World conservative leader with vision to past, present and future

Rejection of God leaves society, and our very civilisation, weak and vulnerable. Far from secularism being the great liberator, it is the great enslaver, enslaving societies until their ultimate death or destruction. For that reason, Pope Benedict's vision of what is needed (the restoration of Christendom) is the only way out of this quagmire we've created.

Conservatives are searching for a leader. Move over Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin and Mitt Romney. Pope Benedict XVI has emerged as the great conservative champion.

In his recently issued and much anticipated third encyclical, "Caritas in Veritate" ("Love in Truth"), the pope lays out a brilliant blueprint for addressing the seminal problems of our age.

Contrary to headlines, the encyclical is not an anti-capitalist tract. The pope is not a red Tory who puts "social justice" and statist economics above free markets. He does not call for big-government liberalism. Instead, he upholds free markets while also addressing the moral and theological roots of culture.

The pope rightly argues that the current economic crisis was caused by rampant greed, irresponsible financial speculation and the failure of government regulation. In other words, it has occurred within a moral vacuum, where Christian love and truth have been abandoned in favor of crude materialism.

The crisis has become "an opportunity for discernment, in which to shape a new vision for the future." The economic debacle is simply a symptom of a deeper and more dangerous moral crisis. The only solution, he says, is to restore Christendom -- what used to be the essence of Western civilization.

Read more: A real conservative vision ~ Washington Times