Message for the World Tourism Day 2011:Tourism linking cultures
Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People
Message
for the World Tourism Day 2011 (27 September)
Theme: Tourism
linking cultures
On September 27th we celebrate the
World Tourism Day, promoted by the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), which has enjoyed
even from its very first celebration in 1980 the support of the Holy See. The
theme of this year, Tourism linking cultures, wishes to highlight the importance that
traveling has in the meeting of the different cultures of the world, especially in
our present day world where more than ninety million people travel internationally,
favored thus by modern means of communication and lower associated costs. In this
way, tourism presents itself as “breaking down barriers across cultures and fostering
tolerance, respect and mutual understanding. In our often divided world, these values
represent the stepping stones towards a more peaceful future”. With a broad concept
of culture that includes - besides the history or artistic and ethnographic patrimony
- the lifestyles, relationships, beliefs, and values, we not only affirm the existence
of cultural diversity, but in line with the Magisterium of the Church, we value it
as indeed positive. Thus “once diversity has been accepted as a positive factor, it
is necessary to ensure that people not only accept the existence of other cultures
- as Benedict XVI affirms - but also desire to be enriched by them”, welcoming the
true, good, and beautiful therein. To achieve this objective, tourism extends
to us all its possibilities. The Global Code of Ethics for Tourism affirms that “when
practiced with a sufficiently open mind, it is an irreplaceable factor of self-education,
mutual tolerance and for learning about the legitimate differences between peoples
and cultures and their diversity”. This, by its very nature, can favor meeting as
well as dialogue, as it places one in contact with other places, traditions, manners
of living, and other forms of seeing the world and conceiving history. For all of
these reasons, tourism is certainly a privileged event. However, regarding dialogue,
the first condition that is required is that of knowing how to listen, to want to
be questioned by the other, desiring to discover the message within each monument,
cultural manifestation, all of this being done with respect, without prejudice or
exclusion, and avoiding biased readings. It is thus equally important “to know how
to welcome” as to “know how to travel”. This means that tourism should be organized
with respect for the peculiar nature, laws, and customs of the receiving countries,
all of which the tourists themselves should be acquainted with before their departure
so as to better understand the place they are going to visit. That being said, also
those communities receiving tourists and professional agents should know the lifestyles
and expectations of the tourists that visit them. Given the fact that
every culture contains in itself certain limits, the meeting of different cultures
permits an enrichment of each one’s own reality. This is evident in the affirmation
of Blessed John Paul II that “the ‘difference’ which some find so threatening can,
through respectful dialogue, become the source of a deeper understanding of the mystery
of human existence”. One objective of our pastoral care of tourism will certainly
be to educate and prepare Christians so that these cultural encounters are productive
in their travels and not lost opportunities, but contrarily, that they would truly
serve as a personal enrichment, helping to know the other, and to know one’s self.
In this dialogue that produces the fruit of linking cultures, we are convinced
that the Church has much to contribute. “In the cultural arena too - teaches Benedict
XVI -, Christianity must offer to all a most powerful force of renewal and exaltation,
that is, the Love of God who makes himself human love”. The cultural patrimony of
the Church is indeed immense, understood in the broad sense that we previously explained,
which arises from the experience of faith, of the encounter between culture and the
Gospel, as the fruit of the profound religious experience of the Christian community.
Certainly, the works of art and historical memory have an enormous potential to evangelize,
in as much as they are placed in the context of the via pulchritudinis, the way of
beauty, which is “a privileged and fascinating path on which to approach the Mystery
of God”. It must be an objective priority of our pastoral care of tourism to show
the true meaning of this cultural heritage, born from faith and for the glory of God.
Along these lines, the words of Blessed John Paul II directed toward workers in the
pastoral care of tourism still resound: “You are cooperating in forming an outlook
which is also a type of reawakening of the soul to the things of the spirit by helping
visitors to get back to the sources of faith which built these edifices, and by making
visible the Church of living stones which Christian communities are made of”. It is
therefore important that we present this patrimony in its authenticity, illustrating
its true religious nature, placing it in the liturgical context in which and for which
it was born. As we are conscious that the Church “exists in order to evangelize”,
we must always ask ourselves: How can we welcome people in holy places so that they
come to better know and love the Lord? How can we facilitate an encounter between
God and each one of the people that are there welcomed? It must be highlighted that,
in the first place, the importance of an adequate welcome, “should take into consideration
the specific characteristics of each group and each individual, the yearnings of their
hearts and their authentic spiritual needs”, and is manifested by a variety of elements:
from the simple details to the personal availability to listen, to the accompaniment
throughout the duration of the stay. In this regard, and with the objective of
promoting this intercultural dialogue and taking advantage of our cultural patrimony
at the service of evangelization, it is fitting to adopt a series of concrete pastoral
initiatives. All of these must be integrated into a broad program of interpretation
that, together with historical-cultural information, illustrates in a clear and accessible
way the original and profound religious meaning of these cultural manifestations,
using for this modern and attractive means, and taking advantage of the personal and
technological resources that are at our disposal. Among these concrete proposals
there is the elaboration of the idea of touristic travel offering visitation to the
places that are most important in the religious and cultural patrimony of the diocese.
Along with this, broad time periods of open hours should be favored, thus making available
an adequate welcoming. In this way, the spiritual and cultural formation of tourist
guides is important, and thus one can see the value in the possibility of creating
organizations of catholic tour guides. With this, the elaboration of “local publications
in the guise of tourist guides, webpages, or specialized journals on patrimony, with
the pedagogical aim of highlighting the soul, inspiration and message of works, scientific
analysis is thereby put at the service of a deeper understanding of the work”. We
cannot allow ourselves to view the tourist visit as simply a step in pre-evangelization,
but on the contrary, we must see it as a platform to realize the clear and explicit
announcement of Jesus Christ. I would like now also to take advantage of this
opportunity to officially announce the celebration of VII World Congress on the Pastoral
Care of Tourism, that will take place in Cancún (México) the week of April 23rd
to the 27th, 2012. This event, organized by our Pontifical Council in collaboration
with the Mexican Episcopal Conference and the prelature of Cancún-Chetumal, will certainly
be an important opportunity to continue the consideration of concrete proposals that
the pastoral care of tourism requires in the present times.