Mass in Prague for slain American influencer Charlie Kirk

At high noon on Tuesday, a requiem mass was held in the Church of Our Lady before Týn on Prague’s Old Town Square for American influencer and conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who was shot dead last week. The service was celebrated by Cardinal Dominik Duka and drew hundreds of faithful, along with public figures including Prague city councillor Jan Wolf, MEP Filip Turek, senator Zdeněk Hraba, and former diplomat Eliška Hašková-Coolidge. Police kept watch over the event and had to intervene before the ceremony began to break up a scuffle between two attendees.

The decision to celebrate the mass has sparked criticism from members of the public, both Catholic and non-Catholic. Church historian Jaroslav Šebek told Seznam Zprávy that in his view, the mass had a political dimension, which he does not consider to be appropriate.