The Pope is doing his impression of a socialist; another reason for not becoming a Catholic (not that the RC church would have me). From here:
A figure embraced by many conservatives for his traditional views on family and sexuality, Pope Benedict XVI sees government as a positive force with vital responsibilities to help create the conditions for a just society. This is not a vague commitment. Benedict advocates for robust financial regulations, challenges governments to address climate change and even calls for a more equitable distribution of wealth. He recently urged the leaders of wealthy nations to do more to tackle the problem of global poverty, describing this priority as “too big to fail.” If he ran for office in the U.S., you can imagine the political attack ads accusing the pope of being a socialist! But our roiling political arguments would be far more productive if we tuned out strident commentators and listened to this soft-spoken theologian who articulates the teachings of a faith tradition that for centuries has offered timely wisdom about the moral dimensions of the economy.
However hard I try, I really can’t imagine St. Peter saying that the government’s role is to enforce a “more equitable distribution of wealth”, let alone play King Canute and “address climate change”. Of course, one of the authors of the article is an associate professor of Christian social ethics, an occupation that may not be entirely free from left-wing tendentiousness.
I think that the pope has a duty to make sure the church is defended from arguments against it (from materialists/secularists/militant atheists, etc.), to anticipate their criticisms and answer them (and certainly to avoid giving them ammunition to use against the church). Many opponents of the church claim, or try to claim, that Christians don’t care about the here-and-now, and the needs and sufferings of real people in the world, but only concern themselves with the next world, heaven, salvation etc. So the pope, in stressing the committment to the poor, and the possibilities that governments, laws and human systems can possibly do something to help them, doesn’t make him into a utopian, or Lefty, or involve abandoning an eternal perspective/system of values – and it’s totally Biblical; and doesn’t St. Paul have a (surprisingly?) positive approach to governors and governments?