Said Cardinal Dolan:
I want to relate this to a post I wrote the day after the assassination that some readers objected to but that I defended as "as a serious invitation to contemplate Kirk as a saint."Cardinal Dolan says he spent the past week studying Charlie Kirk’s life, and the more he learned, the more he saw him as a modern-day Saint Paul.
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) September 19, 2025
A fearless missionary, a passionate evangelist, and a true hero.
“When I heard the tragic news, I said, ‘I wonder who he was.’ And… pic.twitter.com/p77aAPOQGB
I knew at the time this question was complicated for Catholics because of their official procedure for canonization, and I observe that Cardinal Dolan — an excellent speaker — avoids directly declaring Charlie Kirk a "saint." He doesn't say "Saint Charlie," but he does declare Kirk "a modern day Saint Paul" — and "a missionary," "an evangelist," and "a hero." I'm not Catholic, and I don't know where the official line is, but the Cardinal seems to be stepping forthrightly up to the line. I think Cardinal Dolan knows exactly what he's saying and deploys clear language perfectly.
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37 comments:
Interesting that Dolan didn’t know who Kirk was until Kirk was murdered.
Dolan is a different demo.
meanwhile, democrats in the House (and here), continue to state that Charlie represents EVERY THING that they despise:
Truth
Justice
and the American Way.
and seriously,
the Democrats continue to think that THIS is the path to victory
He's an out of touch old man who is impressed with Kirk's digital skills...
There's just no reconciling Kirk's views on racial and minority civil rights.
Are you a White Supremacist, ann? The Catholic bishop is going to be embarrassed when he listens to everything Charlie was advocating for...
Seriously ann? You think the Civil Rights Act was a bad thing too? lolol. So much for covering "both sides"... Sad the guy was killed. But no... he was no saint.
We don't canonize those types in our catholic church today. Give it up and find another cause to champion? lol
Thank you for a very sharp post, Professor.
Kirk has the same problem as Vance. Too young to know how reality feeds back into principles, and so inclined to make principled mistakes.
Charlie was in favor of Free Speech..
Democrats are opposed to Charlie
Well, if he is canonized, the line for Advocatus Diaboli will be very long.
what was his mistake, to speak out in unconfortable places, he had been to Oxford, to New Haven, much more dangerous venues,
he spoke on a great many subjects,
I noticed that J.D. Vance mentioned praying for Charlie and wondered if he would get pushback on that. Catholics believe we should pray for the souls in purgatory and we don’t generally assume everyone who dies skips right past purgatory. However, we can privately ask for the intercession of those who we believe is a saint in heaven. We remember canonized saints and those saints known only to God on Nov 1, All Saints Day.
..."Kirk has the same problem as Vance...."
Kirk doesn't have anything, now.
The vile left demand they blame maga.
Delusional leftists cultists - YOUR party built the hate machine used to kill Charlie.
"HEY FASCIST CATCH"
conviction, integrity, something you don't have,
Leave it at martyr. Kirk wasn't a saint, he was a preacher.
I think Charlie himself would agree.
I never really paid close attention to Charlie Kirk.
Charlie was out there talking to young people.
Cardinal Dolan reaps the whirlwind in 5, 4, 3...
I doubt Charlie Kirk would want to be referred to as a saint.
Cardinal Dolan has always been a politician, with a finger to the wind. I would take anything he had to say with a big chunk of salt.
A saint no, an evangelist yes.
(Don’t let RCOCEAN see this post)
G Poulin.
why?
Are you on team terrorist?
rhhardin said...
Kirk has the same problem as Vance. Too young to know how reality feeds back into principles, and so inclined to make principled mistakes.
Says someone who can't even provide a Normative principle or accurately differentiate between Is and Ought.
It is kinda sad to watch atheists act like this. They think they are so smart.
Charlie Kirk was killed for his Christian beliefs on the gender issue as he was in the act of proclaiming them. This is close to, if not the same as. martyrdom in the Catholic sense. I don't know how you would distinguish. A Catholic martyr is automatically a Catholic saint. Is an Evangelical who is martyred for Christain doctrines which Catholics believe in automatically a saint by the rules of the Catholic Church? I guess if an archbishop won't come out and say so, I shouldn't.
A Catholic martyr simply is a saint but he is publicly declared a saint because he publicly displayed virtues which Catholics should emulate. In this country Protestant dissenters, those we now call Evangelicals, excluded Catholics from the right to vote from 1610 on, in some cases such as New Hampshire, right up to the Civil War. But now we have more in common as I learned from my association with the Evangelicals in prolife. And I saw then how courageous they were about preaching the Gospel. To me, what Charlie Kirk stands for is how much we Catholics can learn from the courage the Evangelicals have about preaching the Gospel. They even go on college campuses. We Catholics should learn about Charlie Kirk in order to emulate him, whatever you want to call it.
Dave Begley said...
Interesting that Dolan didn’t know who Kirk was until Kirk was murdered.
Dolan is a different demo.
And notice that Dolan had the self awareness to realize he was the ignorant one.
RH is a lonely old misogynist... with dirty carpets.
Anecdote. I had a brief encounter with Cardinal Dolan. I was leaving an event as he was arriving. He stepped out of the elevator as I was waiting for it. He stepped out, gave me a big smile, held out his hand and introduced himself. He may be a politician but he radiated joy. I get the sense that Kirk also radiated joy, even when saying challenging things.
I would say, he wasn't fully informed and leave it at that,
In his letters, Paul himself referred to believers as “saints”
Meanwhile, Kirk frequently referred to himself as a sinner, never a saint.
…a sinner saved by God’s grace.
'because is no one worthy, no not one' Charlie realized that,
“And notice that Dolan had the self awareness to realize he was the ignorant one.”
Great observation!
In the New Testament, the Christians still living, are generally referred to as saints.
I can say that Charlie Kirk was spoken of quite warmly from the pulpit in Sts Peter and Paul in San Francisco in the homily last Sunday by the rather elderly priest. I had to wonder when the first miracle would be acclaimed.
You mean to tell us that Christians are often humble and admit they are imperfect?
Well - SO.... the opposite of the Nancy Pelosi-AOC Arrogant collective left.
@Meade You are correct of course, but would note only that Catholics such as the Cardinal believe that all saints, save one, are also sinners.
I'm not a Catholic either, but the Congregation for the Causes of Saints can consider anyone for canonization. Be that as it may, there is a kind of secular canonization in this country. We made national saints out of very flawed cloth before., the secret womanizer and plagiarist John F. Kennedy, and the secret womanizer and possible Soviet dupe Martin Luther King, Jr. were two. (I say possible Soviet dupe because there is evidence from the Mitrokhin archives that the KGB repeatedly tried to place agents of influence within King's entourage.) Kennedy and King share two things in common -- both were assassinated and both were "canonized" by Lyndon Baines Johnson. Across the land, public institutions and facilities were named or renamed in honor of these secular saints. So what's wrong with a few Charlie Kirk boulevards or Charlie Kirk libraries? They'll be perfect targets for vandalism committed by AOC and other usual suspects and therefore perfect examples of their unfitness for any degree of public trust. Midterms are in the bag, fool!
This guy can teach us something.
Cardinal Dolan seems like an intelligent man, but he didn't know who Charlie Kirk was?
The Catholic Church has been asleep at the switch for decades. They have the brand recognition, money and organization to help with our problems, but they aren't effective.
Nobody likes public schools, so Catholic schools should be excelling. College is getting stupid, but Catholic universities aren't noticeably different. The internet has made girls mean and boys mopey, so offer alternative activities. Young adults can't meet nice people, so come up with something. There is a loneliness epidemic amongst seniors, and all they offer is bingo.
Charlie Kirk has woken up a lot of people. Turning Point is getting attention and expanding. The Catholic Church should figure out how to lead, and if that is too much, then figure out who to help.
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