KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker is one of America’s most famous faces of the conservative Catholic faith.
After the Chiefs won the Super Bowl last season, Butker spent a week at a monastery for silence, prayer, and reflection. He has also appeared in advertisements for the nonprofit Catholic Vote, encouraging Kansans to vote for the Value Them Both Amendment that would have restricted abortions in Kansas in 2022.
Butker has also partnered with Hallow, a subscription service that gives users a wide selection of prayers to listen to in their daily routines, and through the Meditations for Athletes series, listeners can listen to Butker.
Butker even gifted his jersey to the family of local DJ Lisa Lopez-Galvan, the lone death of the shooting at the Chiefs’ Super Bowl parade and rally.
And the Georgia Tech alum gave a commencement speech to his alma mater last year telling graduates to “get married and start a family” as an antidote to anxiety.
So when Butker was tabbed to be the commencement speaker at private, liberal arts, Catholic Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas, it sounded like a no-brainer. Psychology graduate Joslyn Lewis has seen Butker speak on campus before and knew about his strong Catholic background.
She said his speeches were mostly mild in content.
“In 2022, he came and gave a speech and it was along the lines of some Catholic beliefs, but it wasn’t that extreme,” Lewis said.
“I was actually really excited. I was like, you know, of course they’re going to bring someone with their same beliefs to come on here and just give a speech, but I just didn’t realize that it was going to have an agenda behind it.”
Butker was only 30 seconds into his speech before he pointed out how, “bad leaders who don’t stay in their lane can have a negative impact on society,” in regards to how the graduating class made it through the COVID-19 pandemic.
“While COVID might have played a large role throughout your formative years, it is not unique,” Butker said.
“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 and media, all stem from the pervasiveness of disorder.”
