Research Paper on "Pope Benedict XVI Criticizes Consumerism See Vatican Website"

Research Paper 6 pages (1862 words) Sources: 4

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Pope Consumerism

Pope Benedict XVI criticizes consumerism what does he mean by this?

The perspective of the Catholic religion has long been godliness over materialism. Even if at points in its history, the Vatican itself has run afoul of this ambition, the broader ethos to which its leaders have returned over the course of history is that materialist greed begets inequality and human suffering. As it is a stated goal of the faith to relieve these social ills, the Catholic Church has at times stood vocally on the point of renouncing materialistic excess and of intervening where its adherents appear on a path of shallow consumption. Indeed, this is the message at the center of the current pontiff's remarks through a June 29th, 2009 address in Rome, at Saint Peter's. Pope Benedict XVI decries the implications of consumerist both with regard to its misdirection of individual efforts, ambitions and emotions and with regard to its instigation of human inequality.

The Pope elaborates on these points by expressing a particular frustration with the manner in which private corporations and governments have exploited the public to promote a global imbalance of wealth. Here, the Pope would declare that "in poorer areas some groups enjoy a sort of 'superdevelopment' of a wasteful and consumerist kind which forms an unacceptable contrast with the ongoing situations of dehumanizing deprivation. 'The scandal of glaring inequalities' continues. Corruption and illegality are unfortunately evident in the conduct of the economic and political class in rich countries, both old and new, as well as in poor ones" (Pope Benedict XVI, 22)

Here, Pope Benedict does not just connect consumerism to inequality. He agues that there has in fact been a willful effort on the part of a small class of elite economic and political actors to perpetrate the continued transfer of wealth from poor to rich. The Pope's remarks seem in this regard to key into an even wider philosophical, political and practical conversation which pertains to the concepts of globalization and trade liberalization. These patterns have had a determinant impact on the way that labor markets are formed, products are manufactured, retail items are sold and nations are made to interact. Indeed, the Pope argues that it is this very global scheme that has led to an aggressive exploitation of the poor in the name of consumer-based commercial expansion. And he does so in explicit terms that suggest something more concrete than a faith-based conception of the social ills accompanying the sweeping changes occurring throughout the global community.

Accordingly, Pope Benedict draws a clear connection between the stimulation of global consumer excess and human suffering. He connects the ambition for richer countries to lead an unsustainable lifestyle to the illicit commercial practices transpiring between nations. The pontiff articulates that "the global market has stimulated first and foremost, on the part of rich countries, a search for areas in which to outsource production at low cost with a view to reducing the prices of many goods, increasing purchasing power and thus accelerating the rate of development in terms of greater availability of consumer goods for the domestic market. Consequently, the market has prompted new forms of competition between States as they seek to attract foreign businesses to set up production centres, by means of a variety of instruments, including favourable fiscal regimes and deregulation of the labour market." (Pope Benedict XVI, 25)

Ultimately, the Pope connects these patterns of market deregulation and the proliferation of free-market capitalist governments to the persistence of a variety of negative social conditions. He comments on the failure of the current market to produce sound regulatory conditions. As a result, corporations have shown little restraint where social responsibility is concerned. In markets that are particularly favorable to the patterns of outsourcing that the Pope describes above, labor regulations and environmental protections tend to be generally flimsy or even non-existent. This has produced a scenario in which corporations are all but encouraged to exploit low-paid workers and to degrade unprotected environments. Indeed, these observations strike the reader as consistent with scholastic and economic findings concerning the failures of globalization. From the Pope's perspective, the marketplace is dominated most simply by the capacity for the consumer firm to profit. The low costs facilitated by deregulation and the consequent exploitation thereby promoted make consumer-friendly price imperatives a major coconspirator to the crime of inequality.

The Pope's remarks on this point are consistent with a long history of vocally criticizing the current thrust of the global market, and connecting this to a sort of spiritual bankruptcy that drives his discussion. In an appearance in 2008, the Pope exhorted his followers, "referring to consumerism and the lure of 'false idols', he said: 'In our personal lives and in our communities, we encounter a hostility, something dangerous; a poison which threatens to corrode what is good, reshape who we are and distort the purpose for which we have been created.' He warned young pilgrims 'do not be fooled by those who see you as just another consumer.'" (Malkin, 1)

Here, the Pope's warning seems to be driven by the two major dimensions of the problem indicated here above. Namely, he refers both to the manner in which our individual materialism has degraded us and to the manner in which it has contributed to an intensification of social ills. With respect to the first, the Pope's message implicates the priority of material consumption as an enemy to the ambitions of faith. The priory of attaining greater materials wealth and of achieving validation through the acquisition of things is akin to idolatry for the Pope, who argues that this is a critical misdirection of our efforts as a species. The distracting implications of modernity can divide us from our responsibilities to live in the light of God as Christians and to reach out to help our fellow man, the Pope argues, by inclining us toward acts of distorted morality or essential amorality to the ends of material acquisition. Moreover, the Pope makes the argument that individuals, we are to perceive ourselves as something more than the demographic categories into which advertisers place us. If we are truly crafted in the image of God, than it is a core blasphemy to concede to these crass oversimplifications of our needs, wants and abilities.

The Pope has also voiced a particular objection to the exploitation of children, who are inclined early in many materialist societies to view material acquisition as a definitive goal. This, Benedict argues, is the reason for the emotional and psychological detachment that many young people feel from the Catholic Church and its central values. Accordingly, he makes the assessment that those who are inclined toward basic consumerist impulses from a young age are also those most inclined to grow into shallow adults with questionable value systems. Therefore, the Pope denotes that a certain degrees of responsibility must be taken by business, advertisers and lawmakers to impede upon this additional layer of exploitation which attracts young targets to a life of consumerist dependency. In his remarks during a 2007 appearance, the Pope lamented this point: "Adolescents, youths and even children are easy victims of the corruption of love, deceived by unscrupulous adults who, lying to themselves and to them, draw them into the dead-end streets of consumerism,' he continued. Pope Benedict lamented that in a consumerist society even human bodies become objects, saying that this objectification is occurring earlier and earlier." (CNA, 1)

One of the most egregious offenses that the Pope observes in this regard is the bastardization of the meaning of Christmas. Here, advertisers in particular are guilty of co-opting the meaning of a sacred and solemn day in the interests of profitability. Quite to the point, the Christmas shopping season is seen as the most important segment of the retail sector's annual calendar. With respect to the robustness of the global free market economy, the high connection between the Christmas holiday and excessive consumer spending is essential. For his part, "Pope Benedict has criticised the consumerism of Christmas saying the holy day suffers from a 'materialistic mentality.'" (CN, 1)

This underscores the primary argument of his 2009 address, which connects the priorities of the free global market with the undermining of Christian and Catholic values. Here, the Pope makes an explicit case that such identifying Christian rites as the annual Christmas celebration have been used to justify the economic imperatives which incline low-wage labor, environmental destruction and irresponsible consumption of natural resources. Where the Pope is concerned, and thus as is stated as an official Church position, the patterns which are associated with the extension of global free trade are connected to an inherently sacrilegious advertising and shopping culture. Here, the spiritual motive for the Pope's remarks becomes clear. The Pontiff views the goals of Christianity -- including spiritual enlightenment, moral turpitude, individual modesty, personal generosity and identification with God -- as inherently counterintuitive to the prioritization of material wealth, a willingness to eschew morality in the name of… READ MORE

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