The May 11 Benedictine College commencement address by NFL kicker Harrison Butker caused a clamor across the country, with its traditional Catholic themes drawing criticism as well as praise.

Dan Donaldson, vice president of Heroic Men and the Catholic Men’s Leadership Alliance, in light of the upcoming Heroic Leadership Summit June 28-30 at Christ Cathedral, in Anaheim, California, on Wednesday shared with the Register his thoughts about Butker’s speech and how its expressed values relate to these organizations’ priorities.

 

First of all, please set the stage with a thumbnail sketch of Heroic Men.

Heroic Men is powered by the Catholic Men’s Leadership Alliance. Who doesn’t want to be a heroic man? Our motto is “Strengthen the man, strengthen the family. Strengthen the family, strengthen the Church. Strengthen the Church, transform the culture.”

 

Whether it was Harrison Butker or someone else with the same message treated that way, what should people do before reacting?

What I want to encourage people to do whenever there is an uproar about something — whether it be Harrison Butcher’s speech, whether it be a comment made by the Pope, whether it be a papal encyclical, whenever there’s some controversy — is: Go to the source. First of all, go to the actual source. I encourage people to listen to Harrison Butker’s talk. Don’t count on the media. Go to the source. [You can read the full text here.] It was a very Catholic talk at an ardently Catholic university that is on fire and really growing.

If you can YouTube it, listen to the audience’s response. I don’t think they were upset. They were applauding. They were completely, completely agreeing with what Harrison Butker said. Why? Because they’re Catholic. He spoke about truth. And to people that know the truth, the truth will set us free — if we’re open to it. If we’re not open to it, then we’re probably going to rail against it and try to fight it.

So here’s what I see about Harrison Butker’s speech: It was truly Catholic, and it was a heroic talk, where he uplifted the role of wife and mother, and he uplifted the role of true masculinity of men and asked men to step up and take responsibility for their families.

It takes people of courage to step up and say the things that Harrison Butker said. And we need to be prepared to get the response that he got.

 

How would you describe the reaction to Butker’s speech?

A lot of the media consternation was about this thinking that he denigrated women. No, he uplifted women. My wife’s a homemaker. We have five kids ranging down [in age] from 31 to 14. And one of the things that she struggled with throughout her life is feeling second-class, feeling like the culture was not supportive of what she’s done to raise our children and be there for our family, which is her primary vocation. The culture says, “No, you got to go out and do all these other things.” If you chase two rabbits through the forest, it’s really hard to catch either one of them.

And I just love what Harrison Butcher said to really honor the role of mothers. So we’re in full support. And he really also asked men to step up to the plate and take on spiritual leadership of their homes. So we’re fully, fully supportive of that.

 

What do you see as some high points in his speech that easily relate to Heroic Men and the Catholic Men’s Leadership Alliance?

Two things: leadership and authentic masculinity. We need true leaders in our Church today; true leaders that are willing to stand up and speak the truth, even when it’s inconvenient.

Harrison Butker spoke of bishops and priests that need to be those true leaders. What I’d like to say to that is, in order for those bishops and priests to be true leaders, we need to encourage them, and support them, and love them, and give them their proper authority. We need to step up and support our priests and our bishops and let them know we’ve got their backs. That’s so important. Before we criticize, we need to make sure that they know that they are loved and they are supported, and they do not have to cave into cultural forces because they have got a family behind them that’s going to support them to be authentically Catholic. Let’s start there.

Second thing: authentic masculinity. Harrison Butker’s beaming in on authentic masculinity. I love what he had to say. He’s a football player and an entrepreneur. But first, he’s a husband and a father. Our vocation is not how we make money. Our vocation is our role in the vocation that God has called us to, whether that be as a husband or a single man. We need to focus on that vocation first, and then our roles need to be supportive of that.

I love what he said about his wife: that she helps him to stay reined in so that he can have that true focus as a husband and a father. That’s his primary vocation. And he made that loud and clear, and he was emotional about it. Would that we would all get emotional thinking about that. And behave in the same way. And be truly, authentically masculine by first standing up for our families. It doesn’t start with standing up and being successful in our careers. That’s important, too. Don’t negate that. They go together. But there’s a primacy of place. We must have a primacy of place in our vocation.

 

What else stood out for you?

His view of women and their role. Let’s just repeat it: Essentially, he was actually celebrating the role of wife and mother. Does that mean our wives can’t work outside the home? No, they absolutely can. If that’s something that works for the family, fine. But what comes first? He’s celebrating the role of wife and mother first. He’s not saying don’t go out, have a successful career. There are some people that can do that. My mom was one of them. My mom was a single mom of five kids before she married my stepfather when I was 4 years old. She was a very successful businesswoman, but she was also a good mom. The reason why she ran her businesses was to support her family. Her primary vocation was mom, was wife. And my dad’s primary vocation was husband and father.

My dad was there for me. He was a sports editor at a local newspaper. He worked his tail off. He was at work every morning at 6 a.m. But his day didn’t end at 3 p.m. It really started. That’s when he would pick me up from school and take me to baseball practice. He was my baseball coach. Then, after that, he would take me to swim practice. He was there for our family. So I digress a little bit, personally, but there it is right there: Butker was celebrating the roles of mothers, of wives and mothers. Focus on that first, and everything else will come all into place. 

 

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HeroicMen.com

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