“The failure of Caritas in Veritate to blend the many hands and voices evident in its composition has probably diminished its impact and encouraged selective reading . . . . Pope Benedict simply tried to do too much . . . . [In one view], what the encyclical gains in potential for further thought it loses in clutter. One legitimate and valuable point is obscured by the next . . . . The just-too-much explanation and the too-many-hands explanation are not mutually exclusive. The pope’s intellectual ambition and the multiple concerns of his Vatican aides and other consultors may well have converged. One wonders if this isn’t a case where less would have been more.”
Says George Weigel, in a piece that was pilloried by every left-leaning Catholic commentator in America?
No, actually. It’s from Peter Steinfels, in today’s New York Times .
I would wait with bated breath the loud condemnations of Steinfels by all those who excoriated Weigel, except that asphyxiation is a sad way to die.
