Headlines don’t do Caritas in Veritate justice.

Caritas in Veritate, an encyclical about love, is sparking argument in the media over what it really means.

The headline from The New York Times sent me back in time; “Pope Urges Forming New World Economic Order to Work for the ‘Common Good.’” The headline invokes memories of President George H.W. Bush calling for a “new world order” as he rallied the world to fight Saddam Hussein’s annexation of Kuwait in 1990.

Those words, spoken by the president, sent some into delirious dreams of a one-world government and black helicopters hanging overhead. Today, the words of Pope Benedict XVI initially sent some, hoping to use his words for political gain, into fits of joy or anger. Dan Gilgoff at U.S. News and World Report calls the encyclical “…a boost for progressive Catholics” adding “There is much in Benedict's third encyclical, in other words, for American conservatives to scorn.” Journalist David Gibson writes at Politics Daily, “The Pope Is a Liberal. Who Knew?”

Now prior to the publication of Caritas in Veritate, several writers I had read, including Damian Thompson the religion writer for the Daily Telegraph in London and editor-in-chief of Britian’s Catholic Herald, had been warning that both liberals and conservatives would be disappointed, that the encyclical would not endorse either side as the pope sought to address the economic crisis.(more)

By: Brian Lilley is the Ottawa Bureau Chief for radio stations 1010 CFRB in Toronto and CJAD 800 in Montreal. He is also Associate Editor of Mercatornet.