All initiatives that are energy efficient and have the least environmental impact possible should be promoted and supported to encourage the saving of resources and avoiding contamination, the Holy See said in a message for World Tourism Day 2012, being celebrated on September 27.

The Holy See urged all sectors to be aware of their respective responsibilities to achieve sustainable forms of tourism.

The message, issued by the Pontifical Council for Migrants and Itinerant People, focuses on the theme proposed by the World Tourism Organisation for this year's World Tourism Day: "Tourism and Sustainable Energy: Powering Sustainable Development".

The council offered its contribution based on the conviction that "the Church has a responsibility towards creation and she must assert this responsibility in the public sphere".

It said:

"It is not up to us to propose concrete technical solutions but to show that development cannot be reduced to mere technical, political or economic parameters".

The message says that the theme of environmental ecology cannot be separated from concern for an appropriate human ecology.

"In the same way, we cannot separate our view of man and nature from the bond which unites them with the Creator. God has entrusted the good stewardship of creation to the human being."

The document emphasises that a great educational effort is important to promote "an effective shift in mentality which can lead to the adoption of new life-styles". It argues that such a conversion of the mind and heart "allows us rapidly to become more proficient in the art of living together that respects the alliance between man and nature".

The Holy See invited everyone to promote and use tourism in a respectful and responsible way to allow it to develop all of its potentialities, with the certainty that in contemplating the beauty of nature and peoples, one could have an encounter with God.

The message in full, in Maltese or English, can be read in the attached documents.