Caritas in Veritate
= re-iteration of the social doctrine of the Catholic Church, focused on economic issues, by Pope Benedict (2009)
Review
A Catholic 'distributist' assessment by John Medaille
John Medaille:
"Caritas in Veritate is an excellent document which provides valuable follow-through on several vital parts of traditional Catholic social teaching. From the importance of workingmen’s associations to the importance of spiritual considerations in economic thought, Caritas continues the ever-clearer proclamation that the Church is neither capitalist nor socialist, but Catholic, an entirely different thing.
The document further successfully applies traditional Catholic social principles to new problems, including environmental issues, tourism, and the psychiatric industry.
...
distributists, particularly Catholic distributists, should embrace the encyclical. Since 1993, relying on a clear misreading of Centesimus Annus, capitalists have been claiming that the Church has abandoned her previous, anti-capitalist (as well as anti-socialist) social teachings, embracing the so-called free-market capitalism that characterizes the Western democracies. Now, at last, distributism has vindication, in terms so plain and clear that no one can deny their import: Catholic social teaching is not capitalist, and is indeed contrary to capitalism. Distributism has also been provided with several valuable examples of applying traditional Catholic social principles to new problems; Pope Benedict’s handling of the environmental issue in particular provides an admirable model for Catholic social thinkers.
The jewelry box of resources from which distributist can draw has been permanently and valuably expanded. We all owe our admiration and gratitude to the current occupant of the See of St. Peter for bravely upholding the principles of Catholic social teaching in a world ever-increasingly hostile to them." (http://distributism.blogspot.com/2009/09/mixed-blessing-caritas-in-veritate-part_16.html)