numbers..final

[Scott Horton]

To Ed:  I was thinking the same thing and wondering if I would like to get
the piece of paper, or . . .

To Howard:  Thank you for your frankness about your feelings and making
yourself vulnerable to tell the truth and share a thought from someone else
that I find inspirational and comforting.  You ROCK!

--Scott


>From: Howard Mendes <HMe347aAOL.COM>
>Reply-To: Road to Santiago Pilgrimage <GOCAMINOaPETE.URI.EDU>
>To: GOCAMINOaPETE.URI.EDU
>Subject: Re: numbers..final
>Date: Wed, 5 May 2004 17:31:58 EDT
>
>In a message dated 05/05/04 03:58:45 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
>ed_maddenaLINEONE.NET writes:
>I wonder why it is that non-Catholics want to receive the Compostella from
>the Catholic Church?  Some will even lie as to their intentions for going
>on
>the Camino in order to get it.  Is it because they just want a trophy or
>certificate to show off to their friends/family back home to prove they did
>walked the last 100km.
>I think most people regard it as a certificate of accomplishment after a
>grueling, but rewarding experience.  It is more than a souvenir or a trophy
>if an
>official authority awards it to you.  Whether the Catholic Church "bestows"
>it
>is incidental to most of us who wanted something symbolic at the end of the
>Camino to evidence the achievement.  It is also a curiosity when the Church
>latinizes your given name on the Compostela.
>It annoys me that the Church wants to know the purpose of the pilgrimage
>when
>many people including some of you on Listserve have expressed private or
>personal reasons for doing it.  Most of the pilgrims that I met had various
>reasons, some of which were personal as well.
>Jean-Pierre Lacaze, a Frenchman I met on the Camino, is a person of
>principle.  He refused to tell the Compostela Office what they wanted to
>hear and was
>denied the certificate.  He told me that it is just a meaningless piece of
>paper so far as he was concerned.  He said he had his own personal
>Compostela and
>then pointed to his head.  He made me feel ashamed that I complied with the
>Church's regulations and bureaucracy in order to get the Compostela.
>In my opinion, a minority of the pilgrims walked the Camino for purely
>religious reasons alone.  So all the fuss about statistics seems like
>nonsense to
>me.
>Howard Mendes, NYC