Church and tourism, the Archdiocese of Sorrento Castellammare di Stabia takes the field. Let’s work together to generate an integrated, fair and sustainable hospitality model: this is the proposal of the new diocesan service of Pastoral Care of Tourism and Leisure Time, which places the emphasis on the promotion of the human person.
“Tourism also challenges the Church, let us not stand by and watch what is happening before our eyes, but let us ask ourselves how we can bear witness to the beauty of the Gospel. From workers to entrepreneurs, from administrators to politicians, from pastoral workers to Christian communities: everyone is asked to pay attention to the people we welcome and meet, in a moment of vacation and leisure. Sincere and cordial dialogue helps to build bonds of true fraternity, in justice and respect for all. For our peninsula it is a natural vocation” – the words of Mons. Francesco Alfano.
The Head of the Service is Don Salvatore Iaccarino, who together with the team that is being trained to support the service, have already set up a series of initiatives whose objective is clear: to give life to healthy tourism, which has no negative impact on quality of life of residents and affects the visitor experience in the same way.
“Tourist activity, as a real economic industry, must be carried out according to principles of equity and social transformation. This occurs, for example, when the labor rights of workers in the sector are respected and when tourism itself, as a leisure and leisure activity, takes place in full respect of fundamental rights and people’s dignity. Tourist reception, therefore, to transform civil spaces, the social and urban environment, in the enhancement of identities, in the right balance between the preservation of roots and the offer of services” – the words of Don Salvatore Iaccarino
Various appointments and initiatives have already been scheduled: the Night of the Sanctuaries, scheduled for 1 June, in collaboration with the diocesan rectors, a Eucharistic celebration presided over by the bishop to kick off the tourist season with all operators in the sector, on 15 March, the creation of a pastoral portal and various events already planned for this summer.
“Contemporary man is a tourist in all areas of his life, because beyond physical movements, he visits websites, “surfs” among his contacts, but in the end he always returns home – he continues – He is the one who enter our churches, watch the parade of our Easter processions, or the summer ones by sea and on land with our confraternity clothes, or immortalize our glimpses of the gulfs of beauty in a snapshot. Never have so many people entered cathedrals as today, all of this questions us and triggers reflection and creativity”
It is in this context that the pastoral care of tourism takes place, in the service of the communities and networking with the territory and with those who care about it, live in it or visit it. In the promotion of welcoming spaces, where you can have not only aesthetic but also relational experience, so that churches do not become a museum and traditions a show to be photographed.
“We want to offer a service that listens to the needs of the territory and the needs of citizens, open to dialogue with experts and operators in the sector” – concludes Don Salvatore Iaccarino.
