Caritas in Veritate: Why Truth Matters

http://catholicexchange.com/2009/07/10/120209/

Contrary to the pre-encyclical hype of certain American commentators and the ever-unreliable British press, predictions of papal anathemas against "global capitalism" have – as usual – been found wanting. In economic terms, the pope describes as "erroneous" the tired notion that the developed countries' wealth is predicated on poor nations' poverty (CV no.35) that one hears customarily from the likes of Hugo Chavez and whatever's left of the dwindling band of aging liberation theologians. That's a pontifical body-blow to a central working assumption of many professional social justice "activists".

Nor will they be happy with the pope's concerns about the ways in which foreign aid can produce situations of dependency (CV no.58), not to mention Benedict's strictures against protectionism (CV no.42) as well as his stress that no amount of structural change can possibly compensate for people freely choosing the good: "Integral human development presupposes the responsible freedom of the individual and of peoples: no structure can guarantee this development over and above human responsibility" (CV no.17).