Charlie Kirk was murdered, his wife widowed, his children (one in utero) left fatherless. This is a terrible tragedy. In its wake there is much sloppy talk about Charlie being a Christian martyr. Catholics must refrain from this for grave reason. There are too many unanswered questions. Let’s not allow our pathosto run over our logos.
In the interview embedded below, Mike Church and I discuss the requisites for salvation and the criteria for martyrdom according to the Catholic Church’s authoritative and longstanding teaching and praxis.
There is no attempt here to make a judgment in the matter — something entirely reserved to the Church. It is the principles that we are discussing and how those principles might be applied in concrete cases.
The one I wanted to say but negligently omitted was this: There is traditionally no requirement of a miracle for a Servant of God to be beatified as a martyr once actual martyrdom has been clearly established by a thorough investigation of the facts according to inflexible requisites going back centuries. This highlights the importance of establishing the facts clearly according the the criteria I outlined in the interview. Yes, the Church is a stickler on these points.
2 comments:
I did not realize that his wife was pregnant.
Where was that info obtained?
Have not seen this anywhere.
Paul VI was canonised. Dare we hope that ALL men will be canonised?
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