His Holiness warns tourists on “happy islands” in the Third World

Pope John Paul II warned tourists about the “exploitation of people” and the temptation to deny the social realities by “burying their heads in the happy islands” during their stays in the world’s poorest countries.

In a message read to Catholics, the Pontiff remembered that mainly in developing nations, “tourists can hardly keep their eyes off the painful reality of poverty and starvation.”

“In that respect, it’s necessary not only to resist the temptation of getting shut off in a kind of happy island and staying out of the social picture. (Those tourists) should not take advantage of their higher and privileged position to exploit the needs of the local population,” the Pope said.

The message does not include an explicit condemnation of sex tourism. However, John Paul II has blasted this inhumane practice in several occasions.

“This message does not seek to condemn tourist compounds. It’s rather an invitations to all of us to search our hearts and souls,” explained Archbishop Agostino Marchetto, secretary of the Pontifical Council anointed to human mobility, as he handed over the document during a press conference.

“We also know there are many initiatives in those compounds aimed at encouraging cultural contacts with the countries’ social realities,” the prelate averred.

His Holiness suggests tourists to turn their visits into “opportunities to talk with people at an equal footing of dignity, to go deeper into the local people, their history and culture, and to open up their hearts to a reciprocal understanding that could be construed through concrete gestures of solidarity.”