to lionize nor to condemn the fallen activist with whom I disagreed on certain matters of major moment, both religious and political — but for whom I also held high hopes, seeing that his trajectory, both temporal and spiritual, seemed to be changing drastically and amazingly for the good.

My objective here is to address how Catholics should speak of the fallen so as not to engender the dangerous and ubiquitous scandal of indifferentism. And no, in case anyone is wondering, I am not going to pontificate on the eternal whereabouts of the fallen. That is beyond my ken.

Here is a case in point of how not to speak of the fallen — even in terms of a rhetorical question: “Was Charlie Kirk a Martyr — and Should He Be Canonized?” That headline about a lifelong Protestant, from a site commenting on things from a Catholic perspective, is objectively scandalous. Worse yet, the “poll” that the site set up, asking, “Do You Believe Charlie Kirk Should Be Canonized?” has garnered, as of this writing, nearly 62% Yes votes. Almost seventeen percent voted No, while another fifteen percent replied, “no, but he is a martyr,” and 6% voted, “I’m not sure.”

Three infallible statements from the Church assure us that there is no salvation outside the Catholic Church: the first is from Lateran Council IV (Pope Innocent III); the second, from Pope Boniface VIII; and the third, from the Council of Florence (Pope Eugene IV). Regarding the impossibility of a non-Catholic martyr (as in a saint, a martyr in the strict sense), we have this part of the infallible definition of the Council of Florence — note the text I have emboldened:

It [the sacrosanct Roman Church] firmly believes, professes, and proclaims that those not living within the Catholic Church, not only pagans, but also Jews and heretics and schismatics cannot become participants in eternal life, but will depart “into everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels” [Matt. 25:41], unless before the end of life the same have been added to the flock; and that the unity of the ecclesiastical body is so strong that only to those remaining in it are the sacraments of the Church of benefit for salvation, and do fastings, almsgiving, and other functions of piety and exercises of Christian service produce eternal reward, and that no one, whatever almsgiving he has practiced, even if he has shed blood for the name of Christ, can be saved, unless he has remained in the bosom and unity of the Catholic Church.

Because indifferentism is part and parcel of the Modernist crisis that still afflicts the Church, the scandalous habit of canonizing departed non-Catholics is, sadly, part of our current ecclesiastical landscape. (I addressed two very different recent instances of this in “Billy Graham’s ‘Catholic’ Apotheosis” and “The Twenty-One Slain Copts: Martyrs?”)

We Must Show Compassion

My statement concerning Charlie Kirk’s senseless murder was an attempt at speaking compassionately about such things but without jeopardizing the supernaturally revealed realities that should be deeply embedded in the Catholic mind:

There is something eerie about this posting [Charlie Kirk’s posting about the ghoulish murder of Iryna Zarutska] in light of what happened less than 24 hours later. I pray that Charlie Kirk’s kind words about the Blessed Virgin brought him many graces to die well. I hope and pray that the monster that cut his young life short, widowed his wife, and rendered his children fatherless is brought to justice.

There is something eerie about this posting in light of what happened less than 24 hours later. I pray that Charlie Kirk’s kind words about the Blessed Virgin brought him many graces to die well. I hope and pray that the monster that cut his young life short, widowed his wife,… https://t.co/zFzaCw0pXb

— Brother André Marie, M.I.C.M. (@Brother_Andre) September 11, 2025

In that posting, I tried to bring out the evil of the act, showing compassion both for the deceased and his loved ones, while holding out hope that Kirk, a lifelong Protestant, was given “many graces to die well.” On the point of Charlie Kirk’s particular judgment — which is left exclusively to Jesus Christ, the Just Judge — my statement was absolutely “non-judgmental,” but on the point of the requisites for salvation, my statement presumes what all Catholics must believe, that those outside the Church are not saved if they die in that state.

There is Hope

Mr. Kirk showed, at times, a certain openness to Catholic truth. Glory be to God! It is not sentimental, much less heretical, to say that he may have been given the grace to die well. The mystery of grace is just that, a mystery, and our prying curiosity will never be satisfied in this life, nor should it be. As my dear Founder said, “In Heaven, there will be many surprises, but none of them will contradict what we know by Faith on earth.” Father Feeney also offered requiem Masses for the deceased parents of his converts, in the hopes that they had the grace to die well. I hope Charlie saved his soul, but we cannot tell the world that heresy — including both Charlie Kirk’s initial Presbyterianism and subsequent Evangelical Protestantism — is the way to salvation because such a claim is contrary to the Catholic Faith.

My friend, Joe Doyle, posted this to his email list yesterday:

Both Christine Niles of Stella Maris Media and Raymond Arroyo of Fox News (38:01) and EWTN are reporting that, in the last few months of his life, Charlie Kirk and his wife had been attending Mass at Saint Bernadette Parish in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Kirk, the Founder and CEO of Turning Point USA, was raised Presbyterian, and had long identified as an Evangelical.

In July, he surprised many of his followers when he said the solution to toxic feminism was the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Kirk said that “I think we as Protestants and Evangelicals under-venerate Mary. She was very important. She was a vessel for our Lord and Savior….We don’t talk about Mary enough. We don’t venerate her enough. Mary was clearly important to early Christians.”

The cruel, savage and premeditated murder of Charlie Kirk may well have been demonic in origin. Let us hope and pray that Charlie Kirk attained the eternal destiny which he was seeking, and let us pray for his wife and children, who have suffered a grievous and inconsolable loss.

Mark Haas has a piece at the Crisis Magazine site which collates some of the same information Joe says here, but with more detail: “Charlie Kirk and His Surprising Sentiments Toward the Catholic Church.”

Again, I hope that, before Charlie met Jesus Christ in his particular judgment, this baptized Christian family man accepted both the rule of faith and the Vicar that Jesus gave His Church, and was contrite for his sins. The grace of God that converted the murderous Saul of Tarsus in a flash can do the same with anyone — especially if that person had the “good ground” we learn of in the Parable of the Sower.

Is Erika Kirk a Catholic?

There are claims being circulated online that Charlie’s widow, Erika, was baptized, confirmed, and raised Catholic — and remains a practicing Catholic to this day. From what I can tell, the part of that sentence before the em dash is quite true, but it is not clear to me that the part after the dash is. I hope it is. Writing for the National Catholic Register, Alyssa Murphy addresses “Charlie Kirk’s Wife: What We Know About Erika Kirk’s Catholic Faith,” but Murphy’s article does not answer our question. I saw a comment from someone who purports to attend Mass weekly with Erika. I also read a claim that the Kirks had recently convaladated their marriage in the Catholic Church (cf., references in the CIC). Again, I hope all this is true!

In her touching statement made on September 12, the grieving Mrs. Kirk does nothing to indicate whether she is Catholic or not. The professions of faith made in it — understand that I am being dispassionately analytical here — are indistinguishable from what a believing Evangelical Protestant would say:

https://t.co/sMkws4CyXx

— Turning Point USA (@TPUSA) September 13, 2025

I very much hope that Mrs. Kirk returns to her Catholic Faith if she has not, in fact, done so, and I hope that those little ones they brought into the world will be spiritually nourished on that same faith and its sacraments, and that they will all meet happily in Heaven.

It is our duty as Catholics to witness to the truth of the Catholic Faith, uncompromisingly, lovingly, and compassionately, so that all Protestants will go — to borrow from the title of an old book playing off the Scottish Gaelic name for the Presbyterian ecclesial body — “from the Kirk to the Church.”