‘The message of Christmas is simple: God has come among us because He loves us.’And thus began the assault by Il Papa (or Il Fluffy as he is now oft known) on the advertising industry and how it portrays Christmas, echoing the thoughts and feeling s by the more conservative members in the Vatican. Il Papa has condemned the advertising industry for giving a false sense of the true meaning of Christmas which he claims is ‘certainly very different from the illusions spun out in advertisements.’
Speaking during a visit to a Caritas soup kitchen in Rome, he continued by saying that most families now consider Christmas to be a period of present giving and over eating instead of being the season of ‘love and charity’ which gave true joy to the season of Christmas. These remarks follow comments in October when Il Papa said that ‘consumerism menaces both families and society’, and in his Midnight Message on Christmas Eve, ‘when you give gifts for Christmas, do not give only to those who will give to you in return, but give to those who receive from no-one and who cannot give you anything back.’ He followed his words by giving €96,000 and 10,000 blankets to the Caritas shelter he then visited when he made the above recent remarks in relation to consumerism and the advertising industry.
The industry itself has responded to Il Papa, and has declared their unhappiness and upset at such remarks, with one particular advertising agency saying to Italian paper, La Repubblicca, ‘nowadays we don’t create fictions, but something really recognisable, which the public can empathise with.’
I doubt the matter has ended there, and no doubt Il Papa would certainly take much the same tone with Tesco Ireland which has now replaced the Christmas cake with the Easter egg on its shelves in the last few days…I would not normally be held to account for being in agreement with Il Papa but on this particular issue, there is no doubt on my part but that commercialism and consumerism are linked intrinsically and certainly not for our betterment…