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This pope is almost
too good! I'm afraid he's going to piss off too many establishment-consumerist-big-business sociopaths and get assassinated or something.
I'm also honestly surprised the Catholic Church establishment was enlightened enough to have chosen him in the first place.[/quote]
me, too and I am a little suspicious because they did such a 180 on this
[/quote]
That's a common misconception - I don't blame people for thinking that. JPII and Benedict also warned against the spiritual dangers of consumerism, but their writings didn't receive much publicity. See
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caritas_in_Veritate for Benedict's encyclical on environmental stewardship and consumerism.
And here is an excerpt from one of JPII's encyclical Sollicitudo Rei Socialis.
"A disconcerting conclusion about the most recent period should serve to enlighten us: side-by-side with the miseries of underdevelopment, themselves unacceptable, we find ourselves up against a form of superdevelopment, equally inadmissible. because like the former it is contrary to what is good and to true happiness. This super-development, which consists in an excessive availability of every kind of material goods for the benefit of certain social groups, easily makes people slaves of "possession" and of immediate gratification, with no other horizon than the multiplication or continual replacement of the things already owned with others still better. This is the so-called civilization of "consumption" or " consumerism ," which involves so much "throwing-away" and "waste." An object already owned but now superseded by something better is discarded, with no thought of its possible lasting value in itself, nor of some other human being who is poorer.
All of us experience firsthand the sad effects of this blind submission to pure consumerism: in the first place a crass materialism, and at the same time a radical dissatisfaction, because one quickly learns - unless one is shielded from the flood of publicity and the ceaseless and tempting offers of products - that the more one possesses the more one wants, while deeper aspirations remain unsatisfied and perhaps even stifled."
Although JPII and Benedict were very socially conservative (as is Francis, though his tone is more welcoming), they were both very aware of and passionate about the environment and social justice. Look up Catholic Social Teaching. I went to Catholic Universities (3 different ones) and that class is usually where conservative students find out their religion isn't as conservative as they thought.
To sum it up, I'd just say that Francis is echoing what his predecessors and Catholic tradition have been teaching. We've just assumed for a number of reasons, maybe because conservative Catholics in the US liked JPII and Benedict, maybe because their encyclicals didn't get publicity, or maybe because their communication style was not as accessible; we've just assumed that Francis is the first Pope to start saying these things. Some specific things yes, but in general, he's just been an incredible ambassador/representative of the Church.
I think his background as a pastor has contributed to his success. Benedict was more of a theologian, which made him too easily dismissed as living in an ivory tower (which is a common evangelization problem the faith has - so many rules that are so hard for everyday people to live by). Since Francis has spent so much time with everyday people, his tone reflects that. He is able to communicate the teachings of the faith, especially the controversial ones, without coming off as judgmental. Forgoing the luxurious trappings of his office during a time when inequality is so rampant was also a good move, and one that seemed completely genuine given his earlier life.
Seems to dovetail perfectly with what Pope Leo XIII wrote back in the 19th Century - 'Once the demands of necessity and propriety have been met, the rest that one owns belongs to the poor.'