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On matters of life and death it’s time academia started taking its responsibilities seriously
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On matters of life and death it’s time academia started taking its responsibilities seriously
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On matters of life and death it’s time academia started taking its responsibilities seriously
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Ken Craycraft

Keys of the Kingdom: in Peter’s faltering journey to sainthood there is hope for us all
April 07, 2024
Among the many wonderful paradoxes of Catholic faith, practice and history is that now-canonised saints did not always act so saintly. From St Monica’s alcoholism to St Athanasius’s irascibility to St Jerome’s chronic ill-temper, the tradition is replete with examples of inconstancy. It is perhaps not an accident that the earliest example of this phenomenon
The purpose of suffering according to Flannery O’Connor
March 17, 2024
In a letter to a friend in June 1958, Flannery O’Connor briefly discussed an acquaintance who had committed suicide. O’Connor’s mother (a frequent foil for O’Connor’s wit and wisdom) had said that “she didn’t see how anybody with any faith in God could do such a thing”. O’Connor’s judgement of the person was more charitable
‘Super Tuesday’ puts Catholics in even tighter spot: Can you vote in good conscience for either presidential candidate?
March 07, 2024
On so-called Super Tuesday the American presidential primary campaign came to an effective end. The primary process, by which the two parties select their nominee for the general election, has yielded President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump as the respective Democrat and Republican candidates. In past election cycles, Super Tuesday – the day
All Catholic moral doctrine is social doctrine
February 10, 2024
Humans were created for social relationships. Among the implications of the creation accounts in the first two chapters of Genesis is that the human person is a social creature in the very essence of his being. The human is created in and for social relationships. In the first creation account, the human person is created
‘Cafeteria Catholicism’ and navigating the moral dilemmas of US election campaigns in 2024
January 15, 2024
As in every year divisible by four, Americans will elect a president in November 2024. While the major parties’ respective primary processes have already begun, the turn of the new year focuses our national attention on this quadrennial circus. After the parties nominate their respective candidates sometime in late spring or early summer, those nominees
Music can contribute to the joys and thoughtful memories of the Christmas season
November 30, 2023
Of all the holy days of the liturgical calendar, none involves the senses more than Christmas. The sensory experiences of Christmas invoke feelings of kinship, generosity, camaraderie and nostalgia. The scents, sights, and sounds of Christmas don’t merely fill our homes, but infuse our hearts as well. The fragrances of spruce, fir and pine waft
Two cheers for Laudate Deum, the musings of a ‘1960s flower child’ that falls short on theology
October 05, 2023
On the Feast of St Francis of Assisi, Pope Francis promulgated his Apostolic Exhortation, Laudate Deum, expressly to complement his 2015 Encyclical, Laudato Si’. The encyclical was Francis’s admonition to address climate change. Laudate Deum is his much briefer complaint that we have not adequately heeded the charge of Laudato Si’. While he warns the Church that “certain apocalyptic diagnoses
‘Take that, schismatics!’
September 22, 2023
The right and the left in America are equally partisan about Pope Francis. Whatever else has occurred during the present papacy, the Catholic Church in the United States has become more divided – even fractured – than in recent memory, if ever.  I am not suggesting that the fault lies entirely, or even primarily, with
Redefining moral error: The continuing relevance of Veritatis Splendor
August 30, 2023
It is unfortunate that the most important encyclical of Pope St John Paul II’s prodigious output, Veritatis Splendor, is as relevant today as when it was promulgated 30 years ago. To be sure, aspects of it have perennial relevance, regardless of the era. Especially in its teaching on freedom and conscience, the encyclical is an
The right not to say what you don’t believe
August 02, 2023
The Supreme Court’s ruling is pro-freedom of speech, not anti-gay. In late June, before adjourning until the next October term, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) conducted its annual ritual of handing down decisions in the most publicly contentious cases of the term. While this year’s decisions do not quite rise to the
The unintelligibility of American patriotism
July 04, 2023
The US devotion to the peoples’ ‘unalienable rights’ is a logical fallacy. In the calendar of American civil religion, July 4 is a solemnity, the day we celebrate our national creed, formulated in Philadelphia in 1776. “We hold these truths to be self-evident,” we confess in the Declaration of Independence, “that all men are created
LGBTQ+ month and moral free-riders
May 30, 2023
June has been designated as Pride Month around the parts of the world in which it has become a moral imperative to accede to the various agendas that the LGBTQ+ label represents. The month is replete with official proclamations, corporate sponsorships and marketing campaigns, festivals and galas, and increased political pressure to uncritically normalise the
Will the Supreme Court have a new confidence post Dobbs?
October 12, 2022
The US Supreme Court with act differently after Dobbs, writes Ken Craycraft
Remembering (and introducing) Rich Mullins
September 21, 2022
Kenneth Craycraft remembers an old friend who might have been a Catholic had his life not been cut short
RIP Elizabeth, R.
September 12, 2022
Her Majesty was our faithful sister in Christ, writes Ken Craycraft
“Saul Over, Man”—Confession and Redemption in Better Call Saul
August 18, 2022
Ken Craycraft highlights the powerful moral conclusion that emerged from this excellent series
Lessons From the Kansas Constitutional Amendment Referendum
August 05, 2022
A massive disinformation campaign by pro-abortionists in Kansas has caused this tragic mess
Same Sex Marriage After ‘Dobbs’
July 20, 2022
  Since the United States Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, which overruled Roe v. Wade and returned the regulation of abortion to individual States’ legislatures, speculation has been rife about the future of other controversial landmark decisions, including Griswold v. Connecticut, Lawrence v. Texas, and Obergefell v. Hodges. In the process of invalidating States’ laws prohibiting
‘Better Call Saul’ and the Momentum of Sin
July 11, 2022
Ken Craycraft explores a prevalent theme in the newly released prequel to 'Breaking Bad'
Abortion Argument After ‘Dobbs’
June 21, 2022
  As I write these words, the American public is on tenterhooks, awaiting the official release of the Supreme Court’s opinion in the case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, testing the State of Mississippi’s 15-week abortion ban. Of course, an unprecedented leak of a draft majority opinion in the case, authored by Associate Justice
Pride Month and Compelled Consent
June 10, 2022
The message of Pride month is not tolerance, but an endorsement of an aggressive moral and political agenda.
Bob Dylan and (Im)mortality
May 20, 2022
Ken Craycraft contemplates getting older through the insightful lyrics of Bob Dylan
Policy and programs after Roe v. Wade
May 09, 2022
Ken Craycraft looks at how the Catholic Church can take advantage of a reversal of Roe v Wade to help women and families
Why “Common Good” is Elusive
April 25, 2022
Recently I was asked to give a lecture on the topic, “Freedom to Serve the Common Good: Faith in the Public Square and Public Office.” The best I could do was to explain why this is a difficult—if not impossible—task in the contemporary American political context. This is because the regnant definition of “freedom” precludes
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