[Gocamino] More on the credential requirements.

[blaroli at aol.com]

Hello you all,
As mentioned previously, the Pilgrims Office in Santiago, and those offices who have some oversight over the Camino, are functioning under severe financial and personnel restraints because of the subsidy cuts made by the Zapatero Government. These new conditions have necessitated changes, particularly since the number of pilgrims keeps increasing; (so far, this year, the number has far exceeded those of any other non-Holy Xacobean Year), hence the new credential requirement and others.
I do not, for a second, believe, that the Archdiocese is doing anything else than trying to curb the abuses visited upon the albergues and the Pilgrims Office by some miscreant fake pilgrims. Since the larger number of pilgrims, by far, come from Spain itself, it is logical to conclude that the fake pilgrims are also of domestic origin, which may be the reason why the Archdiocese's directive regarding the credential seems not to take into consideration foreign pilgrims.
I certainly will bring up to the notice of the Archconfraternity the fact that those of us who hail from other countries often like to start out with our credentials on hand. It might be that credentials issued by Confraternities in countries other than Spain will be acceptable.  
Because this summer I will undertake another pilgrimage (to Bayreuth and Richard Wagner) I will not get to Santiago until the Fall, but I will begin to campaign for acceptability of foreign-issued pilgrim credentials.
Big hug!
Rosina
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