Catholic college president condemns cancel culture after Harrison Butker’s speech

The mission of Catholic higher education, which goes back centuries, fundamentally opposes cancel culture.

That’s according to President Stephen Minnis of Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas, where Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker delivered an unapologetically pro-family speech that went viral and started a national conversation about traditional family values.

In an op-ed published by USA Today, Minnis explains why:

“Our history as educators goes back over 1,500 years. Benedictines began schools across Europe for students to share the learning of monks and sisters. From the start, our universities were not created to be ‘safe spaces’ where people cocoon themselves away from ideas that challenge them.

“They were institutions that guarded their faith fiercely, but where every question was posed and vigorously investigated.”  

Benedictine College has hosted speakers from various perspectives, including religious leaders, politicians, entertainers and athletes. But the school never faced such virulent criticism until after Butker’s May speech went viral. 

“Until this year, no one ever asked us if we shared [a speaker’s] views, attacked us for hosting them, or demanded that our commencement speakers be chased from the public square, silenced and fired,” Minnis writes.  

And the Catholic college refuses to bow to the liberal firestorm. 

“Community is the answer to the cancel culture; faith is the answer to the culture of unbelief; and scholarship is the answer to the culture of relativism,” Minnis argues. “Benedictine College will continue to work on transforming culture in America, so that one day, all Americans, and not just Super Bowl stars, can be free to speak their mind and engage each other without being shouted down, threatened and intimidated.” 

While secular higher education is in decline in the U.S., the opposite is true for faith-based schools like Benedictine. 

According to recent data, the university has more than doubled its enrollment over the past 20 years.  

Other Catholic colleges are attracting more students as well, even though overall college enrollment has been on the decline since 2010.