Perhaps the Holy Father fails to understand our peculiar institution...

Several decades ago I remember hearing some conservative commentator on radio, (Paul Harvey? not sure...) who had been wont to gush over John Paul II because he was such a strong ally of Reagan's in the "Cold War," or because his views of sexual and reproductive morality dovetailed with the commentator's own, suddenly getting all icy over what he perceived as the pontiff's meddling in affairs that were none of his business when there had been talk about the injustices that could arise from our economic system.
With all due respect, (a phrase that, as so often, was sneered in a tone of voice to clearly signal disrespect,) the Pope does not understand America and how its speirit of enterprise works...
Well, the right-wing may be about to talk out of the other side of its face again, if B XVI's coming encyclical expresses the Splendor of Truth in the way they fear it might.
http://www.livemint.com/2008/07/15215540/Points-for-the-pope-to-ponder.html
Note that what the WSJ's man is actually saying we should celebrate is that rich folks in the Third World are living evermore like rich folks in the U S of A, and ain't that grand? Doesn't that make you feel better about things? That some nation in Africa whose name you can't even pronounce has its own Sauds or Paris Hiltons or Windsors or Donald Trumps or Oprah Winfreys? I'm sure the civic pride it produces mitigates that gnawing hunger growing numbers of residents of those countries are feeling....

For all the attention on capitalism’s failings, it is important to remember the recent boom helped lift more than a billion people out of poverty. And for all the hand-wringing over rising inequality within countries, we should be celebrating the huge strides over the last two decades to lower inequality between countries. Average living standards across much of the developing world have risen so fast that in many recently poor countries they now match those in the West.