By David Willey
BBC News, Rome
**The Pope is set to blame greed and selfishness for the global financial crisis, in his latest encyclical letter - the highest form of papal teaching.**On the eve of the G8 summit in Rome, the letter will remind world leaders, bankers, businessmen and ordinary people of their moral duties.
The letter, Caritas in Veritate, or Love in Truth, is his third since Benedict XVI was made Pope in 2005.
He began writing it two years ago but has had to amend it considerably.
His initial thoughts on the ethical responsibilities for poverty, hunger, climate change, and the decline in the world economy were overtaken by events.
Individual responsibility
The Pope told a group of priests in Rome at the beginning of the year that he did not want to give simplistic answers to complex questions concerning the world economy.
But he will single out human greed and selfishness as the root causes of the economic crisis.
While the global financial system needs reform, the Pope has said, individuals must also realise that they have to make personal sacrifices in order to help the poor and move towards a more just division of the world’s resources.
Many of the Pope’s 19th and 20th-Century predecessors have from time to time issued moral guidelines on social and economic questions in the form of encyclical letters.
The publication of Caritas in Veritate is taking place on the eve of the G8 meeting of world leaders at L’Aquila in Italy this week.
On Friday Pope Benedict will have his first meeting with President Barack Obama at the Vatican, when the new US leader will have the opportunity of exchanging views with the Pope on the moral imperatives facing world leaders in 2009.