BOB ABERNETHY, anchor: Pope Benedict XVI gave a preview this week of his first encyclical, to be published next Wednesday (January 25). The subject is physical and spiritual love and charity, and we want to talk about that with John Allen of NATIONAL CATHOLIC REPORTER, who joins us from Rome.

John, welcome. Sum up, if you would, what the pope said.

JOHN ALLEN (Vatican Correspondent, NATIONAL CATHOLIC REPORTER): Well, the heart of the message is this: the pope plays with these Greek words for love -- "eros" and "agape" -- eros meaning kind of satisfying one's own desires; agape meaning this deeper, spiritual sense of the sacrifice of oneself for another. And he's trying to argue that the experience of the former ought to lead one into the latter. And he ties that in also to the concept of charity -- the Church's social activity -- and makes the argument that there has to be a difference between what the Church does in the social realm and other secular organizations, and that ultimately it too has to be -- to leading people to this notion of a spiritual giving of the self to the other.

ABERNETHY: And why did Benedict choose this subject, or these subjects, for his first encyclical?

Mr. ALLEN: Well, you know, he's not laying out an agenda for governance here. But I think, Bob, what he understands is that it's precisely in the arena of eros -- that is, sexual love -- that the Church's message these days is often the most controversial and that when the Church, from his point of view, says "no" to something like homosexuality or divorce and birth control, it does so in service to a higher "yes," which is trying to lead people to this deep, spiritual sense of giving oneself over to the other. So, in a sense, it's Benedict's version of compassionate conservatism.