Enjoying the action

Roma locuta est, but now the discussion of Caritas in Veritate commences in earnest. Nowhere in the American religious world are there smarter, more sophisticated, and, indeed, more connected intellectuals able to talk knowledgeably about their faith than in American Catholicism, and they cover the waterfront from hierarch to laywoman, from the nearly sedevacantist right to the almost universalist left. It's a tribute to a great tradition of discourse and debate stretching back to, oh, the Parisian schools of early 12th century.

For us outsiders, it's best to just sit back and watch them go at it. Personally, I'm doing so by following the respective blogs of America, Commonweal, and First Things--linking as needed. To be sure, when it comes to papal pronouncements, the discourse takes some getting used to, given the nature of pontifical authority in the Church. Take, for instance, this paragraph from Joseph Bottom's latest aperçu on Caritate over at Fidelity Central..ah, First Things:

Does the pope actually understand what globalization is--economically? It would be a damaging thing to say that he doesn't, but nothing in the second chapter of the encyclical gives a strong showing that he does. Buzz words about globalization are certainly deployed, but they don't cohere in a way that lends confidence to the pope's economic reading of the world.

Yah, well, but damaging to whom? Bottom? The faithful? Pope Benedict himself? Whatever the case, given that conservatives, being conservatives, are more reluctant than liberals to criticize a pope, it would be nice to see one of them show a little deference to the Magisterium and say, "Well, I've long been skeptical of the post-World War II welfare-and-regulatory model of late capitalism but perhaps, given the recent near collapse of the world economy, it's worth reconsidering the traditional teachings of the Church in this regard, as the pope urges us to do."

I'm keeping my eyes open.