In the beginning God created heaven and earth...

private land keep out, originally uploaded by Vertigogen.

Some time after, those with the muscle grabbed most bits of the earth that were worth having, fenced them off, and then allowed their fellow humans onto "their land" only when they had paid the rent they could wring out of them.

The same people then took control of the political system, entrenched their position (literally so) and fixed the laws so the robbery was concealed in a cloak of respectable legality. In reality, it was nothing more than a polite form of chattel slavery.

Over the centuries, this theft led to accumulations of money in the pockets of landowners, who, when the industrial revolution came, were the only ones able to take on the role of suppliers of capital, thereby enriching themselves still further.

And it still goes on under a veneer of civilisation, with sufficient being conceded in welfare handouts - state charity - to stave off revolution.

In the 107 years of Catholic Social Teaching, this fundamental evil has scarcely been spoken of. But a new Social Teaching encyclical is due out later this year. Might it be that this Holy Father will remedy the omission?