Reason for issuing the Compostela (was Re: Re: numbers..final)

[Ed]

Howard Mendes wrote:

>snip...
> In a message dated 05/06/04 05:22:40 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
>
> I never said that the Church did not have the right to do this.  It
> has the
> right to do whatever it wants and to set whatever conditions it
> chooses to
> issue the Compostela.  However, don't you think it would be more
> enlightened to be less narrowminded than to require people to profess
> a religious reason?
>
No, I don't.  The Catholic Church states its conditions to recieve its
Compostela and essentially these are based on performing an of contrition &
penance for one's sins (i.e. the pilgrimage itself), the glorification and
praising of God and the wish to seek ever closer union with God.  And yes,
these are very Catholic (but by no means exclusively) things.  So, it is not
at all surprising that these reasons are religous.  After all the Catholic
Church is a religous body.  It is not in the business of handing out
certificates or trophies  for just completing a journey; that's not what the
Catholic Church  is about.   Perhaps, a non-Church secular organization is
best placed to do that (I think, but am not sure, that that is the case with
regards to the certificate issued at Finesterre?).

If I want a certificate for a Ph.D or MBA or for completing a marathon run,
then I have to comply with the conditions required.  I certainly wouldn't
say it was unenlightened or narrow-minded if I failed to comply and was
subsequently refused the cert.

And no-one surely would say that an attempt at thought control was involved
if a Catholic priest would only agree to provide a baptism certificate to
someone who professed  the faith and went through the ceremony?

.....So maybe, yes, there is also need a secular kind of certificate issued
by a secular authority at Santiago (or indeed at other places along the way)
to satisfy the non-religous motives for walking.