For Obama, his first papal sit-down probably couldn't have been better timed; it comes shortly after the long-scheduled release of Benedict's encyclical "Caritas in Veritate" (Charity in Truth), which he says will focus on "the extensive issue of the economy and labor." Encyclicals are letters from the pope to the Roman Catholic hierarchy on key church matters.

If Benedict's encyclical argues that moral shortcomings precipitated the world economic crisis, as seems likely to be the case, it could line up with Obama's own interpretation of the recession. The president outlined his views on how the ...