Economics of Charity POPE BENEDICT ' S '

Catholic social teaching, whether promulgated by Ambrose of Milan in the fourth century or Benedict XVI in the twenty-first, has always been contextual. The themes emphasized, although consistent in their fundamental doctrinal commitments, have shifted depending on the problems Christians faced. Papal encyclicals written after the fall of the Soviet Union, for example, moved away from an even-handed critique of both capitalism and socialism to a closer focus on the strengths and weaknesses of the prevailing market system.