A community of Benedictine sisters in Atchison, Kansas has announced that it will discontinue its active sponsorship of and governing responsibilities with Benedictine College.
The Sisters of Mount St. Scholastica, who co-founded Benedictine College more than 50 years ago, said in a Jan. 23 statement that they had discerned a call to focus on their “growing ministries” and care for their “aging community.” The sisters are also continuing to sponsor other local schools.
Recent years had seen the emergence of some tension between the sisters and the college, most notably after the 2024 commencement address by NFL kicker Harrison Butker.
“As our community and the world around us continue to evolve, we, the Sisters of Mount St. Scholastica, after much prayer and consideration, have discerned that it is time to discontinue active sponsorship of Benedictine College,” the statement from the sisters said.
“Although we are withdrawing from the governing responsibilities related to sponsorship, we will continue to support the college with hospitality at our monastery, collaboration in various college-related programs and activities, and in further developing relationships with students, faculty and staff,” the statement continued.
Prior to the decision, three sisters from the community sat on the Benedictine College board of directors. Three others worked for the school, including as the senior vice provost, as a teacher and as a library administrator.
The Jan. 23 statement did not elaborate on how the relationship between the sisters and college will change after the decision. But a source close to the college told The Pillar that a few sisters are expected to remain employed at the college.
The Sisters of Mount St. Scholastica have a long history in education.
The community founded Mount St. Scholastica Academy in 1863, the year the sisters arrived in Atchison.
Sixty years later, in 1923, the community founded Mount St. Scholastica College, a women’s college located on the same property as their monastery. The women’s college was located across town from St. Benedict’s College, a men’s college run by the neighboring St. Benedict’s Abbey community.
In 1971, St. Scholastica College and St. Benedict’s College merged to form Benedictine College. The sisters remained active in the college community, teaching and working on the campus, sitting on the college’s board, and attending college fundraisers.
Today, Benedictine College has an enrollment of 2,247 students and is recognized by the Cardinal Newman Society as a Newman guide school for its vibrant Catholic identity.
“It is with heavy hearts but with grateful understanding, that we accept the decision of the Sisters of Mount St. Scholastica Monastery to withdraw from the governing responsibilities related to sponsorship of Benedictine College,” the college said in a Jan. 23 statement.
“The successes of Benedictine College would be unthinkable without the Mount. While the formal, juridical connection between us will end, our close relationship and our friendship in Christ will not,” the statement continued.
In recent years, the Sisters of Mount St. Scholastica and Benedictine College have had an at-times contentious relationship, most publicly following the college’s 2024 commencement speech by NFL placekicker Harrison Butker.
The speech prompted controversy in both Catholic and secular circles. In his address, Butker encouraged the women in the audience to embrace homemaking rather than prioritizing a career and made comments that were interpreted by many as criticisms of the Ordinary Form of the Mass and Natural Family Planning. Butker also said that the U.S. bishops “are not politicians” and “need to stay in their lane.”
A few days after the address, the sisters released a statement on Facebook saying, “The sisters of Mount St. Scholastica 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.”
The statement objected to Butker’s remarks on homemaking and said his speech had “fostered division.”
“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,” the sisters said.
Benedictine College did not publicly respond to the sisters’ statement. But President Stephen Minnis defended the college’s decision to host the speech — while declining to comment on its content — saying the college would not cave to “cancel culture.”
Mount St. Scholastica faces an aging community with few vocations in recent years. Their ‘Meet the sisters’ page lists 78 sisters, the majority of whom are elderly.
However the community remains active, boasting two ministries at its monastery – the Sophia Spirituality Center, which offers retreats and formation opportunities rooted in Benedictine Spirituality, and the Keeler Women’s Center, a service organization that provides classes, counseling, support groups and other services in the Kansas City area.
Other sisters are engaged in outside apostolates such as teaching or working as medical professionals.
Additionally, the community is continuing to sponsor other local schools.
The sisters currently co-sponsor Maur-Hill Mount Academy, a high school in Atchison. They also co-sponsor Donnelly College, a small Catholic college in Kansas City, which they co-founded with the Archdiocese of Kansas City in 1949 to serve primarily immigrants and working class families.
The Benedictine monks, who operate separately from the sisters, will remain active at the college. The Abbey of St. Benedict sits adjacent to the campus, and the monks are involved in teaching at the college, providing spiritual direction to students and providing formation events including a men’s discernment group. Three monks also sit on the board of directors.
“We want to be known as an inclusive, welcoming community..."
Isn't it weird how often people say that in the context of rejecting/denouncing/penalizing/disinviting a specific person or group?
I believe people are making far too much of the Butker situation, which is not addressed in the sisters’ statement about stopping their sponsorship of the College, and they stress their ongoing support for the College’s mission and future.
The Mount still has a large number of sisters, but those who remain have a high average age, and I don’t believe they have many sisters at all below the standard retirement age of 67.
The Abbey has a much smaller group of male religious, but they live on the campus and their average age is closer to 50, with several monks in their twenties and thirties.
It appears to be simply a case that the Benedictine charism of the College will necessarily be carried on by the monks and not by the sisters within the next 10-15 years, and the sisters are choosing now to gracefully step aside before age or infirmity with dwindling numbers forced their hand. Which appears to be a decision based in good stewardship, not division.