Harrison Butker slammed by founders of college where he gave controversial commencement address: ‘We want to be known as inclusive and welcoming’

The founders of the Catholic liberal arts school at which Harrison Butker gave his controversial commencement speech have now slammed the Kansas City Chiefs star.

The three-time Super Bowl winner stood at the podium at Kansas’ Benedictine College on Saturday and has faced fierce backlash ever since.

Butker congratulated the women receiving degrees and said most of them were probably more excited about getting married and having children. He also said some Catholic leaders were ‘pushing dangerous gender ideologies onto the youth of America.’

Butker, whose own mother is an accomplished physicist, also criticized Pride month and President Joe Biden’s stance on abortion.

The controversial speech has attracted fierce backlash and, a day after his address, a petition was set up to have the Chiefs kicker removed from the team’s roster ahead of the 2024 NFL season, which has now received over 187,000 signatures.

In a statement, the sisters of Mount St. Scholastica – who co-founded the school – said: ‘We 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 I| 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”.’