Message for the World Tourism day

(September 24, 2009) The theme of World Tourism Day 2009: Tourism, celebrating Diversity, proposed by the World Tourism Organization, opens paths to meet man in all his diversity and his richness of anthropology, says the message from the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People for the World Tourism Day celebrated on September 27. The experience of diversity is characteristic of human existence, because it helps the development from one stage to anther and promotes growth. This message was given by Archbishop Antonio Maria Vegliò President of the Pontifical Council for Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People and Archbishop Augostino Marcheto, the Secretary. Since 1980, the United Nations World Tourism Organization has celebrated World Tourism Day on September 27. This date was chosen as on that day in 1970, the Statutes of the UNWTO were adopted. The message indicates that the church at this level enters into a state of dialogue where, the Church gives the word, becomes the message, and also becomes a conversation. In this context Pope Benedict XVI says that "people accept not only the existence of a culture of others, but also wish to be enriched.” In contemplating the diversity, the man discovers the traces of the divine in the footsteps of the human. For every believer, the set of diversity opens paths for approaching the infinite greatness of God, visible in the diversity of creation. This diversity is grounded in the mystery of God's creative Word which is the source of the richness of species, created in the "image and likeness" of God. God entrusts to the Church the task of forming in Christ Jesus through the Spirit, a new creation, that treasures human diversity but where, in this diversity, it is possible to realize a new way of communication and communion, said the Message.