(Part II)
An antidote (not the only one) to the rise of consumerism is Catholic Social Doctrine. From the beginning of the modern Catholic social thought in the pathbreaking encyclical of Pope Leo XIII entitled Rerum Novarum (A New Order) in 1892, popes have cautioned that growing consumerism has been a threat to Human Dignity, Solidarity, the Preferential Option for the Poor, the Common God, and, more recently, Care for Creation. The emphasis on accumulating more and more wealth and consuming more and more goods goes against the Catholic social tradition, bolstered by empirical research by social scientists, that human happiness and fulfilment is fostered more by human relationships, especially friendship, rather than material possessions.