“The Occupy Movement is a current expression of humanity's long struggle for equality and justice. Every generation awaits ‘new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells,’ to use Saint Peter's words” . . .

In the Sunday readings the prophet Isaiah calls on God to comfort the people and speak tenderly to Jerusalem, which “has received from the hand of the Lord double for all her sins.” NATO and the U.S. military are hoping to achieve reconciliation with the Pakistani people after a NATO airstrike . . .

John the Baptist, who proclaims the coming of the Lord in this Sunday’s gospel, survived in the wilderness by feeding on “locusts and wild honey,” Millions of American schoolchildren are only able to eat a more nutritious meal . . .

Justice walks before the Lord, who proclaims peace to his people, the psalmist tell us this Sunday. The Arab League is stepping up its push for Syrian President Bashar Assad to make peace with his own people . . .

If “justice shall look down from heaven,” as the psalmist assures us this Sunday, than the justice systems of civilized nations should be able to come up with suitable alternatives to capital punishment, argued Pope Benedict XVI . . .

“I love to define mystery as not that which is unknowable, but that which is endlessly knowable. . . . And wouldn’t we assume that would be the nature of God? That God by definition will always be mystery?”

The median wage for U.S. workers in 2010--$26,364--is the lowest since 1999, while in Washington the median net worth of members of Congress, about $513,000, is up 25 percent since 2008. Washington, D.C. has also now overtaken Silicon Valley as the wealthiest metropolitan area in the U.S.