3 highlights from Catholic gala featuring Candace Owens, Carrie Prejean Boller, Joe Kent

By Samantha Kamman, Christian Post Reporter Monday, March 23, 2026

1. Candace Owens talks about conversion to Catholicism, Charlie Kirk’s assassination

The political pundit said during her speech that to be a Catholic is “to suffer,” claiming this is something she learned immediately after becoming one. According to Owens, no one objected when she spoke about the Bible as a Protestant, but that seemed to change after she decided to become Catholic. 

“The moment that I became Catholic, it was just game on,” the pundit claimed. 

Although she identifies as Catholic, Owens said during her speech that she has not been confirmed, adding that she will be next month. 

After making the decision to convert, Owens said she faced increasing scrutiny from the media, adding that it seemed people were suddenly questioning her motives more than before.

“I didn’t understand why it created so much drama, why you couldn’t be a Catholic, so to speak, or why people had more questions about what made you turn toward it,” she said. 

Owens has generated attention in recent years for her comments about Israel and for spreading conspiracies about the Jewish people, prompting one Catholic to call for her excommunication from the Church. The pundit has also been accused of weaponizing the phrase “Christ is King” during a public dispute with conservative commentator and Daily Wire co-founder Ben Shapiro. 

During her speech at the Catholics for Catholics gala, Owens discussed the assassination of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk and said she felt “directionless” after the conservative activist’s murder. Owens began working for Turning Point USA in 2017 but later resigned in 2019 following a controversy over a comment she made about Adolf Hitler.

Owens said she felt a variety of emotions after Kirk’s assassination, including anger and disbelief. The pundit recalled her husband urging her to go to confession. She resisted at first but eventually went. 

Following the fatal shooting of Kirk at Utah Valley University in September 2025, Owens has dedicated many of her podcast episodes to discussing theories about the circumstances surrounding his death. 

Earlier this year, Turning Point USA sent the podcast host a cease-and-desist letter demanding that she “cease her disparaging comments” about the organization, including implying that some of its staff might have played a role in Kirk’s murder.

At the conclusion of her gala speech, Owens read part of a statement by Bishop Joseph Edward Strickland, who was removed from his role in 2023 by Pope Francis, declaring, “Political parties cannot save us. Governments cannot define truth. And no earthly movement — no matter how powerful — can replace the Kingship of Jesus Christ.”

Strickland went on to assert in the statement that “faithful Catholics” have been accused of antisemitism “for refusing to adopt certain theological or political positions — particularly those tied to forms of modern Christian Zionism.”

While the bishop said the Catholic Church “rejects hatred of any people, including the Jewish people,” he argued that “it is equally unjust to accuse Catholics of hatred simply because we do not accept theological positions that are foreign to the Catholic faith.”

In a statement to The Christian Post last month, Simone Rizkallah, the director of the Coalition of Catholics Against Antisemitism, encouraged people to listen to a bonus episode of the “Beyond Rome” podcast to better understand minimalist Catholic Zionism.

Rizkallah acknowledged that Catholic theology does not teach that the modern State of Israel represents the direct fulfillment of biblical prophecy or a predetermined eschatological event. 

The CCAA director contended, however, that the Catholic Church’s “position is both clear and nuanced: politically, she recognizes Israel’s legitimacy; theologically, she does not ground that recognition in prophetic claims about the modern state.”

“Yet the conversation should not stop there — another point often ignored in simplistic commentary. While the Catholic Church does not embrace prophetic or eschatological forms of Christian Zionism, Catholic theology does leave room for distinctly Catholic theological reflection that affirms the enduring covenantal significance of the Jewish people and the moral legitimacy of Jewish self-determination in their historic homeland,” Rizkallah continued.

“This allows Catholics to recognize the profound historical and theological meaning of the Jewish return to their ancestral land without collapsing that reflection into prophetic literalism or partisan politics.”