..in which we will gradually post various reactions to the encyclical, in between a mad dash to try to summarize it.

Ruth Gledhill of the Times UK surprises herself:

Every sentence, stop and comma speaks of orthodoxy. It is steeped in the tradition of the ancient Church. The Pope was former head of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, the body once known as the Inquisition. But this encyclical is not the work of an inquisitor. It is the work of a lover — a true lover of God.

The NYTimes surprises no one:

Headline: Benedict’s First Encyclical Shuns Strictures of Orthodoxy

Um….well, no one expects headline writers to understand much, I guess. But it’s a a very NYT headline, don’t you think? The article follows with various quotes from the usual suspects, but essentially misses, in its fascination with eros, the fundamental connection that’s being made here, that the love God pours out on us, embodied and reachable through Jesus, is a love we, in turn, share with others.