By Thomas Gallatin, Patriot Post – When tragedy strikes, the most appropriate initial response is to pray. It’s an acknowledgement of our finiteness and reality that ultimately only God is truly in control; only God is sovereign over everything… It was and is fitting for us to pray, to call on God, after this most recent atrocity, the assassination of Charlie Kirk. Indeed, given that he was an outspoken Christian, that is precisely the response Kirk would have wanted.

By Mark Haas, Crisis Magazine – Veneration of Mary… One of the most striking examples of this came when Kirk addressed the question of Mary. He began with a frank admission: “Let me first say I think we as Protestants and evangelicals under venerate Mary. She was very important. She was a vessel for our Lord and Savior.”… This was not typical evangelical rhetoric. For centuries, Protestant communities have been cautious about Marian devotion, often fearing it detracts from Christ. But Kirk’s words revealed a humility—an openness to recognize that something had been lost.

By Nancy Flanders, LiveAction – Charlie Kirk believed ‘every human being… is sacred’… President Trump announced Kirk’s tragic death on Truth Social, writing, “The Great, and even Legendary, Charlie Kirk, is dead. No one understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better than Charlie. He was loved and admired by ALL…” … President Trump ordered the American flag to be flown at half-mast at the White House through Sunday in honor of Kirk.

By James Hitchcock, Catholic World Report – Today’s bishops may feel understandably discouraged at being asked to correct conditions, which have gone unchecked for three decades, and whose roots are often traceable to precisely the generation of allegedly strong prelates at the time of the Council. But this illustrates a homey principle—every problem, from a moral flaw to a leaky roof, merely gets worse if not addressed. Despite the claim that he is a rigidly counter-reforming pope, these problems are more intractable now than they were when John Paul II ascended the papal throne, and they will only continue to worsen if not addressed. …

By Kurt Etheridge, MRC TV – On a reflective episode of The Dana Show podcast, simulcast on The First, host Dana Loesch sat down with MRC President David Bozell to honor the extraordinary life and tragic assassination of Charlie Kirk. Bozell’s opening words captured the weight of the loss: “Charlie Kirk was certainly the best at creating an activist organization in the conservative movement. He was one of, if not the best, public speakers we had in our ranks. He combined all of that and started a podcast, and then started his family. He had this prolific career; he was the Rush Limbaugh of our time in that respect.”

Written by Charlie Kirk, the Spectator – When I was growing up, people often said British politics were where America’s would be in five, ten or 20 years. What this meant was that Britain was more to the left of America: more secular, more socially liberal, more environmentalist, more globalised. The assumption was that, over time, the left would always win out, so wherever Britain was now, America would soon be… I travelled to the United Kingdom in May to debate the students and faculty of Cambridge and Oxford Universities in large part because that old assumption is dead and gone. …

By Tessa Gervasini, Catholic News Agency – A new Pew Research Center study found that religion does not play a large role in how most Americans vote in U.S. elections… The research was conducted as part of Pew’s “About the American Trends Panel.” It was conducted May 5–11 and surveyed a representative sample of 8,937 U.S. adults. The margin of sampling error was plus or minus 1.4 percentage points… Of the responding participants, 56% of Americans said religion shapes how they vote “a little” or “not at all” ….

By Franciscan Media – The Story of the Most Holy Name of the Blessed Virgin Mary… This feast is a counterpart to the Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus; both have the possibility of uniting people easily divided on other matters…. The feast of the Most Holy Name of Mary began in Spain in 1513 and in 1671 was extended to all of Spain and the Kingdom of Naples. In 1683, John Sobieski, king of Poland, brought an army to the outskirts of Vienna to stop the advance of Muslim armies loyal to Mohammed IV of Constantinople. …

By Carolyn McKinney, Catholic Exchange – The assassination of Charlie Kirk has left me heartbroken. I grieve as an American, but most deeply as a mother. My sons—and their generation of young men—have lost a model of faith, courage, and goodness at a time when such examples are desperately needed… Charlie was not perfect, but he was faithful. His trust in Christ was clear to anyone who heard him speak. He longed for every person he met to come to know Jesus, and he spoke of that openly. This was not a private conviction tucked away behind his political work—it was the beating heart of everything he did. If my sons learn one thing from Charlie’s life, I hope it is this: to live unashamed of the Gospel, trusting Christ in all things.

By Ashlynn Lemos, LifeNews – Grief swept across our nation yesterday, September 10, with the tragic news that Charlie Kirk—conservative activist and co-founder of Turning Point USA—was assassinated at Utah Valley University… While speaking on his ‘The American Comeback’ tour, Charlie Kirk was fatally shot in the neck by a sniper around 12:20 p.m.. He had been sitting under his branded tent before a crowd of about 3,000 excited students and liberal protestors, preparing to answer a question about transgender shootings, when the attack occurred. …

By Eric Sammons, Crisis Magazine – Charlie Kirk’s job was to talk. He was far better at that skill than most people, and thousands upon thousands of people found what he said compelling. He talked mostly about controversial topics—although everything he advocated was mainstream opinion just two decades ago—always in a spirit of charity and constructive debate. He never advocated violence, nor did he ever demean those with whom he disagreed.

By Larry Chapp, Catholic World Report – Within various forms of religious relativism, there is a not-so-hidden soft totalitarianism that is swiftly moving into “harder” versions with devastating real-life consequences for anyone who dares to openly resist it… Way back in olden times, when I was still a professor of theology, one of the most ubiquitous attitudes amongst the students was that it does not matter which religion one practiced since “all religions are really saying the same thing in their essence”. ….

By CNA Deutsch, (CNA) – The Jesuit cardinal spoke in detail about his work on the Synod on Synodality. One concept that emerged during the process was “the image of a tent that needs to be expanded so that everyone can find space within it.” He said this image was “very well received by many” but “not at all in Africa.” There, people said, “a tent reminds us of refugee camps — we want to move beyond tents. In Africa, the preferred image was that of a family.”

By Michael Pakaluk, The Catholic Thing – Catholics who travel between the United States and Europe say that there is a noticeable difference in the Catholic cultures of the two.  The reports are anecdotal, of course. But this is what I see and hear: that on the American side, practicing Catholics seem more youthful and more hopeful; their culture is more vigorous; it is more outspoken; it has a bolder public presence.  It is looking towards the next generations.  It is building for the future. In short, it is more apostolic and evangelical.

By John Grondelski, National Catholic Register – Eleven nuns were shot by the Germans in a pine forest early in the morning of Aug. 1, 1943… Many religious were killed by the Nazis. What was so special about these nuns? Their story… Navahradak today is a town in Belarus about 70 miles east of the Polish border. Between the world wars, it was Nowogródek, a town in Poland. The 1939 Molotov-Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact between Germany and its Soviet ally brought the Red Army to Nowogródek and the area annexed to the USSR.