Christ “will appear a second time, not to take away sin but to bring salvation,” says this Sunday’s reading from the Letter to the Hebrews. Now that the campaign is over and voters have spoken, both parties promise a bipartisan spirit . . .

“The Lord keeps faith forever, secures justice for the oppressed, gives food to the hungry,” the psalmist tells us this Sunday. Sadly, a rising number of people in the U.S. since the start of the recession have resorted to suicide . . .

Jesus offers a stern warning in this Sunday's gospel about the damage done by hypocritical religious leaders who abuse their positions of power and who “devour the houses of widows and, as a pretext, recite lengthy prayers" . . .

Hunger, thirst, and food shortages are upmost on the minds of the prophet Elijah and the widow he meets in the struggling town of Zarephath in this Sunday’s first reading. Much of southern Africa shares that concern these days, currently . . .

“I’m tired of Bronco Bamma and Mitt Romney.”

In 2012 a record number of Americans—41 percent—identify themselves as political independents.