Pope’s first social encyclical ready for release ,says top Vatican official.

(March, 21, 2009):- Pope Benedict XVI's first social encyclical is already completed and should be ready for release in early May, said a top Vatican official. Cardinal Renato Martino, president of Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace said the original aim had been to have the encyclical on social justice issues ready for publication in 2007, to coincide with the 40th anniversary of Pope Paul VI's encyclical on human development, "Populorum Progressio" ("The Progress of Peoples")."Naturally, however, with the research and revisions necessary to create and have a text that would respond to today's current situation, it got behind schedule a little bit," he told reporters March 20.
"The encyclical is now ready, and we hope it will be published in early May," he said and added that the new papal encyclical will offer a beautiful response to the new realities, and the changes that have occurred since the last papal encyclical on Catholic social teaching, "Centesimus Annus" ("The Hundredth Year"), was published in 1991 by Pope John Paul II.