Now thats weird -  can’t say I saw that one coming!  Reported in the AFP:

The Pope yesterday condemned the “grave deviations and failures” of capitalism that have been exposed by the financial crisis, calling on the eve of a summit of rich nations for a “true world political authority” to oversee a return to ethical values.

Pope Benedict’s emphasis on the need for “forms of redistribution of wealth” is likely to stir debate at the summit, which will be attended by 39 heads of government and international institutions, over the failure of rich nations to honour their aid commitments.

Sadly, the Pontiff rails heavily against capitalism, denouncing Globalization, Outsourcing and Short term Profits as all very bad things.  The reality is globalization has helped lift up poor countries by introducing trade that they did not have, and lowers consumer costs in the countries importing the goods.  A Win/Win.

The Guardian has a brief summary of other topics from the Encyclical HERE

Notably, he also calls out a number of tyrannical regimes especially China in issues including Sex (no government should be forcing mandatory contraception) and Secularism (governmental promotion of atheism or repression of religion)

Initially, I was not entirely clear how a conversation between Obama and Pope Benedict XVI will go since Obama is pushing abortion, stem cell research and contraception, all of which are not pro-church topics.   But the socialistic topics in the new Encyclic should provide stirring conversation between the two of them.