Cardinal Timothy Dolan on Friday hailed Charlie Kirk as a “modern-day Saint Paul” – saying the slain conservative activist’s “gracious” debating style “can teach us something.”
Dolan, one of the leading figures in the Catholic Church, said he didn’t know who the Turning Point USA co-founder was when Kirk was fatally shot on a Utah college campus Sept. 10 — but then was quickly impressed as he started researching him.
“The more I learned about him, I thought, ‘This guy’s a modern-day Saint Paul,’ ” Dolan told “Fox and Friends.” “He was a missionary, he’s an evangelist, he’s a hero.
New York’s archbishop — and onetime candidate for the papacy — said that while Kirk was “blunt” and “pretty direct,” he treated his opponents “always with respect” when they were verbally sparring.
“And not only was that a gracious, kind of virtuous thing to do, it’s effective,” Dolan said. “Because when your opponents sees this guy kind of respects me, we kind of disagree here, but he kind of enjoys me and is thanking me for being here, and he’s telling me he appreciates the trust I have in him in sharing my view — I thought, ‘This guy can teach us something.’ ”
Dolan’s comments come more than a week after the horrific shooting at Utah Valley University claimed the life of the 31-year-old married father of two and two days before his funeral is set to take place in an NFL stadium in Arizona.
Lefty trade-school student Tyler Robinson was arrested and charged with the assassination and could face the death penalty if convicted of Kirk’s murder.
