Pope Leo XIV prayed for the family of Charlie Kirk, the conservative political activist murdered on Sep. 10 on the Utah Valley University campus in Orem, Utah.

Tyler James Robinson, 22, of Washington, Utah, has been arrested accused of the assassination.

On Monday, Vice President JD Vance guest hosted Kirk’s radio show said he was “filling in for somebody who cannot be filled in for, but I’ll do my best.”

He recounted his conversations with Kirk’s widow, Erika – who is Catholic – and has vowed to never let her husband’s legacy die.

Kirk was a strong supporter of President Donald Trump, and many of expressed shock at how many of the president’s opponents celebrated the 31-year-old activist’s murder.

“I’m desperate for our country to be united in condemnation of the actions and the ideas that killed my friend,” Vance said on Kirk’s program on Monday.

“I want it so badly that I will tell you a difficult truth. We can only have it with people who acknowledge that political violence is unacceptable,” the Catholic vice president said.

Vance said he would never forget his conversation with Erika Kirk, and said she her husband never raised his voice to her and was never “cross or mean-spirited to her.”

The vice president noted that he could not say the same about himself.

“I took from that moment that I needed to be a better husband and I needed to be a better father,” he said. “That is the way I’m going to honor my friend.”

Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni on Tuesday was asked by journalists about Pope Leo’s conversation on Saturday with the new U.S. ambassador, Brian Burch.

He said that during the meeting, the pontiff “confirmed that he prays for Charlie Kirk, his wife, and his children.”

“He expressed concern about political violence and spoke of the need to refrain from rhetoric and manipulation that lead to polarization and not dialogue,” Bruni said.

The day after Kirk’s murder, Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin told reporters the Vatican condemned the murder.

“The Vatican stand is that we are against all types of violence. And we think that we have to be very, very tolerant, very respectful of everybody, even though we don’t share the same view,” Parolin said on Sep. 11.

“If we are not tolerant and respectful, and we are violent, this will produce a really big problem inside the international community and the national community,” the cardinal said.

Bishop Robert Barron of Winona-Rochester said Kirk was an “apostle of civil discourse.”

“Friends, let us remember Charlie Kirk—as a kind of apostle of civil discourse, but above all, as a man who loved Jesus Christ,” said on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Follow Charles Collins on X: @CharlesinRome