A Tribute to Charlie Kirk
Charlie Kirk was many things to many people: a husband and father, a builder of institutions, a debater and organizer who believed in empowering young people to stand for truth. But on September 10, 2025, Charlie was silenced by an assassin at Utah Valley University.
This tragedy comes in the shadow of another grievous wound: the attack during an all-school Mass at Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis on August 27, which killed two children and wounded more than twenty.
In the wake of these tragedies, we have a task. Since the 1960s, America’s cultural compass has been effectively broken. The sexual revolution normalized contraception and abortion; later came IVF and the legal redefinition of marriage; euthanasia grows more accepted; and governments increasingly elevate gender ideology as a civil orthodoxy. A woke utopian creed often functions as a substitute religion, promising justice now while neglecting the question of salvation. The result of this moral decline is a public square less tethered to biblical truth–and more prone to the violence and chaos of the past few weeks.
Charlie Kirk fought this decline with all his strength. While he wasn’t a Catholic, he was a serious Christian, and he showed that when we step up, we can make a difference. Many already step up quietly—on school boards, on city councils, in statehouses, and in Washington. We need more people to fight for truth in elected office. And we especially need faithful Catholics to run for office and serve in government. This is key to forming young leaders and shaping policy to protect the sanctity of life, the dignity of the person, subsidiarity, solidarity, and the common good.
At the Napa Institute, we’re working to “empower Catholics to renew their faith and transform the culture.” And we believe that our nation’s future will be shaped by constellation of lay apostolates.
FOCUS on our campuses. Legatus in the world of business. The Augustine Institute forming minds and hearts. The Catholic Leadership Institute training parish leaders. The Tocqueville Center at Notre Dame probing faith and liberty. Ethics and Public Policy Center in our political thought. The Thomistic Institute forming students in faith at our universities. The Napa Legal Institute equipping ministries to navigate law and policy. There are thousands of such efforts in America. And these apostolates can again become the moral compass of our civil life.
We can look to Charlie Kirk’s memory for inspiration. However one felt about his politics, his public witness generally aligned with key pillars of Catholic social teaching—life, family, faith, and freedom. His wife, Erika, is Catholic; he himself was an openly Christian man who showed respect for the Church’s worship and moral vision, and the Catholic community responded with vigils and prayer. May that shared discipleship be the seed of real renewal.
Friends, the Holy Spirit will raise up leaders if we ask—and if we are willing to be led into the work ourselves. At the Napa Institute, we will continue to do our part, and we are profoundly grateful to those who pray for us and support this mission.
But now is the time to do so much more. Please, invest in apostolates that shape souls and serve the common good. And most of all, influence your own parish, neighborhood, and profession by staying rooted in Christ.
St. Augustine called God “ever ancient, ever new”—a reminder that truth does not change with the news cycle. Charlie Kirk’s life and death call us back to those truths. May eternal light shine upon him, and may we respond to this tragedy with faith, courage, and moral leadership.
