[Gocamino] About Santiago, 1

[hme347 at aol.com]

I applaud the establishment of the new Foundation outside the Cathedral 
to deal with issues related to the Camino. I am also an advocate for 
the separation of church and state as much as possible even in those 
countries where they are traditionally intertwined. As everyone knows, 
many of the 90% of pilgrims cited, just as this writer and many of his 
friends, state that they are religious or religious/cultural pilgrims 
(with emphasis on "cultural") primarily to get the Compostela which 
otherwise would be denied to them.

                   'There have been complaints galore from many such 
pilgrims about their perception that far too many people view the 
Camino either as
                   an “athletic trek” or a “cheap Holiday” '

This is a gross overstatement of the facts.  In my experience I did not 
meet one person in the hundreds I encountered who viewed the Camino in 
this fashion. Only at one refugio did I hear about two people who 
arrived by auto surreptitiously.  All I can say is, so what?  There 
will always be people who take advantage of an inexpensive place to 
stay for the night.  Usually, Hospitalieros can spot interlopers by 
looking at their pilgrims' passports to see how far they may have 
walked that day. It is irrational and unfair to accuse pilgrims of 
having ulterior motives as stated above.

How typical of the Cathedral to provide coffee and munchies, but not 
shelter for a pilgrim suffering from foot problems. It is pure hearsay 
that pilgrims ask for free shelter a few times a day. But if this 
really is the case, what a sad commentary it is that they are turned 
away by the Office. Whatever happened to charity for the poor? Cookies? 
The person who purportedly stole money from the Pilgrim's Office may 
not have been a pilgrim, but some local petty thief.  The implication 
that an indigent pilgrim was the "three Euro culprit" is way off base.

If the new Foundation will be more enlightened than the religionistas. 
Bravo!

Howard Mendes, NYC

-----Original Message-----
From: Rosina <blaroli at aol.com>
To: GOCAMINO at oakapple.net; saintjames at yahoogroups.com
Cc: acaciopaz at yahoo.com.br; bantonk at msn.com
Sent: Fri, Jan 15, 2010 8:49 pm
Subject: [Gocamino] About Santiago, 1



Hello you all, this is News about Santiago Number 1
(I may have to go back to work next week, so I’d better try to answer 
your questions and share what I learned in Santiago before I get too 
busy and/or forget a lot of things.)

New Foundation:  It appears that the anti-clerical political stance of 
the present government in Spain has created very serious financial 
burdens on the Cathedral’s functioning by disallowing gifts and 
donations made to it from qualifying for some sort of tax relief.  
Because of this, and to respond to the incredible demands made on the 
Archbishopric by the tremendous resurgence of the Camino, a new 
Foundation has been established, outside of the Cathedral, to which 
contributions made be made that will receive tax benefits. This 
foundation,  called “Ad Sanctum Iacobum Peregrinatio” has already been 
established and will take up more than half of the Camino-related 
administrative and overseeing functions heretofore handled by the 
Cathedral.
Among the innovations begun by the Foundation is the establishment of a 
chain of albergues that will be housed in presently unoccupied old 
convents, monasteries and such throughout the Camino.  These albergues 
will be “Causa Pietatis” oriented and will hold morning services 
(“matins”) and evening services (“vespers”) for pilgrims conducted by a 
priest.
(As the recorded data show, more than 90% of pilgrims undertake the 
pilgrimage with a purely religious or a cultural/religious motive.   
There have been complaints galore from many such pilgrims about their 
perception that far too many people view the Camino either as an 
“athletic trek” or a “cheap Holiday”.  The purpose on the part of the 
Foundation is to return the Camino to its original purpose, 
particularly for those pilgrims who view it as possessing a 
spiritual/religious connotation.)
Contributions to the new Foundation will receive a tax benefit, but 
with the Caveat, for us,  that while USA citizens and residents can 
deduct contributions made to any recognized church for income tax 
purposes, this provision of the IRS Code applies only to contributions 
made to qualifying churches in the USA, and not to churches or 
religious organizations in other countries.
Because the unemployment rate in Spain among its young people is 
staggering (more than 20%), however reluctantly the National and many 
provincial government entities have agreed to  provide funds to hire 
young people in Spain to do most of Camino assistance  work that 
otherwise volunteers would have done, so it seems that the need for 
volunteers is much abated. (The Pilgrims’ office in Santiago is getting 
by on the barest of shoe strings and cannot provide for its volunteers 
anything other than the bread, cookies, milk and such munchies that 
they put up in the common room.  They do have coffeemakers there, a 
refrigerator and a microwave, but I got the feeling that the supplies 
provided by the office would be barely limited). Nevertheless, there 
were about 14 people there tending to pilgrims and the like.
Some of the people who come to the office are something else. When I 
was there a tall man, about 30 or so, with a very cute dog, was in 
there for more than an hour claiming that because he  had walked all 
the way his feet were full of blisters and he needed to stay in 
Santiago four or five days to give his feet time to heal. However, he 
claimed, he didn’t have a single penny left and wanted the office to 
give him money for a hotel or put him up.  He argued and argued in 
German, English and a little Spanish  until he realized that they could 
not comply with his wishes and he left, with directions to go to the 
Monastery of Saint Francis where they might put him up.
I was told that this sort of thing happens a few times a day.  You may 
remember that a couple of years back someone hid upstairs and in the 
middle of the night he, or she, broke into the Pilgrims’ office 
breaking down the door, to steal the little can with the “donativos”  
that contained, I was told, all of three Euros.
At the street floor of the building where the office is located (Casa 
del Dean), where there used to be a USC  (University of Santiago de 
Compostela) store there is now the Travel Agency sponsored by the 
Vatican for “world-wide pilgrims”. The agency is called “Peregrinos de 
Europa” and they provide the least expensive possible travel services 
to any pilgrimage destination from anywhere. The e-mail of the Santiago 
office is
caminovillar at peregrinosdeeuropa.eu
Their office in Santiago looks Italian-elegant as befits an 
organization headquartered in Rome.   Well, when I was there someone 
had taken an axe to the two beautiful outside doors in an almost 
successful effort to break in.

And so it goes.

The renovations to the Casa del Dean have begun. They will provide 
waiting areas, bathrooms, etc., so that pilgrims will not have to wait 
crammed up on the stairway or outside in the rain.

The Portico de Gloria is out of bounds and, methinks, will remain so 
for sometime while it is being restored. The upside of this situation 
is that it is possible to go up and see the figures of the Portico very 
close.  Groups of up to 10 people can make a reservation to go up to 
the scaffolds by going  to the little door smack in the center of the 
Obradoiro stairs.  Those who go must be physically fit and unafraid of 
heights. One climbs six meters up rickety scaffold stairways and must 
wear a miner’s hat.  What is absolutely amazing is the size of the 
figures; they are much larger than they seem when viewed from below, 
and the details are mesmerizing.  The three restorers there were 
working with little brushes smaller that those that we women use to 
shape our eyebrows, and under magnifying glasses!  So I should think 
that it will take years and years until they finish.  The tour is free, 
and it includes visiting the old Cathedral (a novelty to me) which is 
underneath the “new” one, and one emerges up to the new Cathedral 
through a hidden concrete stairway which I had no idea existed.
Wonders upon wonders.

I’ll continue later so that this message will go through.

Hugs!

 Rosina




_______________________________________________
Gocamino mailing list
Gocamino at oakapple.net
http://mailman.oakapple.net/mailman/listinfo/gocamino