[Gocamino] New credential requirements, (message 1)

Fri Jan 2 07:18:21 PST 2009

Can we let this non-issue drop now, please?

Rebekah Scott 
www.moratinoslife.blogspot.com

--- On Fri, 1/2/09, hme347 at aol.com <hme347 at aol.com> wrote:

> From: hme347 at aol.com <hme347 at aol.com>
> Subject: Re: [Gocamino] New credential requirements, (message 1)
> To: lesliegilmour at gmail.com, gocamino at oakapple.net
> Date: Friday, January 2, 2009, 4:04 PM
> Well said.  Instead of a requiring a religious fervor or
> perspective for pilgrims that causes the Church to try to
> control the Camino (passports, refugios and awarding the
> Compostela), a more serendipitous approach like yours should
> be encouraged.
> 
> 
> 
> Howard Mendes NYC
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Leslie Gilmour <lesliegilmour at gmail.com>
> To: hme347 at aol.com
> Sent: Fri, 2 Jan 2009 8:01 am
> Subject: RE: [Gocamino] New credential requirements,
> (message 1)
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> I would like to add a bit to this.
> 
> I first walked the Camino Frances in 2004.  I was a student
> at the time and
> I wanted something to do during the summer.  One of my
> college mates had
> walked from Holland to Santiago a few years before and he
> kept going on
> about this "Camino de Santiago" - to me it
> sounded horrible, walking all day
> across Spain, carrying my own clothes, sleeping in a hostel
> / albergue with
> many others I did not know. No thanks.
> 
> Dara, my friend, ended up making it sound good and I
> decided to "give it a
> try" - I had no religious or spiritual beliefs
> regarding the Camino, even
> though I was a student at Ireland's main Catholic
> University.  My thoughts
> setting out on the journey were - if I don't like this
> experience I will
> just go somewhere else in Europe for the Summer.
> 
> The journey turned into "something" for me - and
> I still have problems
> putting that something into words many years later.  My
> attitude and
> thinking about some things changed while there - I spent
> time talking to
> people who ga
> ve their time freely to man albergues, I talked to many
> others
> walking the Camino from all over the world - something
> happened to me, and
> it was good, very good.
> 
> I endured somethings that I never thought I would, I became
> ill and was
> helped - I came back from my first Camino a stronger and
> perhaps a more
> caring person - and in a strange way I developed some pride
> in an
> achievement that I had not set out to achieve.
> 
> I went back and walked again the next year.  It was
> different, this time I
> went with a different mind and a softer heart.  
> 
> I am not generally given to hyperbole or psycho mumbo
> jumbo, however the
> Camino changed my life and the direction.  I now believe
> that journeys like
> this are very important for people and it is a great idea
> to do it at least
> once.  I would rather that pilgrims did not set out with a
> mind like mine
> the first time - but if that is where they are at that
> time, then so be it.
> 
> I talked, listened, and read at lot on the Camino.  The one
> thing that I
> read that sticks in my mind today goes things like this,
> forgive my
> paraphrasing.
> 
> While on the Camino you follow the yellow arrows, they show
> you the way,
> give direction.  What do you follow after the Camino?
> 
> All the best to everyone for 2009
> 
> Leslie Gilmour
> http://www.caminodesantiago.me.uk
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: gocamino-bounces at oakapple.net
> [mailto:gocamino-bounces at oakapple.net]
> On Behalf Of hme347 at aol.com
> Sent: 31 December 2008 18:24
> To: blaroli at aol.com; GoCamino at oakapple.net
> ; saintjames at yahoogroups.com
> Cc: acaciopaz at yahoo.com.br
> Subject: Re: [Gocamino] New credential requirements,
> (message 1)
> 
> I do not subscribe to Rosina's narrow definition of the
> Camino experience.
>  While it may apply to her and to many others, the
> pilgrimage has taken on a
> much broader meaning to many others over the years.  It
> can be spiritual
> (without being "primarily religious") in an
> ecumenical sense; cultural and
> educational; cathartic and self-renewing, all not
> necessarily with the
> sponsorship of the church.  By the way, many of the
> albergues (refugios) are
> not church sponsored; numerous refugios are privately or
> municipally owned;
> some are run by Confederations from abroad.
> 
> 
> 
> I am tired of rants about false pilgrims and true pilgrims;
> there may be
> some individuals who want to stay at refugios and not pay,
> but most refugios
> that I stayed at required that you pay or make a
> contribution.  If perchance
> someone freeloads, let's not encourage the "church
> police" to overreact with
> new and improved controls over pilgrim passports. Let's
> not carry on about
> the sinners and abusers of refugios especially this time of
> year with a
> "holier than thou" attitude.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Howard Mendes, NYC
> 
> 
> the Santiago pilgrimage is primarily religious in nature
> and that the
> network of albergues would not exist without the care and
> the sponsorship of
> the church.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Rosina <blaroli at aol.com>
> To: GoCamino at oakapple.net; saintjames at yahoogroups.com
> Cc: acaciopaz at yahoo.com.br
> Sent: Wed, 31 Dec 2008 9:42 am
> Subject:
>  [Gocamino] New credential requirements, (message 1)
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Hello you all,
> 
>  
> 
> From its or
> igins the Santiago pilgrimage has been a deeply religious
> undertaking and
> since the 11th century the church has provided refuge,
> food, medical care
> and other assistance to pilgrims. The knights Templar and
> the Hospitaleros
> were organized to protect and care for pilgrims at the
> behest of the church.
> 
> Over the centuries, and because of the tremendous growth on
> the number of
> pilgrims, municipal authorities, with limited authority,
> throughout the
> various routes leading to Compostela asked the church,
> because of its
> unlimited jurisdiction, to organize, coordinate and
> supervise the means of
> assistance to pilgrims, and thus the network of albergues,
> as we know them,
> came to be.
> 
> In time, however, because of the great many abusers who saw
> the albergues as
> merely free lodging several attempts were made to limit
> such abuse by
> devising a means to recognize true pilgrims for whom the
> albergues were
> meant. Pilgrims were required to obtain a letter of
> introduction from their
> parish and a signature from the religious personnel of the
> albergues in
> which they stayed. This went on for centuries and
> centuries, until fairly
> recently.
> 
> The pilgrims’ credential as we know it was created in
> Jaca at the
> International Congress of Xacobean Associations in 1987.
> Its purpose was,
> and is, to substitute the notebooks and pieces of paper
> with seals that
> pilgrims used to carry with them and to allow the use of
> albergues, medical
> as
> sistance, etc. In other words, it was meant as a “Pilgrim
> 
> s passport” that would also qualify a pilgrim to obtain
> the Compostela.
> 
> Over the past few years the number, type, appearance and
> provenance of 
> “pilgrim credentials” has multiplied beyond control,
> and a large percentage
> of them has been found to have been falsified, and even
> marketed, with the
> sole purpose of obtaining free lodging. Many free-loading
> non-pilgrims have
> caused significant safety and other concerns at the
> albergues. Because of
> this the Archdiocese and the Federation of Santiago
> Associations have been
> obliged to adopt measures to curb the problems, and one of
> those measures
> has been to require a uniform and acceptable credential. 
> Naturally, groups
> and people that for whatever reason dislike (or even hate)
> the church,  or
> uniformity, or any conformance whatever have objected and
> expressed their
> disapproval, sometimes loudly and unkindly, inexplicably
> forgetting that the
> Santiago pilgrimage is primarily religious in nature and
> that the network of
> albergues would not exist without the care and the
> sponsorship of the
> church.
> 
> Be that as it may, Don Genaro Cebrian Franco, the Santiago
> Cathedral Canonic
> in charge of Pilgrimages, and of the pilgrims’ office in
> Santiago has issued
> a letter about the new credential requirements that will go
> into effect
> tomorrow, January 1, 2009.
> 
> A translation of the letter will follow in a subsequent
> message.
> 
> Hugs!
> 
> Rosina 
> 
>  
> 
>  
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