Julia Duin

Archbishop rips Sebelius appointment

A prominent Catholic Church official on Friday rebuked the appointment of Kathleen Sebelius as the nation's new Health and Human Services secretary and mourned the "anti-life and anti-family path down which our nation is being led."

May 9, 2009

Obama’s prayer snub brings reproach

Several members of Congress and one of America's most prominent religious leaders criticized President Obama on Capitol Hill on Thursday for a seeming brush-off during National Day of Prayer observances and for not referring to America as a "Judeo-Christian" nation in remarks last month in Turkey.

May 8, 2009

Prayer Day organizers pan Obama absence

Several Republican members of Congress and one of America's most prominent religious leaders criticized President Obama on Capitol Hill today for a seeming brushoff during National Day of Prayer observances and for not referring to America as a "Judeo-Christian" nation in remarks last month in Turkey.

May 7, 2009

DUIN: Nothing pretty about pageant

It was hard not to feel sorry for Carrie Prejean when she walked into the National Press Club last week. Here was a young woman whose only ambition before the night of April 19 was to be Miss USA.

May 7, 2009

Obama to be prayer day no-show

President Obama is distancing himself from the National Day of Prayer by nixing a formal early morning service and not attending a large Catholic prayer breakfast the next morning.

May 6, 2009

Obama cuts prayer-day service

President Obama is distancing himself from the National Day of Prayer by nixing a formal early morning service and not attending a large Catholic prayer breakfast the following morning.

May 5, 2009

DUIN: Influencing youth with experiences

Anyone wanting to meet young evangelicals who voted for President Obama would have done well to drop by Sojourners' "Mobilization to End Poverty" conference this past week.

May 3, 2009

‘Very strange week’ follows pageant remarks

Carrie Prejean, a frontrunner for the Miss USA title who finished second after she voiced her opposition to gay marriage, gave short shrift at a local press conference Thursday, barely speaking 10 minutes before walking out.

May 1, 2009

DUIN: New chapter in church suit

Last week, I got to see "Doubt," the 2008 psychological drama starring Meryl Streep about a nun who suspects that the parish priest over

April 30, 2009

Ex-Vatican ambassador spurns Notre Dame

A former U.S. ambassador to the Vatican has turned down the University of Notre Dame's highest award, citing the school's simultaneous honoring of President Obama and its public justifications for doing so.

April 28, 2009

DUIN: ‘Stories’ abounds with God’s grace

I've long been perplexed with the problem of unanswered prayer, so I was intrigued to hear of a book recounting prayers that God did answer.

April 26, 2009

Arlington bishop hits invite to Obama

Arlington Bishop Paul S. Loverde has become the 46th Catholic bishop in the U.S. to publicly castigate the University of Notre Dame for inviting President Obama to give this year's commencement speech and grant to him an honorary doctorate.

April 24, 2009

DUIN: Is Islam able to apologize?

Friday is Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day, commemorating the mass killings of up to 1.5 million Christian Armenians overseen by the Muslim leaders of the Ottoman Empire starting in 1915.

April 23, 2009

Local Presbyterians OK gay clergy

Local Presbyterians voted overwhelmingly Tuesday night to approve an amendment to their church constitution to allow gay clergy.

April 22, 2009

Presbyterians voting on gay clergy

About 300 Presbyterians meeting Tuesday night at National Presbyterian Church on Nebraska Avenue will vote on an amendment to the constitution of their national church body that would allow practicing gay clergy.

April 21, 2009

Vatican probes nuns’ heterodoxy

The Vatican is investigating a Silver Spring-based umbrella group for nuns for deviating from Catholic doctrine after the group failed to toe the church's line on male priesthood, homosexuality and salvation being chiefly obtained through the Catholic Church.

April 20, 2009

DUIN: Pro-life doctors face ‘consequences’

On April 8, I attended an event at the National Press Club where about 40 doctors, medical students, nurses and lab techs faced the TV cameras.

April 19, 2009

Poverty in paradise

At first glance, the airy, light-yellow beachfront St. Martin of Tours Catholic Church looks like the perfect tourist site. Built in 1843, its cool wood interiors beckon to the casual visitor.

April 16, 2009

DUIN: Sunstone opens Mormon culture

Finding Mormon freethinkers was not an easy thing to do until I began reading Sunstone magazine, the bad boy of the Mormon world.

April 16, 2009

DUIN: Icelanders question materialistic ways

Iceland has plenty of volcanic fire underneath its clashing tectonic plates, but spiritually, things have sputtered more like tired candles in recent decades.

April 12, 2009