The nuns of Benedictine College condemned Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker after he delivered a controversial commencement speech deemed sexist and anti-LGBTQIA+.
“The sisters of Mount St. Scholastica do not believe that Harrison Butker’s comments in his 2024 Benedictine College commencement address represent the Catholic, Benedictine, liberal arts college that our founders envisioned and in which we have been so invested,” the Benedictine Sisters of Mount St. Scholastica said in a statement on Facebook Thursday.
The nuns stated that Butker’s words “fostered division” instead of “promoting unity in our church, our nation, and the world.”
“One of our concerns was the assertion that being a homemaker is the highest calling for a woman,” the statement continued. “We sisters have dedicated our lives to God and God’s people, including the many women whom we have taught and influenced during the past 160 years.”
They emphasized that these women have made a “tremendous difference in the world” not only as wives and mothers but also through their “God-given gifts in leadership, scholarship, and their careers.”
“Our community has taught young women and men not just how to be ‘homemakers’ in a limited sense, but rather how to make a Gospel-centered, compassionate home within themselves where they can welcome others as Christ, empowering them to be the best version of themselves,” the nuns said.
They rejected the “narrow definition of what it means to be Catholic” and expressed their desire to be known as “an inclusive, welcoming community.”
“We thank all who are supportive of our Mount community and the values we hold,” they concluded. “With St. Benedict, we pray, ‘Let us prefer nothing whatever to Christ, and may he lead us all together in life everlasting.”
The statement came after the NFL player received backlash for his May 11 address to the graduating class of 2024 at the school in Atchison, Kansas.
Butker criticized working women, Pride Month, and abortion, among other social issues, causing outrage online with many critics speaking out against him all week.
“Things like abortion, IVF, surrogacy, euthanasia as well as a growing support for degenerate cultural values and media all stem from the pervasiveness of disorder,” he said in his speech.
Butker described Pride Month as an example of “the deadly sins” taught in church and complained that queer people have an “entire month dedicated” to their rights.
He also addressed the women in the audience, telling them their “most important title” in life should be “homemaker.”
“Some of you may go on to lead successful careers in the world, but I would venture to guess that the majority of you are most excited about your marriage and the children you will bring into this world,” he said. “I can tell you that my beautiful wife, Isabelle, would be the first to say her life truly started when she started living her vocation as a wife and as a mother.”
Notably, Butker’s mother, Elizabeth Keller Butker, is an accomplished physicist.
Butker then told the male graduates that they should be “unapologetic in [their] masculinity” and “fight against the cultural emasculation of men.”
He also quoted Taylor Swift, the pop superstar dating Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, telling the crowd, “As my teammate’s girlfriend says, ‘Familiarity breeds contempt.’”
Social media erupted over his speech, with the NFL, GLAAD, the wife of a former Chiefs player, and many Swifties slamming Butker.
He has not publicly addressed the controversy.
