Everybody just calm down now.

The recent encyclical CARITAS IN VERITATE or "Charity in Truth" is going to cause some apoplexy on both the left and right.

In evaluating it, we must pay very careful attention to the precise langauge and contextualize it as an encyclical, which means not giving it the emotional and theoretical associations as if it were written by someone from the Democratic Underground (does that still exist?).

I have absoluely no measurable doubt (none) that someone is going to use this encyclical to argue that Benedict is the Anti-Christ. In fact, I'll give 235 points to the first person to find someone making this claim.

There is absolutely nothing new in the text (at least the portion I've read). Benedict is re-affirming and emphasizing. What needs emphasizing at what time is a prime pastoral concern.