Erika Kirk delivered a powerful message in her first public remarks Friday evening since her husband Charlie Kirk’s assassination.
The post Erika Kirk Fights Through Tears As She Explains What She Had to Tell Her 3-Year-Old Daughter About Her Daddy (VIDEO) appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
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Erika Kirk, the wife of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, addressed the nation for the first time since he was assassinated on Friday, and she gave a chilling warning to those behind his death. She began her speech with a quiet invocation and by thanking law enforcement for their work to find Charlie’s killer, giving praise to God and Christ throughout.
The post WATCH: In Powerful First Public Address, Erika Kirk Fires Off Chilling Warning to “Evildoers Responsible for my Husband’s Assassination” – “You Have No Idea the Fire That You Have Ignited” appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
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The O’Keefe Media Group on Friday released undercover video of a FEMA official laughing about the assassination of Charlie Kirk.
The post WATCH: FEMA Official Caught on Undercover Video Laughing About Assassination of Charlie Kirk, Says He “Kind of Deserved It” – Update He’s FIRED! appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
Read MoreGreat is the wisdom of the Lord!
God Almighty, Your Wisdom includes
An understanding of what is fair,
What is logical, what is true,
What is right and what is lasting.
It mirrors Your pure intellect!
I entreat You to grant me such Wisdom,
That my labours may reflect Your insight.
Your Wisdom expands in Your creations,
Displaying complexity and multiplicity.
Your Wisdom is an eternity ahead of man.
May Your wisdom flourish forever!
A reading from the First letter to Timothy
1:15-17
Beloved:
This saying is trustworthy and deserves full acceptance:
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.
Of these I am the foremost.
But for that reason I was mercifully treated,
so that in me, as the foremost,
Christ Jesus might display all his patience as an example
for those who would come to believe in him for everlasting life.
To the king of ages, incorruptible, invisible, the only God,
honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.
From the Gospel according to Luke
6:43-49
Jesus said to his disciples:
"A good tree does not bear rotten fruit,
nor does a rotten tree bear good fruit.
For every tree is known by its own fruit.
For people do not pick figs from thornbushes,
nor do they gather grapes from brambles.
A good person out of the store of goodness in his heart produces good,
but an evil person out of a store of evil produces evil;
for from the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks.
"Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ but not do what I command?
I will show you what someone is like who comes to me,
listens to my words, and acts on them.
That one is like a man building a house,
who dug deeply and laid the foundation on rock;
when the flood came, the river burst against that house
but could not shake it because it had been well built.
But the one who listens and does not act
is like a person who built a house on the ground
without a foundation.
When the river burst against it,
it collapsed at once and was completely destroyed."
“The Rock. That’s what the Lord is. Those who entrust themselves to the Lord will always remain safe, because their foundations are sunk into the Rock. That’s what Jesus says in the Gospel. He speaks about a wise man who built his house on rock, that is, on trust in the Lord and on serious things. And this trust is a noble thing, because the foundation of this building of our lives is sure and strong.” “Even in our own lives it can happen, when my foundations are not strong. The storm comes – and we all have storms in our lives, all of us – and we are unable to stand firm. Many say: ‘No, I’ll change my life.’ They think making life changes is like putting on makeup. Changing my life requires changing the foundations of my life, that is, finding the Rock that is Christ. ‘I would like to renovate this building because it’s extremely ugly, so I would like to make it a little more beautiful and strengthen the foundation.’ But if all I do is put on makeup, then things won’t go far; it will fall. Christian life falls.” We cannot build our lives on passing things, on appearances, on acting like everything is going fine. We go to the rock, where our salvation awaits. And there we will all – each one of us – be happy.” (Pope Francis, Santa Marta, 5 December 2019)
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CNA Staff, Sep 12, 2025 / 17:34 pm (CNA).
Here is a roundup of recent pro-life and abortion-related news.
Pro-life leaders are expressing concern after the inclusion of abortion drugs in the World Health Organization (WHO)’s latest annual list of essential medicines, noting that the drugs can be “dangerous.”
The Model List of Essential Medicines 2025, released on “International Safe Abortion Day,” had a section dedicated to abortion drugs, which for the first time did not include the caveat that these medicines are not legal or culturally acceptable everywhere.
According to WHO, “the list no longer carries the boxed caveat, in place since 2005, that singled out these medicines as only to be used where legally permitted or culturally acceptable.”
Dr. Ingrid Skop, vice president and director of medical affairs for Charlotte Lozier Institute and a board-certified OB-GYN, expressed concern that these drugs were being recommended for use around the world, noting that abortion drugs “have a complication rate four times higher than surgical abortion.”
“As many as 1 in 5 women will suffer a complication and 1 in 20 will require surgical completion,” Skop said. “Also, a recent study found that more than a third of women who used abortion drugs were unprepared for the amount of pain and bleeding they encountered.”
“Yet, the WHO is recommending them for use in Third World countries with poor health care systems, where emergency care may be limited or nonexistent,” Skop continued.
Calling the action a part of WHO’s “population control and eugenic agenda,” Skop urged WHO to “instead devote more attention to helping countries obtain the resources they need to impact maternal mortality, such as blood-banking for hemorrhage and antibiotics and critical care for infections.”
Michael New, a senior associate scholar at Charlotte Lozier Institute and assistant professor of practice at The Catholic University of America, added that the WHO’s decision was “disappointing” but “unsurprising.”
“The World Health Organization has always had a very strong pro-abortion bias,” New said, noting that the group’s website calls abortion a “critical public health and human rights issue.”
New also noted that WHO’s website “wrongly claims that ‘evidence shows that restricting access to abortions does not reduce the number of abortions’ even though many, many studies show the incidence of abortion is impacted by its legal status.”
Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America Political Affairs Communications Director Kelsey Pritchard expressed gratitude that the U.S. withdrew from WHO in January.
“Thank goodness President Trump withdrew the U.S. from the pro-abortion WHO, and they keep proving that decision right,” she said. “The abortion industry — including foreign, criminal abortion drug rings — is flooding every state with these drugs whether it is legal or not.”
Pritchard also noted that abortion drugs can be “dangerous.”
“A mounting body of scientific evidence and real-life horror stories show abortion drugs are far more dangerous than advertised, exposing the serious risks they pose to women and girls as well as unborn children,” she said.
“Week after week these dangerous drugs cause more tragedies: Women coerced and poisoned, girls rushed to the ER, mothers dying along with their babies — all while the abortion industry profits from deception and abusers benefit from unfettered drug access,” Pritchard continued.
Pritchard anticipated the FDA’s review of the drug, saying that “we’re confident once the evidence is examined, it will be undeniable how harmful these drugs truly are.”
A California bill that would allow health care providers to anonymously prescribe abortion drugs could soon become law.
The law would allow a pharmacist to dispense abortion drugs “without the name of the patient, the name of the prescriber, or the name and address of the pharmacy, subject to specified requirements,” according to the bill’s text.
The law would allow abortionists to anonymously mail abortion medication to patients in California and in the rest of the U.S., even to states where these abortion drugs are illegal. This could make it harder for states to build legal cases against abortionists operating under shield laws.
Attorney General Letitia James is intervening in a landmark case involving a New York abortionist who allegedly prescribed abortion pills to a patient in Texas, where the drugs are illegal.
James sent a letter to the state Supreme Court judge in Ulster County, New York, saying she has the authority to enforce the state’s shield law — a law designed to protect abortionists who violate the laws of other states.
The abortion shield law prohibits state officials from cooperating with investigations into abortionists for out-of-state abortions, even when abortion drugs are illegal in those states.
The legal battle is among the first challenges to New York’s 2023 shield law.
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Lyon, France, Sep 12, 2025 / 17:04 pm (CNA).
A 45-year-old Iraqi Christian who fled his homeland to escape Islamist persecution was stabbed to death in Lyon in southern France on the evening of Sept. 10.
He was reportedly livestreaming a video on TikTok in which he spoke about his faith. The attack has shocked local Christian communities and drawn calls for clarity on the motives behind the killing.
According to local newspaper Le Progrès, the victim, identified as Ashur Sarnaya — who was disabled and used a wheelchair — was returning to his apartment building when a man, apparently waiting for him, struck him in the neck with a knife. Emergency services, alerted shortly before 10:30 p.m., found him in cardiac arrest and were unable to revive him.
Born in 1979, Sarnaya had lived in the building with his sister for more than a decade after fleeing the advance of the Islamic State in Iraq in 2014. Neighbors described him as “a vulnerable person who didn’t walk and never caused any trouble.”
Relatives told local media that Sarnaya, an Assyrian Christian, regularly hosted live sessions on TikTok in the evenings in which he spoke about Christianity. In a video clip that was still circulating online the following morning, he appeared with his face covered in blood streaming from his nose and mouth.
“He was a normal person. He did live videos on TikTok to spread the word of God. He had no enemies, no problems with anyone,” his sister told RMC-BFM Lyon, recounting how she was alerted by friends who were watching the livestream at the moment of the attack. “When I arrived, he was dead. He was on the ground, there were lots of people, the police, the firefighters.”
On his social media accounts, Sarnaya often shared testimonies of faith in Arabic. In one post cited by Aleteia France, he complained that his content was frequently blocked or suspended due to reports from Muslim users. In March, he claimed to have been physically attacked by Muslims.
The president of the Assyro-Chaldean Association of Lyon, Georges Shamoun Ishaq, told the Catholic media that Sarnaya was “a very kind, discreet person, deeply believing, who liked to speak about the Christian faith.”
The Lyon prosecutor’s office has opened a homicide investigation, entrusted to the Division of Organized and Specialized Crime. At this stage, investigators are not prioritizing any hypothesis — whether criminal, political, religious, or drug-related. AFP reportedly received a video footage of a man in dark clothing and a hood leaving the scene, identified as the presumed attacker.
Catholic organizations in France have expressed strong concern. Œuvre d’Orient condemned “with the greatest firmness the murder of a vulnerable Iraqi Christian,” stressing that “it is essential that Christians of the Middle East be able to witness to their faith in safety and live with dignity.”
SOS Chrétiens d’Orient recalled that Sarnaya had fled the persecution of ISIS in Iraq. “It is unimaginable that a Christian who fled persecution should be murdered in France,” the organization stated, calling for prayers for the repose of his soul and for his family.
Family members also paid tribute to Sarnaya on social media. One cousin described him as a martyr on Facebook: “He was preaching live when his life was tragically taken,” the post read, adding that his faith would always remain an inspiration.
Reactions from political leaders have so far been limited. Marine Le Pen, leader of the right-wing party Rassemblement National, claimed on X that Sarnaya “was savagely stabbed to death in Lyon by an Islamist. While granting asylum to the persecuted is legitimate, our uncontrolled immigration policy now leads us to welcome their executioners.”
Lyon-based influencer Verlaine, also paid tribute to the victim on X, highlighting his noticeable presence on social media, “where he shared above all his Catholic faith…,” suggesting that it was the reason why he was killed. “Rest in peace, Sir,” he wrote.
The killing of Sarnaya comes against a backdrop of growing concern over anti-Christian incidents in France. Advocacy groups have repeatedly warned of a rise in acts targeting churches, cemeteries, and believers over the past years.
On Aug. 7, Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau asked prefects to reinforce protection of Christian places of worship, particularly around the feast of the Assumption. According to official figures, 401 anti-Christian acts were recorded between January and June, an increase of 13% compared with the same period in 2024. Vandalism and desecration of churches account for the majority of these attacks.
Earlier this week, on Sept. 8, a statue of the Virgin and Child was deliberately set on fire during Mass at the Basilica of Notre-Dame de Bon-Secours in Guingamp (Brittany). The same statue had already been targeted by arson in 2015 and 2021.
On July 25, the Notre-Dame des Champs church in Paris’ sixth arrondissement was also the target of an arson attack. A year ago, the arson attack that devastated a historic church in northern France had already caused a wave of national emotion.
The relative lack of media coverage given to anti-Christian acts, which number in the hundreds each year, has fueled concerns among Catholic observers that this phenomenon may worsen if not addressed with greater seriousness.
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Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Sep 12, 2025 / 16:34 pm (CNA).
The Ad Hoc Committee Against Racism established in 2017 by former United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) President Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston has officially been made a permanent body within the USCCB, according to a Sept. 10 press release.
The newly created, permanent Subcommittee for the Promotion of Racial Justice and Reconciliation “continues the important work of the temporary ad hoc committee,” said USCCB President Archbishop Timothy Broglio.
“As we call for a genuine conversion of heart that will compel change at both individual and institutional levels,” he continued, “I invite all Catholics to join us as we carry forward this work to recognize and uphold the inherent dignity of every person made in the image and likeness of God.”
The Administrative Committee of the USCCB approved the transition on Sept. 9, according to the press release, noting that the new subcommittee falls “under the Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development.”
The Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development “seeks to teach about and to witness to the intrinsic dignity of the human person as an antidote to the grave sin of racism” and “explores and implements concrete solutions to address the racism that still pervades our society and our Church today, and works in collaborative ways to strengthen the response of all people to this evil.”
The move to cement the ad hoc committee comes as part of the bishops’ “ongoing commitment to addressing the sin of racism,” the release noted.
The committee’s chair, Bishop Joseph Perry, also weighed in, stating: “I speak on behalf of the bishop members, staff, and consultants of the Ad Hoc Committee Against Racism in expressing gratitude for the transition of our committee to a standing subcommittee so that the important work of evangelization of the faithful and the community at large may continue in the spirit of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”
The committee will officially begin work after this year’s November plenary assembly.
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CNA Staff, Sep 12, 2025 / 14:56 pm (CNA).
A new report from a Pew Research Center survey finds that 8 out of 10 American Catholics view Pope Leo XIV favorably.
According to the report, 84% of U.S. Catholics surveyed say they have a “mostly favorable” view (47%) of the pope or a “very favorable” view (37%) — while only 4% of Catholics view him unfavorably and 11% say they have never heard of him.
Among non-Catholic Americans, more than half of those surveyed (56%) say they view him favorably, while 31% say they have never heard of him.
Pew surveyed 9,916 U.S. adults (which includes 1,849 Catholics) from July 8 through Aug. 3. The margin of error in the survey is plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.
The very same percentage of U.S. Catholics — 84% — viewed Pope Francis favorably in the early months of his pontificate as well, according to the report.
Those who attend Mass more often have a more favorable view of the new pope. Among U.S. Catholics who attend Mass weekly or more often, 95% say they have a favorable view. Of those who attend Mass once or twice a year or a few times a month, the number stands at 84%, while 77% of Catholics who seldom or never attend Mass say they have a favorable view.
More than three-quarters of U.S. Catholics say they are excited that Leo, born Robert Francis Prevost in Chicago in 1955, is the first U.S.-born pope.
Though so many view him in a positive light, only 7% of Catholic survey respondents say they know a lot about the new pope, while a quarter say they know nothing at all. Just under 70% say they know “a little” about the pontiff, who spent decades working for the Church in Peru, eventually serving as the bishop of Chiclayo from 2015 to 2023.
He was elected to the papacy by the College of Cardinals on May 8 after the death of Pope Francis on April 21.
Among weekly Catholic Mass attendees, 75% say they only know a little about the new pope, and 11% say they know nothing.
“These numbers show both the excitement and the challenge of a new papacy,” said Montse Alvarado, president and COO of EWTN News (CNA’s parent company). “While Pope Leo XIV has been warmly received, many still don’t know his story.”
“With our presence in Peru and the Vatican, and decades of experience covering the Church, EWTN News is uniquely positioned to help Catholics understand the people and places that shaped the Holy Father — and to serve as a force for unity for his pontificate,” she said.
The latest findings are part of Pew’s American Trends Panel, part of Pew’s ongoing research on Catholicism in the U.S.
In June, Pew reported that nearly 50% of adults in the U.S. have some connection to the Catholic faith.
“Catholicism’s roots in the United States run deep,” Pew stated in the report titled “U.S. Catholicism: Connections to the Religion, Beliefs, and Practices.”
Pew found that 47% of U.S. adults have Catholic ties: 20% identify as Catholic, 9% as “culturally Catholic,” 9% as ex-Catholic, and 9% report a connection through a Catholic parent, spouse, or past Mass attendance.
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NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope captured newborn stars forming in clouds of dust and gas (colored golden and orange in this image) in a star-forming region called Pismis 24.
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CNA Staff, Sep 12, 2025 / 09:00 am (CNA).
After the assassination of Charlie Kirk at a college campus on Wednesday, Alveda King, the niece of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., encouraged people to pray.
“It broke my heart,” King said when asked about her reaction to learning of the assassination.
“I was so very startled when I got the news that Charlie had been shot, and my heart immediately went to him and his family, his beautiful wife, his little children,” she told Raymond Arroyo on EWTN’s “The World Over with Raymond Arroyo.”
“Having experienced those kinds of occurrences in my own family, I immediately went into prayer,” she said.
King shared about her own experience with political assassinations in her family. Not only was her uncle, Dr. King, assassinated but her father, Rev. Alfred Daniel Williams King, was also assassinated as well as her grandmother, Alberta King.
“For me, I am a Christian. I still have the peace and the joy of the Lord, but it’s almost like a trauma or a trigger point when those things happen,” King said.
But amid the trauma, King encouraged listeners to “do what my uncle talked about,” encouraging people to have “regard for human dignity.”
“We’ve got to care again,” King said. “We’ve got to see human beings as human beings — from the womb to the tomb and beyond.”
“We’ve got to get back to a point of caring, of loving, of repenting, of forgiving,” she continued. “Therein lies the answer.”
Calling Charlie Kirk a “man of faith,” King said she will remember him with a Scripture verse: 1 Corinthians 13:13.
“Now abides faith, hope, and love. The greatest of these is love,” she said. “That’s the way that I do remember Charlie.”
King said she believed that if Charlie Kirk, Dr. King, or President John F. Kennedy were still with us, they would encourage us to not “seek our answers in humanity.”
“We’re going to find not our heroes in humanity, but we’re going to have to look to Jesus at these times,” King said.
“We’re living in tumultuous times, and social media drives us to retaliate, to strike back,” she said. “I want to remind people that if you don’t agree with someone, you don’t shoot the person. You pray, you talk, and you consider your position. But this violence is just absolutely wrong.”
She noted that we are living in “a time of violence and anger and fear and frustration.”
“So that leads me to say to everyone: fear not, listen, love, communicate,” she said.
King encouraged listeners “to do something good for someone” in remembrance of Charlie Kirk and in memory of the victims of the violence on the 24th anniversary of 9/11.
“I would remind us to call for peace, to call for prayer,” she said. “And I know Charlie would want us to do that as well.”
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CNA Staff, Sep 12, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).
A new film called “Triumph of the Heart” depicts St. Maximilian Kolbe’s last days on earth in a starvation bunker in the German death camp of Auschwitz. The film will be released in theaters on Sept. 12.
St. Maximilian Kolbe was a Polish Franciscan friar and priest who volunteered to die in place of another man in Auschwitz. He spent the last 14 days of his life in a starvation bunker alongside nine other men.
At the film’s Sept. 8 premiere in Dallas, where over 1,000 people gathered at the Edith O’Donnell Arts and Technology Building on the University of Texas at Dallas campus to show their support and watch the film, writer and director Anthony D’Ambrosio told CNA on the red carpet that it was “surreal” to see the magnitude of the premiere.
He explained that it was originally meant to be a more intimate gathering with roughly 200 people in attendance but “God, of course, had other plans,” D’Ambrosio said. “I think that what I’m seeing is that God keeps on growing our vision for where he wants to take the film, where he wants to take this story.”
Actors who also spoke on the red carpet discussed the resurgence of faith-based media being seen in today’s culture.
Michael Iskander, who portrays King David in Prime Video’s “House of David” and served as the master of ceremonies for the premiere, said he believes “Christ is pouring his heart out to all of us in every way possible and media is one of those frontiers that hasn’t really been touched yet.”
He credited the hit series “The Chosen” for “paving the path for so much faith-based filmmaking and showing people that this is a market that people want to see.”
A recent convert to Catholicism, Iskander shared that St. Maximilian Kolbe was one of the first saints he learned about from the Catholic Church. He highlighted the saint’s use of media to spread the Gospel message to the masses and said it is “fitting that this film and this rise in Christianity, especially in filmmaking, had to do with St. Kolbe.”
Jeff Schiefelbein, co-host of the podcast “The Beatidudes” and an investor in “Triumph of the Heart,” said he believes there is a resurgence in faith-based media because people are “sick of all the fake stuff.”
“We’re being told to compare ourselves to things that aren’t even important. The materialism has swung so far that the pendulum is making its way back,” he said. “… I think there’s going to be this resurgence … of young people, Gen Xers, old people coming back and saying, ‘Wait, we want what’s real, what’s true, what’s good, and what’s beautiful’ and so it is rooted in the Gospel when we go and seek those.”
Marcellino D’Ambrosio, a well-known author, Catholic commentator, and executive producer of the film — also the father of Anthony D’Ambrosio — called this moment we’re seeing in faith-based media “a Holy Spirit moment.”
“Human beings always need God but I think something really special is going on right now,” he said.
“St. Augustine said it well: Our hearts are restless until we rest in him. And success in the culture — this is a fascinating thing that actually goes back even to the successful cultures in Rome — there’s an emptiness when you have a certain amount of success and you have leisure; nothing satisfies but God,” he added. “So it oftentimes leads people to that restlessness that St. Augustine talks about — to look for him, to be open to him, and I think that’s what’s going on in our culture right now.”
As for what those involved in the film hope viewers take away from it, the major theme they mentioned was their wish that it fills the audience with hope.
“I hope they will take away hope,” Marcellino D’Ambrosio said. “I hope that everyone realizes that God is real; I have a future, no matter how bad the present looks … he’s with me in the present and he has something in store for me that’s greater than my wildest dreams.”
Rowan Polonski, the actor who portrays Albert in the film — one of the men in the starvation bunker alongside Kolbe — told CNA his hope is for the audience to be “pleasantly surprised in the way that they’re moved.”
“Entering into this movie, you could quite easily walk in thinking it’s going to be a pretty dark and heavy write, but what I want them to walk out with is a sense of joy and catharsis,” he added. “And a sense that no matter how dark times can get, how low one can feel, there’s always a way out, there’s always a crack of light somewhere that you can cling onto and follow through and it’s normally in the form of love.”
Producer Cecilia Stevenson added: “I really want people to feel love when they watch this movie and specifically to feel the love of Our Lord and how he enters into our suffering with us, just like Kolbe did for those men in that film. Our movie, Kolbe’s story, it’s a modern-day example that ultimately points us to Christ, and I really hope people feel that love and I hope it gives them hope, that there is meaning in life and that suffering itself can have meaning.”
Read MoreMars passes 2° north of Virgo’s bright alpha star Spica at 4 A.M. EDT. Neither is visible at that time, but you can catch them in the evening sky shortly after sunset. You’ll want to be quick, though — they set before 9 P.M. local daylight time and are already low in the west 40Continue reading “The Sky Today on Friday, September 12: Mars moves past Spica”
The post The Sky Today on Friday, September 12: Mars moves past Spica appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.
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