Looks like Benedict is on a roll...
Christians shouldn’t shun the world; they should engage with it. But their involvement in politics and economics should transcend every form of ideology. Christians fight poverty out of a recognition of the supreme dignity of every human being, created in God’s image and destined for eternal life. Christians work for more equitable sharing of the earth’s resources out of a belief that, as stewards of God’s creation, we have a duty to care for the weakest and most vulnerable. Christians oppose greed and exploitation out of a conviction that generosity and selfless love, as taught and lived by Jesus of Nazareth, are the way that leads to fullness of life. Christian belief in the transcendent destiny of every human being gives urgency to the task of promoting peace and justice for all.Conspicuous absence of any mention of Ayn Rand, liberty, "free markets", creative destruction, social Darwinism, balanced budgets, deficit reduction, inter-generational debt, smaller civil government, metallic "money", etc...
In fact quite a progressive economic view imo. This progressive view may be getting "legs" at the Vatican as this FT article follows another recent Papal message for World Peace Day that focused mainly on unrestricted economic justice.
Of course no specific policy prescriptions as my read of Benedict is that he thinks (rightly imo) that is ultimately the responsibility of the individuals of the laity who occupy positions of authority in civil government. He touches on this in the article with a not bad examination of the Lord's recommendation to Israel to be paying the Roman poll taxes imposed by the earthly civil government of that time.
Unfortunately, all of our US faith-possessing economic policymakers seem to be solely sourced from "Christen-DUMB" at present.
