Catholic League president Bill Donohue has come to the defense of Kansas City Chiefs star kicker Harrison Butker, who has been pilloried for promoting Catholic values in a speech at a Catholic college.
Butker has been “bashed,” Dr. Donohue notes, for his criticism of gender ideology, surrogacy, euthanasia, and abortion, and for his vocal support of the vocation to marriage in his commencement address at Benedictine College.
Donohue points out that the notoriously bigoted Associated Press (AP), for instance, unleashed a string of red flags about Benedictine College being “part of a constellation of conservative Catholic colleges that tout their adherence to church teachings and practice — part of a larger conservative movement in parts of the U.S. Catholic Church.”
This is because AP’s idea of a good Catholic college is Georgetown, which “has two pro-abortion clubs on campus and has a segregated graduation ceremony for transgender students,” Donohue adds.
In his searing indictment of mainstream media, Donohue observes that had Butker “endorsed transgenderism, or Hamas, he would now be praised to high heaven.”
“The attack has three targets: Butker, Benedictine College and Catholicism. Make no mistake, the war on Butker is driven by anti-Catholicism,” Donohue proposes.
Mike Freeman at USA Today went into conniptions over Butker’s suggestion that many women have a vocation to marriage and children.
“Her vocation? Really? Did I slip and fall into a time machine and travel back to the 1950s?” Freeman asks, aghast.
Donohue, who is a professional sociologist, notes that in point of fact, it is Freeman who is out of touch with real Americans, not Butker.
A 2019 Gallup poll revealed that 50 percent of women with children under age 18 said they would prefer to stay at home while only 45 percent disagreed, Donohue writes.
The left also cannot forgive Butker for criticizing Joe Biden — who identifies as Catholic — for making the sign of the cross during a pro-abortion rally, which one bishop described as “sacrilegious.”
In a follow-up column on May 17, Donohue posted a letter he wrote to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, chastising him for the NFL’s decision to distance itself from Harrison Butker.
“Harrison Butker speaks for millions of Americans, not all of whom are Catholic,” Donohue writes. “The contempt you have shown for him, Benedictine College and Catholicism is repugnant.”
