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<DIV>In a message dated 05/05/04 03:58:45 PM Eastern Daylight Time, ed_maddenaLINEONE.NET writes:</DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: blue 2px solid"><FONT face=Arial>I wonder why it is that non-Catholics want to receive the Compostella from<BR>the Catholic Church? Some will even lie as to their intentions for going on<BR>the Camino in order to get it. Is it because they just want a trophy or<BR>certificate to show off to their friends/family back home to prove they did<BR>walked the last 100km. </FONT></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV>
<DIV><STRONG><FONT color=#0080c0>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.</FONT></STRONG></DIV>
<DIV><STRONG><FONT color=#0080c0>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. </FONT></STRONG></DIV>
<DIV><STRONG><FONT color=#0080c0>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.</FONT></STRONG></DIV>
<DIV><STRONG><FONT color=#0080c0>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. </FONT></STRONG></DIV>
<DIV><STRONG><FONT color=#0080c0>Howard Mendes, NYC</FONT></STRONG></DIV></BODY></HTML>