Skip to content

We ask you, humbly: don't scroll away.

Hi readers, it seems you use Catholic Online a lot; that's great! It's a little awkward to ask, but we need your help. If you have already donated, we sincerely thank you. We're not salespeople, but we depend on donations averaging $14.76 and fewer than 1% of readers give. If you donate just $5.00, the price of your coffee, Catholic Online School could keep thriving. Thank you.

Help Now >

Message for World Tourism Day 2006

Free World Class Education
FREE Catholic Classes

"No One Is A Copy. We Are All Unique Creations"

VATICAN CITY, AUG. 25, 2006 (Zenit) - Here is the Message from the Pontifical Council for Migrants and Travelers on the occasion of World Tourism Day 2006, Sept. 27.

* * *

Dear Friends,

"Tourism Enriches." This is the theme chosen for this year's celebration of World Tourism Day, which takes place on Sept. 27.

On this occasion, we would like to convey a warm and special greeting to those who work in the tourism sector, as we send our best wishes to tourists and those who welcome them courteously, kindly and, for many of them, also in a Christian manner.

The number of people who experience the large-scale and significant phenomenon of tourism personally, or through others, is on the increase.

Indeed, traveling and visiting are verbs that concern many people, who are attracted by the enchantment of what is unknown, although glimpsed in some way, thanks to the mass media, travel agencies or other people's tales. Admiring and desiring are also characteristic of a significant portion of humankind, called on by so many trips and visits.

This means, therefore, a reciprocity in a real experience of space and culture, full of differences and desires that give rise to a host of questions, many of which remain unanswered. This means an active and passive reciprocity, that fuels the imbalance of the planet we have in common, that opens up new opportunities for encounter, encourages development, and even provokes panic and challenges ethical conscience.

We ask you, humbly: don't scroll away.

Hi readers, it seems you use Catholic Online a lot; that's great! It's a little awkward to ask, but we need your help. If you have already donated, we sincerely thank you. We're not salespeople, but we depend on donations averaging $14.76 and fewer than 1% of readers give. If you donate just $5.00, the price of your coffee, Catholic Online School could keep thriving. Thank you.

Help Now >

But what kind of experience is this? The answers are many, although the context is the same. For many people it means land, air and green spaces -- in a word, nature -- woods and mountains, water, sea and wind. Others think of planes, trains or cars.

For quite a few people it has to do with a financial opportunity, business, a monopoly or a credit card, capital, financial interest or the stock market.

For some -- and we hope they are many and growing in number -- it signifies ties with people, neighbors, family and community, a matter of the heart and feeling, with attentiveness and respect.

For a large number it is about expectation and hope, trust and perseverance, spirit and faith and the future. Still for others, it is history that manifests itself, artistic heritage, archives and libraries, painting and sculpture, poetry, literature, cathedrals, churches, temples, mosques, buildings, diplomatic documents, culture, in brief, and ... even cuisine.

A multifaceted wealth, therefore, facets which are linked up throughout the wide world. A wealth that intersects with hegemonies, in time and space.

Peoples meet and the number of visits multiplies, in an unstoppable flow of tourism. The richness of peoples, who at the same time suffer from underdevelopment, are admired. Feelings of solidarity, often weak in configuration, are stirred up at the end of a trip.

Nevertheless -- thanks be to God -- the impression remains that the economic and financial system is not unique, but rather hegemonic, and it is not the best, but it is the present system, a source of great imbalances.

What remains is the impression of a humanity that is much richer when the windows of the system are opened up to others, thereby giving access to the cultural, historical, natural, aesthetic, human and spiritual treasures that each people jealously guards to a greater or lesser extent.

Unforgettable in this regard are the words of Pope John Paul II, when he said: "Contact with others leads to discovering their 'secret,' to being open to them in order to welcome their valid aspects and thus contribute to knowing each one better. This is a lengthy process that aims to shape societies and cultures, making them more and more a reflection of the multifaceted gifts of God to human beings" (Pope John Paul II, "Message for the World Day of Migrants and Refugees 2005," 1).

Tourism enriches precisely insofar as it helps in rendering the so-called rich systems relative and opens them up to the perception of other forms of "being rich."

Nature, in its primary richness, as manifested in the cosmic cycle, is the welcoming mother who is embraced by our eyes in contemplating the Everest or Kilimanjaro, who is touched by our hands in the blue of the ocean, whom we tenderly welcome in the grey depths of the Black Forest, or whom we admire when, as we fly on the wings of an aircraft, we see what looks like a carpet of cotton wool below us, while the blue of the sky reigns supreme over us.

Cultural heritage highlights the history of everyone, which has left traces of civilization on bell towers and minarets, on frescoes and pyramids, on bridges and satellites in outer space. This is a limitless wealth that belongs to us all, the common heritage of humanity.

It does not only give a voice to human efforts, but also offers each person a memory of the bonds that link us to previous generations and structure history.

Tourism therefore reveals a universal richness, which does not reject the human being, but rather preserves his footprints, his trace.

It also sustains the splendid stained-glass window that each one of us is, as an individual and as a member of a community, in our differences and similarities, simultaneously, in our own context and dignity, a wealth that we attest to be immortal: "Whoever believes in me," -- says the Lord -- "even if he dies, will live" (John 11:25).

Ours is this magnificent window, polychrome and with several components, whose richness combines with solidarity. Its beauty also derives from the acceptance of other faces, so that the stained-glass window becomes an image of the whole of humanity.

No one is a copy. We are all unique creations and not the result of cloning. We are the expression of the life of another who is the life: "He came for testimony, to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him" (John 1:7).

Everybody bears the seal of mystery and everyone is marked by desire for the absolute, the trademark indicating that God created us in his own image and likeness (cf. Genesis 1:27).

Therefore, the human being is the most precious heritage (cf. John Paul II, "Centesimus annus," 35), with an unexpected aesthetic value, in the light of faith, and also in community, as he is the fruit of the Love of the Eternal Community (cf. Benedict XVI, "Deus Caritas Est," 17), in an ecstatic breath (Genesis 2:7) of communion that cannot be equaled, thus appearing as his icon, with a serene or troubled face, with a variety of skin colors, down which the tears of a primitive water often run.

Deacon Keith Fournier Hi readers, it seems you use Catholic Online a lot; that's great! It's a little awkward to ask, but we need your help. If you have already donated, we sincerely thank you. We're not salespeople, but we depend on donations averaging $14.76 and fewer than 1% of readers give. If you donate just $5.00, the price of your coffee, Catholic Online School could keep thriving. Thank you. Help Now >

Yet these are often dried in the hope of sharing, in the end, the "inscrutable riches of Christ" (Ephesians 3:8). And traveling, coming into contact with other places and cultures, seems like a new dawn, a richness offered on the face of each brother and sister, a permanent and perennial gift from God who becomes a pilgrim and visits each of us through the face of his blessed Son. "To him be glory and power for ever and ever" (Apocalypse 1:6).

May this message also be of comfort and encouragement, especially for operators in this important sector of specific action, of human promotion and evangelization.

In communion with all of you, trust that our prayers are with you for a successful outcome to the World Tourism Day from a pastoral point of view.

Cardinal Renato Martino
President of Pontifical Council for Migrants and Travelers

Archbishop Agostino Marchetto
Secretary of Pontifical Council for Migrants and Travelers

Contact

Catholic Online
https://www.catholic.org CA, US
Catholic Online - Publisher, 661 869-1000

Email

info@yourcatholicvoice.org

Keywords

Tourism, Travel, Migrants, Travelers

More Catholic PRWire

Showing 1 - 50 of 4,716

A Recession Antidote
Randy Hain

Monaco & The Vatican: Monaco's Grace Kelly Exhibit to Rome--A Review of Monegasque-Holy See Diplomatic History
Dna. Maria St. Catherine Sharpe, t.o.s.m., T.O.SS.T.

The Why of Jesus' Death: A Pauline Perspective
Jerom Paul

A Royal Betrayal: Catholic Monaco Liberalizes Abortion
Dna. Maria St.Catherine De Grace Sharpe, t.o.s.m., T.O.SS.T.

Embrace every moment as sacred time
Mary Regina Morrell

My Dad
JoMarie Grinkiewicz

Letting go is simple wisdom with divine potential
Mary Regina Morrell

Father Lombardi's Address on Catholic Media
Catholic Online

Pope's Words to Pontifical Latin American College
Catholic Online

Prelate: Genetics Needs a Conscience
Catholic Online

State Aid for Catholic Schools: Help or Hindrance?
Catholic Online

Scorsese Planning Movie on Japanese Martyrs
Catholic Online

2 Nuns Kidnapped in Kenya Set Free
Catholic Online

Holy See-Israel Negotiation Moves Forward
Catholic Online

Franchising to Evangelize
Catholic Online

Catholics Decry Anti-Christianity in Israel
Catholic Online

Pope and Gordon Brown Meet About Development Aid
Catholic Online

Pontiff Backs Latin America's Continental Mission
Catholic Online

Cardinal Warns Against Anti-Catholic Education
Catholic Online

Full Circle
Robert Gieb

Three words to a deeper faith
Paul Sposite

Relections for Lent 2009
chris anthony

Wisdom lies beyond the surface of life
Mary Regina Morrell

World Food Program Director on Lent
Catholic Online

Moral Clarity
DAN SHEA

Pope's Lenten Message for 2009
Catholic Online

A Prayer for Monaco: Remembering the Faith Legacy of Prince Rainier III & Princess Grace and Contemplating the Moral Challenges of Prince Albert II
Dna. Maria St. Catherine Sharpe

Keeping a Lid on Permissiveness
Sally Connolly

Glimpse of Me
Sarah Reinhard

The 3 stages of life
Michele Szekely

Sex and the Married Woman
Cheryl Dickow

A Catholic Woman Returns to the Church
Cheryl Dickow

Modernity & Morality
Dan Shea

Just a Minute
Sarah Reinhard

Catholic identity ... triumphant reemergence!
Hugh McNichol

Edging God Out
Paul Sposite

Burying a St. Joseph Statue
Cheryl Dickow

George Bush Speaks on Papal Visit
Catholic Online

Sometimes moving forward means moving the canoe
Mary Regina Morrell

Action Changes Things: Teaching our Kids about Community Service
Lisa Hendey

Easter... A Way of Life
Paul Spoisite

Papal initiative...peace and harmony!
Hugh McNichol

Proclaim the mysteries of the Resurrection!
Hugh McNichol

Jerusalem Patriarch's Easter Message
Catholic Online

Good Friday Sermon of Father Cantalamessa
Catholic Online

Papal Address at the End of the Way of the Cross
Catholic Online

Cardinal Zen's Meditations for Via Crucis
Catholic Online

Interview With Vatican Aide on Jewish-Catholic Relations
Catholic Online

Pope Benedict XVI On the Easter Triduum
Catholic Online

Holy Saturday...anticipation!
Hugh McNichol

Join the Movement
When you sign up below, you don't just join an email list - you're joining an entire movement for Free world class Catholic education.

Lent logo
Saint of the Day logo
Light Your Free Payer Candle for a departed loved one

What is Palm Sunday?

Live on March 20, 2024 @ 10am PDT

Light Your Free Payer Candle for a departed loved one

What is Palm Sunday?

Live on March 20, 2024 @ 10am PDT

Catholic Online Logo

Copyright 2024 Catholic Online. All materials contained on this site, whether written, audible or visual are the exclusive property of Catholic Online and are protected under U.S. and International copyright laws, © Copyright 2024 Catholic Online. Any unauthorized use, without prior written consent of Catholic Online is strictly forbidden and prohibited.

Catholic Online is a Project of Your Catholic Voice Foundation, a Not-for-Profit Corporation. Your Catholic Voice Foundation has been granted a recognition of tax exemption under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Federal Tax Identification Number: 81-0596847. Your gift is tax-deductible as allowed by law.