Der Spiegel on the encyclical:

The German-born pope formerly known as Joseph Ratzinger is as radical as he is thorough. He could have written about the dangers of globalization, about genetic engineering, Darwinism or of course about his "dictatorship of relativism." But this pope cares more about detail than about publicity. He is more concerned with establishing truth than he is about creating spectacles. Benedict XVI would rather write about love.

"Deus Caritas Est." It doesn’t get any simpler or more radical than that. In his text, the pope confronts head on Protestant adversity to the body. Eros, the covetous love, and agape, the altruistic love, cannot be separated, he writes. Love does not merely serve reproduction, but rather is "concern and care for the other." At this point in his encyclical, the pope refers to the Old Testament "Song of Songs," perhaps the most sensual sentence in the entire Bible.

…The function of the Church is charitable activity. Caritas. And Benedict XVI isn’t just talking about charitableness in a worldly sense, but rather the institutional expression of God’s love for his creation: "Within the community of believers there can never be room for a poverty that denies anyone what is needed for a dignified life." In other words, ministry is the Catholic Church’s core competency. "In today’s complex situation," the pope writes, "not least because of the growth of a globalized economy, the Church’s social doctrine has become a set of fundamental guidelines."

Ratzinger also takes a look at one theme that he developed in his debate with the philosopher Jürgen Habermas: the role of faith in reason. "Faith enables reason to do its work more effectively and to see its proper object more clearly." The Church, he continues, "cannot and must not take upon itself  the political battle." Rather, it must constantly be a reminder to the state of justice — "both the aim and the intrinsic criterion of all politics."