Yesterday, Pope Benedict released a bold new encyclical criticizing the current economic system and reaffirming the Church's longstanding commitment to protecting workers' freedom to form unions--the central principle of the Employee Free Choice Act.

"The repeated calls issued within the Church's social doctrine, beginning with Rerum Novarum, for the promotion of workers' associations that can defend their rights must therefore be honoured today even more than in the past," said the Pope. More at the New York Times.