Source: radiovaticana.org
Pope Benedict XVI on Monday urged the tourism industry to help build peace and harmony in the world by fighting its negative trends such rights abuse, sexual tourism and trafficking in human beings. The Pope’s exhortation came in a message sent to the Catholic Church’s 7th World Congress on the Pastoral Care of Tourism which kicked off on Monday in Cancún, Mexico.
The April 23 to 27 event is discussing the theme, “Tourism that Makes a Difference.” In his message, Pope Benedict noted that tourism helps people of different cultural backgrounds to come together offering the possibility of admiring the beauty of peoples, cultures and nature, thus helping build tolerance, peace, dialogue and harmony in the midst of diversity.
It can lead to God and be the occasion of an experience of faith. However, the Pontiff warned that tourism, like other human realities, is not exempt from dangers. He called for urgency in dealing with evils that trample upon the rights of millions of men and women, especially among the poor, minors and handicapped.
Sexual tourism, he noted, devastates the life of many persons and families, and sometimes whole communities, morally, psychologically and physically. The trafficking of human beings for sexual exploitation or organ harvesting as well as the exploitation of minors, abandoned into the hands of unscrupulous individuals who abuse and torture them, sadly happen often in the context of tourism, the Pope lamented.
He thus advocated the promotion of a culture of ethical and responsible tourism that will respect the dignity of persons and of peoples, be open to all, be just, sustainable and ecological.
