Only in the age of social media, mandatory conformity, and militant political correctness would a conservative Catholic commencement address at a tiny conservative Catholic Benedictine College, in Atchison, Kansas about 50 miles northwest of Kansas City, turn into a national controversy. Oops, I don’t want to bias the ethics quiz: forget the way I phrased that.
Harrison Butker of the Kansas City Chiefs, the place-kickers for the NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs, was invited to give the Commencement speech for the 2024 graduating class, seemingly an odd choice, but then maybe not. Butker had been outspoken the Cathodic Church in recent years, and I strongly suspect that he delivered exactly what the leadership of Benedictine College was seeking at the ceremony last weekend.
To gauge the reactions on social media and elsewhere, however (it sure sounded like his speech was well-received by the students) you would think his address was from the fiery depths of Hell, as if he had supported Hamas terrorism or anti-Semitism or something. He was roundly attacked on Instagram, TikTok and Twitter/”X.” About 125,000 people have signed a petition on Change.org calling for the Chiefs to fire the kicker; typical progressives: if you don’t espouse their views and support their agendas, then you don’t deserve to make a living. The reliably despicable NFL felt it had to oppose the player’s statements, as if anyone thought he was speaking for the league rather than for himself. “Harrison Butker gave a speech in his personal capacity,” Jonathan Beane, the NFL’s senior vice president and chief diversity and inclusion officer, said in a written statement. “His views are not those of the NFL as an organization. The NFL is steadfast in our commitment to inclusion, which only makes our league stronger.” Naturally, the most corrupt and hypocritical league in sports felt it had to pander to the woke, and do so by uttering the magic word, “inclusion,” thereby falsely suggesting that Butker advocated exclusion. Best of all, Kansas City used its official social media account to reveal Butker’s residence, doxxing him. Nice. The city is sorry though. That will do him a lot of good when someone burns his house down.
I could quote the sections that has the Angry Left on the warpath—can I say that?—but instead I’m going to publish the whole speech. Then I’ll ask the Ethics Quiz question, and give my answer, abut which I feel strongly. Here is the speech:
Ladies and gentlemen of the Class of 2024: I would like to start off by congratulating all of you for successfully making it to this achievement today. I’m sure your high school graduation was not what you had imagined, and most likely, neither was your first couple years of college.
By making it to this moment through all the adversity thrown your way from COVID, I hope you learned the important lessons that suffering in this life is only temporary. As a group, you witnessed firsthand how bad leaders who don’t stay in their lane can have a negative impact on society. It is through this lens that I want to take stock of how we got to where we are, and where we want to go as citizens and, yes, as Catholics. One last thing before I begin, I want to be sure to thank President Minnis and the board for their invitation to speak.
When President Minnis first reached out a couple of months ago, I had originally said No. You see, last year I gave the commencement address at my alma mater, Georgia Tech, and I felt that one graduation speech was more than enough, especially for someone who isn’t a professional speaker. But of course, President Minnis used his gift of persuasion. [Laughter] It spoke to the many challenges you all faced throughout the COVID fiasco ,and how you missed out on so many milestones the rest of us older people have taken for granted. While COVID might have played a large role throughout your formative years, it is not unique. Bad policies and poor leadership have negatively impacted major life issues. Things like abortion, IVF, surrogacy, euthanasia, as well as a growing support for degenerate cultural values in media, all stem from the pervasiveness of disorder.
Our own nation is led by a man who publicly and proudly proclaims his Catholic faith, but at the same time is delusional enough to make the Sign of the Cross during a pro- abortion rally. He has been so vocal in his support for the murder of innocent babies that I’m sure to many people it appears that you can be both Catholic and pro-choice.
He is not alone. From the man behind the COVID lockdowns to the people pushing dangerous gender ideologies onto the youth of America, they all have a glaring thing in common. They are Catholic. This is an important reminder that being Catholic alone doesn’t cut it.
These are the sorts of things we are told in polite society to not bring up. You know, the difficult and unpleasant things. But if we are going to be men and women for this time in history, we need to stop pretending that the “Church of Nice” is a winning proposition. We must always speak and act in charity, but never mistake charity for cowardice.
It is safe to say that over the past few years, I have gained quite the reputation for speaking my mind. I never envisioned myself, nor wanted, to have this sort of a platform, but God has given it to me, so I have no other choice but to embrace it and preach more hard truths about accepting your lane and staying in it.
As members of the Church founded by Jesus Christ, it is our duty and ultimately privilege to be authentically and unapologetically Catholic. Don’t be mistaken, even within the Church, people in polite Catholic circles will try to persuade you to remain silent. There even was an award-winning film called Silence, made by a fellow Catholic, wherein one of the main characters, a Jesuit priest, abandoned the Church, and as an apostate when he died is seen grasping a crucifix, quiet and unknown to anyone but God. As a friend of Benedictine College, His Excellency Bishop Robert Barron, said in his review of the film, it was exactly what the cultural elite want to see in Christianity — private, hidden away, and harmless.
Our Catholic faith has always been countercultural. Our Lord, along with countless followers, were all put to death for their adherence to her teachings. The world around us says that we should keep our beliefs to ourselves whenever they go against the tyranny of diversity, equity, and inclusion. We fear speaking truth, because now, unfortunately, truth is in the minority. Congress just passed a bill where stating something as basic as the biblical teaching of who killed Jesus could land you in jail.
But make no mistake, before we even attempt to fix any of the issues plaguing society, we must first get our own house in order, and it starts with our leaders. The bishops and priests appointed by God as our spiritual fathers must be rightly ordered. There is not enough time today for me to list all the stories of priests and bishops misleading their flocks, but none of us can blame ignorance anymore and just blindly proclaim that “That’s what Father said.” Because sadly, many priests we are looking to for leadership are the same ones who prioritize their hobbies or even photos with their dogs and matching outfits for the parish directory.
It’s easy for us laymen and women to think that in order for us to be holy, that we must be active in our parish and try to fix it. Yes, we absolutely should be involved in supporting our parishes, but we cannot be the source for our parish priests to lean on to help with their problems. Just as we look at the relationship between a father and his son, so too should we look at the relationship between a priest and his people. It would not be appropriate for me to always be looking to my son for help when it is my job as his father to lead him.
St. Josemaría Escrivá states that priests are ordained to serve, and should not yield to temptation to imitate laypeople, but to be priests through and through. Tragically, so many priests revolve much of their happiness from the adulation they receive from their parishioners, and in searching for this, they let their guard down and become overly familiar. This undue familiarity will prove to be problematic every time, because as my teammate’s girlfriend says, familiarity breeds contempt.
Saint Josemaría continues that some want to see the priest as just another man. That is not so. They want to find in the priest those virtues proper to every Christian, and indeed every honorable man: understanding, justice, a life of work — priestly work, in this instance — and good manners. It is not prudent as the laity for us to consume ourselves in becoming amateur theologians so that we can decipher this or that theological teaching — unless, of course, you are a theology major. We must be intentional with our focus on our state in life and our own vocation. And for most of us, that’s as married men and women. Still, we have so many great resources at our fingertips that it doesn’t take long to find traditional and timeless teachings that haven’t been ambiguously reworded for our times. Plus, there are still many good and holy priests, and it’s up to us to seek them out.
The chaos of the world is unfortunately reflected in the chaos in our parishes, and sadly, in our cathedrals too. As we saw during the pandemic, too many bishops were not leaders at all. They were motivated by fear, fear of being sued, fear of being removed, fear of being disliked. They showed by their actions, intentional or unintentional, that the sacraments don’t actually matter. Because of this, countless people died alone, without access to the sacraments, and it’s a tragedy we must never forget. As Catholics, we can look to so many examples of heroic shepherds who gave their lives for their people, and ultimately, the Church. We cannot buy into the lie that the things we experienced during COVID were appropriate. Over the centuries, there have been great wars, great famines, and yes, even great diseases, all that came with a level of lethality and danger. But in each of those examples, Church leaders leaned into their vocations and ensured that their people received the sacraments.
Great saints like St. Damien of Molokai, who knew the dangers of his ministry, stayed for 11 years as a spiritual leader to the leper colonies of Hawaii. His heroism is looked at today as something set apart and unique, when ideally it should not be unique at all. For as a father loves his child, so a shepherd should love his spiritual children, too.
That goes even more so for our bishops, these men who are present-day apostles. Our bishops once had adoring crowds of people kissing their rings and taking in their every word, but now relegate themselves to a position of inconsequential existence. Now, when a bishop of a diocese or the bishop’s conference as a whole puts out an important document on this matter or that, nobody even takes a moment to read it, let alone follow it.
No. Today, our shepherds are far more concerned with keeping the doors open to the chancery than they are with saying the difficult stuff out loud. It seems that the only time you hear from your bishops is when it’s time for the annual appeal, whereas we need our bishops to be vocal about the teachings of the Church, setting aside their own personal comfort and embracing their cross. Our bishops are not politicians but shepherds, so instead of fitting in the world by going along to get along, they too need to stay in their lane and lead.
I say all of this not from a place of anger, as we get the leaders we deserve. But this does make me reflect on staying in my lane and focusing on my own vocation and how I can be a better father and husband and live in the world but not be of it. Focusing on my vocation while praying and fasting for these men will do more for the Church than me complaining about her leaders.
Because there seems to be so much confusion coming from our leaders, there needs to be concrete examples for people to look to in places like Benedictine, a little Kansas college built high on a bluff above the Missouri River, are showing the world how an ordered, Christ-centered existence is the recipe for success. You need to look no further than the examples all around this campus, where over the past 20 years, enrollment has doubled, construction and revitalization are a constant part of life, and people, the students, the faculty and staff, are thriving. This didn’t happen by chance. In a deliberate movement to embrace traditional Catholic values, Benedictine has gone from just another liberal arts school with nothing to set it apart to a thriving beacon of light and a reminder to us all that when you embrace tradition, success — worldly and spiritual — will follow.
I am certain the reporters at the AP could not have imagined that their attempt to rebuke and embarrass places and people like those here at Benedictine wouldn’t be met with anger, but instead met with excitement and pride. Not the deadly sin sort of pride that has an entire month dedicated to it, but the true God-centered pride that is cooperating with the Holy Ghost to glorify him. Reading that article now shared all over the world, we see that in the complete surrender of self and a turning towards Christ, you will find happiness. Right here in a little town in Kansas, we find many inspiring laypeople using their talents.
President Minnis, Dr. [Andrew] Swafford, and Dr. [Jared] Zimmerer are a few great examples right here on this very campus that will keep the light of Christ burning bright for generations to come. Being locked in with your vocation and staying in your lane is going to be the surest way for you to find true happiness and peace in this life.
It is essential that we focus on our own state in life, whether that be as a layperson, a priest, or religious. Ladies and gentlemen of the class of 2024, you are sitting at the edge of the rest of your lives. Each of you has the potential to leave a legacy that transcends yourselves and this era of human existence. In the small ways, by living out your vocation, you will ensure that God’s Church continues and the world is enlightened by your example.
For the ladies present today, congratulations on an amazing accomplishment. You should be proud of all that you have achieved to this point in your young lives. I want to speak directly to you briefly because I think it is you, the women, who have had the most diabolical lies told to you. How many of you are sitting here now about to cross this stage and are thinking about all the promotions and titles you are going to get in your career? 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.
I can tell you that my beautiful wife, Isabelle, would be the first to say that her life truly started when she began living her vocation as a wife and as a mother. I’m on the stage today and able to be the man I am because I have a wife who leans into her vocation. I’m beyond blessed with the many talents God has given me, but it cannot be overstated that all of my success is made possible because a girl I met in band class back in middle school would convert to the faith, become my wife, and embrace one of the most important titles of all: homemaker.
[Applause lasting 18 seconds!]
She is a primary educator to our children. She is the one who ensures I never let football or my business become a distraction from that of a husband and father. She is the person that knows me best at my core, and it is through our marriage that, Lord willing, we will both attain salvation.
I say all of this to you because I have seen it firsthand how much happier someone can be when they disregard the outside noise and move closer and closer to God’s will in their life. Isabelle’s dream of having a career might not have come true, but if you asked her today if she has any regrets on her decision, she would laugh out loud, without hesitation, and say, “Heck, No.”
As a man who gets a lot of praise and has been given a platform to speak to audiences like this one today, I pray that I always use my voice for God and not for myself. Everything I am saying to you is not from a place of wisdom, but rather a place of experience. I am hopeful that these words will be seen as those from a man, not much older than you, who feels it is imperative that this class, this generation, and this time in our society must stop pretending that the things we see around us are normal.
Heterodox ideas abound even within Catholic circles. But let’s be honest, there is nothing good about playing God with having children — whether that be your ideal number or the perfect time to conceive. No matter how you spin it, there is nothing natural about Catholic birth control.
It is only in the past few years that I have grown encouraged to speak more boldly and directly because, as I mentioned earlier, I have leaned into my vocation as a husband and father, and as a man.
To the gentlemen here today: Part of what plagues our society is this lie that has been told to you that men are not necessary in the home or in our communities. As men, we set the tone of the culture, and when that is absent, disorder, dysfunction, and chaos set in. This absence of men in the home is what plays a large role in the violence we see all around the nation. Other countries do not have nearly the same absentee father rates as we find here in the U.S., and a correlation could be made in their drastically lower violence rates, as well.
Be unapologetic in your masculinity, fighting against the cultural emasculation of men. Do hard things. Never settle for what is easy. You might have a talent that you don’t necessarily enjoy, but if it glorifies God, maybe you should lean into that over something that you might think suits you better. I speak from experience as an introvert who now finds myself as an amateur public speaker and an entrepreneur, something I never thought I’d be when I received my industrial engineering degree.
The road ahead is bright. Things are changing. Society is shifting. And people, young and old, are embracing tradition. Not only has it been my vocation that has helped me and those closest to me, but not surprising to many of you, should be my outspoken embrace of the traditional Latin Mass. I’ve been very vocal in my love and devotion to the TLM and its necessity for our lives. But what I think gets misunderstood is that people who attend the TLM do so out of pride or preference. I can speak to my own experience, but for most people I have come across within these communities this simply is not true. I do not attend the TLM because I think I am better than others, or for the smells and bells, or even for the love of Latin. I attend the TLM because I believe, just as the God of the Old Testament was pretty particular in how he wanted to be worshipped, the same holds true for us today. It is through the TLM that I encountered order, and began to pursue it in my own life. Aside from the TLM itself, too many of our sacred traditions have been relegated to things of the past, when in my parish, things such as ember days, days when we fast and pray for vocations and for our priests, are still adhered to. The TLM is so essential that I would challenge each of you to pick a place to move where it is readily available.
A lot of people have complaints about the parish or the community, but we should not sacrifice the Mass for community. I prioritize the TLM even if the parish isn’t beautiful, the priest isn’t great, or the community isn’t amazing. I still go to the TLM because I believe the holy sacrifice of the Mass is more important than anything else. I say this knowing full well that when each of you rekindle your knowledge and adherence to many of the church’s greatest traditions, you will see how much more colorful and alive your life can and should be.
As you move on from this place and enter into the world, know that you will face many challenges. Sadly, I’m sure many of you know of the countless stories of good and active members of this community who, after graduation and moving away from the Benedictine bubble, have ended up moving in with their boyfriend or girlfriend prior to marriage. Some even leave the Church and abandon God. It is always heartbreaking to hear these stories, and there is a desire to know what happened and what went wrong.
What you must remember is that life is about doing the small things well, setting yourself up for success, and surrounding yourself with people who continually push you to be the best version of you. I say this all the time, that iron sharpens iron. It’s a great reminder that those closest to us should be making us better. If you are dating someone who doesn’t even share your faith, how do you expect that person to help you become a saint? If your friend group is filled with people who only think about what you’re doing next weekend and are not willing to have those difficult conversations, how can they help sharpen you?
As you prepare to enter into the workforce, it is extremely important that you actually think about the places you are moving to. Who is the bishop? What kind of parishes are there? Do they offer the TLM and have priests who embrace their priestly vocation? Cost of living must not be the only arbiter of your choices, for a life without God is not a life at all, and the cost of salvation is worth more than any career.
I’m excited for the future, and I pray that something I have said will resonate as you move on to the next chapter of your life.
Never be afraid to profess the one holy, Catholic, and apostolic Church, for this is the Church that Jesus Christ established, through which we receive sanctifying grace.
I know that my message today had a little less fluff than is expected for these speeches, but I believe that this audience and this venue is the best place to speak openly and honestly about who we are and where we all want to go, which is Heaven.
I thank God for Benedictine College and for the example it provides the world. I thank God for men like President Minnis, who are doing their part for the Kingdom. Come to find out you can have an authentically Catholic college and a thriving football program.
Make no mistake: You are entering into mission territory in a post-God world, but you were made for this. And with God by your side and a constant striving for virtue within your vocation, you too can be a saint.
Christ is King.
To the Heights!
Your Ethics Alarms Ethics Quiz of the Day is…
Was that an unethical Commencement speech?
I’ll be fascinated to read your answers, but mine is: Absolutely not.
Butker’s address was everything a great Commencement address should be: thoughtful, well-written, well-researched, bold, passionate, memorable, thought-provoking and personal. If students argue about some of his more controversial statements afterwards, good. Most such speeches are instantly forgotten. There is no obligation for a Commencement speaker to please everyone or to avoid positions that some regard as appalling. There is certainly no obligation for someone addressing the students of a private, conservative Catholic college to make abortion activists happy.
And he did not, as the furious feminist critics of his speech and the New York Times dishonestly claimed, “urge women to forgo careers so that they could support their husbands.” He said that contrary to current cultural propaganda, there is nothing wrong with a woman making that choice, or choosing to be a homemaker and mother, if that’s what a woman wants to do.
I don’t agree with or support everything in the speech, but it’s not my speech. I do respect Butker’s courage in giving it. I will be extremely disappointed if he offers any apology at all to the cancel mob now looking for a metaphorical tree from which to hang him.
Ethics Alarms 
Not in the context it was delivered in.
He, indeed, spoke his mind! I do not agree with some of his theology viz a viz, the Mass or his ecclesiology.
As a degreed theologian and active pastoral minister I would suggest he study the actual documents of the second Vatican council.
(Oddly, not one of the vociferous objections to his speech were based on its inaccuracies regarding Catholic dogma.)
I would be surprised if any of his critics knew anything at all about actual Church teachings. As Archbishop Fulton Sheen said, “There are not a hundred people in the United States who hate the Catholic Church, but there are millions who hate what they wrongly perceive the Catholic Church to be.”
But what isn’t there for them to get angry about? He denounces all the COVID restrictions. He insists on public practice of faith. He lauds marriage and children. He encourages finding people who challenge us to be holier, not more worldly. He instructs on the right ordering of leadership. He denounces birth control and abortion. He very momentarily derided the current sacred cow of diversity, equity, and inclusion. He criticized our “deeply” Catholic president, and all the politicians and leaders who claim to be Catholic and are off the rails when it comes to certain matters of Catholic moral teaching. He even had the audacity to allude, but not state directly, that it was the Jews who killed Jesus. (More on this in a moment.)
If there were some current liberal ideas he didn’t excoriate at some point, he can be forgiven for daring to lambast the myriad he did. No wonder heads are spinning. But he is right: the Catholic Church has always, at its core, been counter-cultural, and its troubles have always come from allowing itself to be conformed to the age.
I have to take exception to his devotion to the traditional Latin Mass, in part because the exact form of the Mass is not doctrinal. That’s why there can be several dozen different rites in the Church, where a rite is explicitly its own unique liturgical tradition. There is a danger of over-insistence on the Latin Mass, because it makes primary what is accidental, and it runs the danger of elevating Latin as something almost magical. Yes, Latin is the language of the Church. Yes, Latin is supposed to be used for all the common parts of the “Novus Ordo” Mass, and few parishes (much less diocese) in the US do that. But to make the Latin Mass such a matter of importance can lead the into schism, as we have seen from some ultra-traditionalist groups who hold that the Novus Ordo Mass is invalid, and have to conclude Vatican II was not a valid or binding Council, and even that the See of Peter has been vacant for some time now. Such lack of submission to the Church is not being a good Catholic, either.
Now, a quick note on the Jews killing Jesus. It should be remembered first and foremost (I think it surprising how many people forget this or never knew this in the first place): Jesus himself was a Jew, and all the first Christians were Jews. The promised Messiah that would restore the kingdom and the right praise of God, who would bring about the promise that through Abraham’s seed the whole world would be blessed, was to come from the Jewish people. It is not just a historic fact that the Jews put Jesus to death, but theologically imperative to understand that Jesus came to his own people and they killed him. This is not to excoriate the Jews, but to show the depth and tragedy of sin. God sent his own Son into the world to the people who were expecting him, who had been instructed directly by God, who had suffered countless punishments for their transgressions, who had been forged as the firstborn of the nations, who had a mission to carry God’s blessing to the whole world, and despite all of this, they put God’s Son to death. Rather than seeing this as a condemnation of the Jews, what we are supposed to see is an unsettling reflection of ourselves. If the Jews, who had been so prepared, still killed the Messiah, what does that say about the rest of us, and all our pitiful efforts to claim any righteousness of our own? This is the depth of sin. Apart from grace, all the learning, all the philosophizing, all the society-building we attempt is ultimately unable to conquer sin.
It should also be noted that the Gospels do take pains to show that Jesus’ death was still a joint venture between Jews and Gentiles. The Jews sought Jesus’ death, but were not permitted by their Roman governors to put anyone to death. So they had to cajole Pilate into agreeing to a death sentence. And here we see the Gentile failure: Pilate, who said, “I find no fault in him” and wanted to release Jesus, still bowed to the mob and to political expediency. He knew what was right, and still failed to do it.
So to point out that the Jews killed Jesus is not in any way Anti-Semitic. That is simply a fact. What would be Anti-Semitic is to carry any kind of grudge or anger against the Jews – especially Jews today, since they are not accountable for the sins of their immediate fathers, much less the sins of their fathers 2000 years ago; and especially since Gentiles had a chance to stop the Crucifixion, and failed to do so.
About the TLM controversy, it is mostly a matter of how “extraordinary” is interpreted in different ways based on whether the ordinary state leads traditional or liberal. Concrete examples:
Communion is to be given on the tongue and bishops can provide a dispensation for receiving it in the hand. I do not believe there is a single diocese in the US that does not permit communion in hand.
Communion is to be given out by the priest, _extraordinary_ ministers are allowed to help with permission from the bishop. Again, other than traditional congregations (think FSSP) every parish in the US has extraordinary ministers for the communion.
TLM is an extraordinary form of mass, to be practiced alongside the ordinary form (Novus Ordo). On this one suddenly both the Vatican and the local bishops have decided to put their foot down and don’t allow it.
Of course this makes the one faction that wants to follow the traditional rules to feel singled out and even actively being pushed out.
Upon reading the speech, I had a few thoughts.
First, I am grateful that he spoke out so profoundly on the Catholic Faith at a Catholic College that is known for being faithfully Catholic. At this point, there aren’t many of those any more. Most of what he said was on point, and this was a time, place, and occasion to say all of these.
My main complaint is that he was approaching a schismatic point on TLM. It is within the appropriate power of Pope Francis, staying in his lane, to end that way of presenting Mass, as the order of Mass is within the disciplinary realm of Catholic Theology, that is changeable by the Pope. The Pope has not yet forbidden it, but is trying to remove it gradually, and that is absolutely within his prerogative to do so. Disagreeing that this is the right decision is acceptable, within limits, but to be so outspoken about TLM is to actually flirt with violating doctrine, rather than discussing discipline. That, was probably the only part of his speech that verged on the inappropriate. But I bet the detractors of his speech were not focused on that.
His statement about young women accepting the challenges of marriage and motherhood were on point. I would bet money that this was the statement that drew the most ire. Frankly, pursuing a career while being a wife and a mom is a great challenge and if your family finances allow it (and more frugality often allows for this to happen more often than people think, but some situations really won’t allow this) being able to focus on the marriage, home, and children as a homemaker really does allow for a better home. .
I remember growing up, that an overwhelming emphasis was put on how I needed to be focused on a career. Girls who wanted to be a wife and a mom were stigmatized. I remember being told, from many different sources, that having those dreams was small-minded and wrong. I followed society’s suggestions and dreamed of an amazing STEM career. I truly believed that being tied to having kids was antiquated nonsense. Then I found someone I wanted to share my life with, and he wanted kids, as well as someone to stay home with them. My great STEM career was insanely stressful and not appropriate to pregnancy, so I quit my job with the intent to get my child to preschool age. We had more children, each time, deciding that it was better to have another child than not, and I looked at what the schools had to offer. I decided that what was best for the children was not the public schooling route that I had always thought was what I should do. There were no private schools nearby, and in general even they in most reports were awful. So I decided that I should worry less about a career, and more about the health of my children. And from that acceptance, slow and humiliating as it was to my brainwashed self, brought me joy. Now, as a Catholic, stay-at-home, home-schooling mother, I can attest that putting my desired career aside for the sake of my household was the best choice I could have made, and has given me greater joy and fulfillment than following my dream career could have
Of course, there were some other items he said that were at best, opinions on a Catholic discipline. I wish I could debate some of these with him, but I do not believe that he was wrong to state them in his commencement speech. This is a good time, occasion, and place to state valid opinions on Catholic matters. This was an awe-inspiring commencement speech that I am proud to hear a Catholic make to Catholic young adults. I wish more Catholics stood up for our beliefs, which I really think would change society. This speech should not be condemned. Thank you Harrison Butker for your courage.
COTD-worthy, Sarah!
Nothing more needs to be said by me. If any time or place was appropriate this was it.
Well stated Sarah.
I was about to send you this as a possible Ethics-Quiz, but decided to check if you had seen it.
-Jut
Thanks for doing both.
I have nothing to add to those who said it was ethical.
they were observations appropriate to the occasion and the forum.
-Jut
Biden’s faith evolves based not on changes within the church but direction of political winds.
It was not unethical at all. I do not think commencement speeches are the places for political grand-standing, but Butker really only discussed political issues as they are salient to Catholic dogma. And this being a Catholic school, those topics were well within the realm of “the appropriate.”
I, too, will be interested to read about Butker’s response to the backlash…I have seen no reports of that yet.
It’s pretty hard for any speech to measure up to Ryne Sandberg’s HOF speech, but this might be in the realm of “honorable mention.”
Kudoss for the reference to Sandberg’s speech, truly a masterpiece.
My favorite line from the good old Change.org petition, as reported by The Daily Mail:
The blurb for the petition described the speech as ‘sexist, homophobic, anti-trans, anti-abortion and racist.’
Heaven forbid anyone should be anti-abortion!
I went back and read it a second…actually a third time, and fail to see anything racist.
Dog whistles be blaring with that one…
As an atheist, I think Butker has some good insights and even some good advice in his speech, eloquently expressed. The fact that he speaks from the paradigm of Catholicism is fair and appropriate given that he’s speaking to people who share his belief system.
If people want to criticise religion for taking human traditions that have practical value and that add cohesion to a community and proceeding to ascribe those traditions to fundamental laws of consciousness, cosmic metaphysics, or edicts from an authoritarian demiurge, it would be unfair to focus those criticisms on this person. He’s speaking to his community.
Now, if he were to have called for the mistreatment of people not conforming to his idea of what is right (inside or outside of his community), then I’d have some serious criticism.
The speech is good, much better than I expected given the excerpts that are being repeated all over. But I have two comments on tangents he touched, but that are pretty important. In replies since they will be pretty extensive.
Good. I’m waiting….
There you go. 🙂
re: lack of leadership in the Catholic Church
My local diocese (the Archdiocese of Seattle) is going through what would be essentially considered a reorganization in the corporate world. There are not enough priests for all the parishes and there is a process of consolidation going on. This has been going for about a year and a half now and there’s still a lot to go, but it is clear there is no leadership in charge of making the changes, or whoever is making the decisions is hiding behind buzzwords like consensus and consultation to avoid taking responsibility for it.
The problem is real, the city in particular has way more church buildings than needed to support the number of active parishioners. But in the suburbs and even rural areas parishes are full and sometimes oversubscribed given the size of the buildings and number of masses available (four per weekend per priest is already in dispensation territory, and that’s not enough). However, the archbishop (or well, the leadership, but I’ll put it all on him since it’s technically his job) decided that every parish in the diocese will be merged with at least one other, and an appropriate number of priests to cover for the attending population will be assigned to it. The expected result is good in the city (three or four parishes merged into one, getting only one priest who will consolidate masses and close building as appropriate), but absurd in other areas where two or three healthy parishes that are doing well by themselves get merged into a single one, but then get assigned back the same number of priests they started with, so there are no personnel savings. On the contrary, now more admin effort will be required to coordinate the merges, which of course includes expensive external contractors.
Meanwhile, archbishop Etienne has done very little to support local parishes in what are felt to be abuses by local governments (denial of construction permits, fees for events after-the-fact, extended covid-related closures) or draconian dictates from the Vatican (TLM removals, communion in hand vs. tongue controversies). Even his priests do not feel trusted or supported (see https://catholicreview.org/study-of-priests-shows-distrust-of-bishops-fear-of-false-abuse-accusations/) and from private conversations with priests around here the numbers are not too different in this diocese.
There is a lack of leadership, and while he does not really put up a solution for this, church leaders should be paying attention and reacting to his speech. This is resonating with the “base” of the church, and it would be a wasted opportunity to not take this advice when it’s sorely needed.
I don’t have much to add to your observation, Alex, other than noting that Bishop Etienne was my bishop not too many years ago in the Diocese of Cheyenne. My impression of him was relatively positive, but that may have been in comparison to his predecessor, who blew through two years’ budget in 6 months. I would not have called him exceptional in any way, but then, maybe Wyoming was a difficult patch to hoe, too. All our parishes (I still say our, though I guess I belong to the Diocese of Cleveland, now… sigh… ) are struggling, and we’re honestly tallying parishes per priest now.
The thing we need to remember is that the Church is not her clerics. The Church is the entire body of Christ, and sometimes (as we’ve seen in the past) it is up to the laity to flex their clout and get the clergy to shape up.
I myself will get right on that any day now…
I don’t believe he’s been any better or worse than the other bishops I’ve gotten here, but the few times he’s had a chance to intervene for anything he’s taken (in my view) the wrong side.
The biggest problem with the Seattle Archdiocese is that it is too big. It covers all of Western Washington, from Canada to Oregon, and it has one titular bishop and two auxiliaries (coincidentally, one of the auxiliaries was our parish priest a few years ago). Even with a dwindling Catholic population this is not a job for three people that makes one of them a bottleneck. But this is something that needs to be fixed from higher ups who are most likely unaware this is a problem.
Re: Silence, the movie mentioned in the speech
[Two asides, I have not seen the movie, but read the book… unexpectedly recommended by a very good friend who is a baptized-but-not-practicing Catholic who asked we read it together in a book club format]
Let’s get this out of the way up front: there are no heroes in Silence, the book is a tragedy (in the classical sense), and an extremely well executed one at that. The first half is written as an epistolary, with the young priest protagonist writing back to his order about the ordeals on tracking an older mentor in Japan who is feared to be imprisoned or executed. The guy is an idealist and is concerned both for his mentor’s safety and his eternal soul due to the risk of apostasy.
[Spoilers ahead]
Through this we learn of the tactics of the Japanese government to root out Catholic practitioners and the cruel punishments dished out to discourage the underground (sometimes literally) church. There are some “action” sequences, and innocents are tortured and killed in senseless ways. This shakes our protagonist’s faith and climaxes to a point where he wonders about the silence of God toward these injustices (this is where the title comes from).
After a while, our young priest is captured and we switch to a more traditional third person point-of-view, while still being privy to the inner thoughts of this man. He gets to meet his mentor, who has now apostatized and is no longer an active priest. This breaks his heart, and makes him wonder once again about the silence from God.
In the end, the younger priest is broken by the torture of innocents until he denies his own faith. At that point he is freed and given a comfortable life with a house, farm, and even offered a local wife if he so desires. The young man wonders if he made the right decision, but the ethical question is left open to the reader. He understands his mentor, and he breaks in exactly the same way the older man did; but he is never convinced what he did is the right thing (Is he failing the local Catholics by backing down when they look up to him as the leader who should set an example? Has he encouraged the local government to continue their cruel practices because they work?).
It is a very good book, if somewhat depressing, and I strongly recommend it for some deep ethical reflections.
As for Butker’s interpretation of the movie, it seems shallow, but not completely off-the mark. Society may tolerate a Catholicism that stays hidden and does not push for actual change. As long as you burn the pinch of incense and publicly declare deference to the state religion, you will be fine.
[And now to see the movie, maybe I’ll make time for it tonight.]
Well, Jack, I know you’ve been waiting for me to weigh in, and I will on several points. But first, this:
“As a founding institution and sponsor of Benedictine College, the sisters of Mount St. Scholastica find it necessary to respond to the controversial remarks of Harrison Butker as commencement speaker.
Statement in Response to the 2024 Benedictine College Commencement Address
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.
Instead of promoting unity in our church, our nation, and the world, his comments seem to have fostered division. One of our concerns was the assertion that being a homemaker is the highest calling for a woman. 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. These women have made a tremendous difference in the world in their roles as wives and mothers and 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 versions of themselves. We reject a narrow definition of what it means to be Catholic. We are faithful members of the Catholic Church who embrace and promote the values of the Gospel, St. Benedict, and Vatican II and the teachings of Pope Francis.
We want to be known as an inclusive, welcoming community, embracing Benedictine values that have endured for more than 1500 years and have spread through every continent and nation. We believe those values are the core of Benedictine College.
We thank all who are supportive of our Mount community and the values we hold. With St. Benedict, we pray, ‘Let us prefer nothing whatever to Christ, and may he lead us all together to life everlasting.’”
More in a bit…
As a commencement address by a practicing Catholic to a graduating class at Catholic college/university, there is nothing unethical about it. I read through it three times to find the objectionable material. I might disagree with him on certain points but he is calling the graduates to live purposefully. How is that offensive? Considering that he referenced St. Josemaría Escrivá at least twice and promoted the Traditional Latin Mass, I suspect he is Opus Dei and such positions would not be foreign to or surprising coming from members of that prelature (Dan Brown notwithstanding).
I know Anne Althouse is up in arms because he stated that men set the cultural tone, which she interprets as women don’t set the tone. I am a bit caught off guard by her sophomoric response/reaction because that comment is included in a larger speech about engaging with the world with a Catholic world view.* She ignores his observations that rampant violence among young people is a direct result of fatherless homes. Why is that?
The backlash** began with the NFL officer of DIE declaring that his speech is his opinion (well, d’uh!) and not that of the NFL’s DIE department (incidentally, what the hell does a DIE officer do at the NFL? I mean, the game is played by big guys smashing into other big guys, right?) Did this same office make that comment/statement about Kaepernick and his kneeling in homage and/or abeyance to BLM? What about the BLM slogans on headgear and jerseys? Did that same person/office criticize Kaepernick for his pig socks?
This Butker fellow issued a rather poignant speech to a religious school. I suspect the keyboard warriors will scour everything he has done, said, posted online, and available on the Wayback Machine, hoping to find that he was involved in a drunken soiree in college or made an inappropriate comment about some co-ed or cheerleader, or . . . you get the idea. The man challenged Leftist Orthodoxy so he must be crushed.
jvb
*Ed. Note: I am not sure I understand the “stay in your lane” part as he seems to be saying exactly the opposite – that you are fully Catholic by not “staying in your lane” and living a life governed by Catholic doctrine. I guess that is my interpretation . . .
**Ed Note: Why did the Sisters feel it was necessary to reprimand him for his comments that women should embrace being wives and mothers? He carved out exceptions and honored those entering in holy orders. That is short-sighted on their part.
Why did the Sisters feel it was necessary to reprimand him for his comments that women should embrace being wives and mothers?
Because even nuns can be weenies when they run a school and don’t have the guts to stand up to social media mobs.