Benedict XVI on consumerist culture

In a combox below, reader Jason posted this quote from the Pope:

"We all know that reaching a goal in sports or business requires discipline and sacrifice, but then all of this is crowned by success, by reaching the desired aim. And so it is with life itself: becoming men according to the plan of Jesus requires sacrifice, but this is not something negative; on the contrary, it helps us to live as men with new hearts, to live a truly human and happy life. Because there is a consumerist culture that wants to block us from living according to the Creator’s plan, we must have the courage to first create islands and oases, and then great landscapes of Catholic culture in which life follows the design of the Creator."

(Check out the full original here)

Amen and amen. This is consonant with what I wrote in "Crunchy Cons," and certainly with Benedict XVI's view (following Toynbee's) that a "creative minority" of committed Christians can renew the culture. I hope the Holy Father expands on his opinion as to why it's necessary to create "islands" and "oases" before spreading out to "great landscapes." I don't think he is asking for Christians to settle for living in a ghetto, but I think he does recognize that given the time and the place in which most Christians find themselves, they have to do some kind of withdrawal from the toxic popular culture so that what makes them (us) distinctly Christian can breathe, can live.