MESSAGE FOR WORLD TOURISM DAY

VATICAN CITY, AUG 1, 2000 (VIS) - Made public today was the Holy Father's message for World Tourism Day which is to be held on September 27. This year the World Tourism Organization has chosen the theme: "Technology and Nature: two challenges for tourism at the dawn of the 21st century."

In his message, dated July 29, the Pope makes reference to the importance that technology and nature hold for tourism. He writes: "Using the modern opportunities that technology offers, it is possible to make new contacts, family and community visits, and exchange-visits between persons, especially the young, of various cities and nations."

John Paul II indicates that tourism is "first of all a space for encounter. ... The space in which this encounter takes place is above all the celebration of the sacraments of Reconciliation and the Eucharist. Indeed, in these sacraments, all of life finds its meaning and orientation in the light that emanates from faith. In this sense, holidays and travel can represent suitable moments to make up for human and spiritual shortcomings.

"It is my heartfelt wish," the Pope adds, "that tourism may always be an occasion for fruitful encounters: an encounter with God," with ourselves and with others. "Moreover, tourism is an occasion for solidarity. With its appeal for interior conversion and for reconciliation with our fellows, the Jubilee invites believers and men and women of good faith to institute a social order based on mercy, justice and peace."

The Holy Father concludes by asking that World Tourism Day 2000 may help those who work in the tourism sector to "become aware of the challenges and the possibilities offered by such a vast movement of people. I express my appreciation to all those who work in this sector for the contribution they make to the evaluation of free time and to the development of friendly relations between individuals and peoples."

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