Listening to the mainstream media’s reporting of Pope Benedict XVI’s latest encyclical you would think that the Pope was several degrees to the left of Karl Marx on so called “social justice” issues. For a very different take read Father Robert Sirico’s commentary in The Wall St. Journal. Referring to Caritas in Veritate Father Sirico concludes:

Much of it stands squarely with a long tradition of writings of a
certain “classical liberal” tradition, one centered on the moral
foundation of economics, from St. Thomas Aquinas and his disciples,
Frederic Bastiat in the 19th century, Wilhelm Roepke, and even the
secular F.A. Hayek in the 20th century. It also clearly resonates with
some European Christian democratic thought.
 

Father Sirico’s Acton Institute has devoted an entire page on its web site to thoughtful commentary on the Pope’s latest teachings.