Perhaps the most important and well written thing I have read in years. This document has an elegance that helped convince me not only of the critical nature of the issue at hand, but also of the wisdom of the Pope and his Vatican editors. (A side effect of reading this document was realizing how pedestrian the editors at Penguin, Harper, and Simon & Schussler are.) Transcending the right/left boxes that everything else is framed with, Benedict presses forth based on biblical values that if taken seriously, will break American readers out of their current trappings. Poverty, labor, environment, justice, and ultimately meaning and purpose in daily life are given their due, not as topics for talk shows, but as the deepest concerns of the human race. ( )