Where Less Would Have Been More

“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.