300 KM TO SANTIAGO INSTEAD OF 100 KM?

The recently formed Fraternidad International del Camino de Santiago (FICS) has made a proposal to extend the minimum distance required for pilgrims to earn a Compostela from 100 km to 300 km.  (So far the Cathedral is not impressed and has said that they will not be dictated to by anyone or any organisation.)

The document was signed by Anton Pombo [FICS] and translated and circulated on Facebook by Rebekah Scot  "Read, consider, and inwardly digest. And SHARE! The latest from FICS: (my clumsy translation. Sorry)"  

'Debate' and 'discus' was not included and I'm doubtful that it is welcomed.  After reading through the document a few times, I posted a few questions on the FICS Facebook page today and the flame-throwers started taking aim almost immediately! 
I feel that all healthy debate should always consist of opposing opinions and that it is the subject that should be debated, rather than attacking the messenger.   I was taught that the basis of any good science is to prove a concept wrong, not try to prove it right. 

Much of what is written in the proposal makes sense, but there are also glaring inaccuracies, and a lot that many might not agree with.   Although I have written comments on each section of the document, this time I will keep my opinions to myself.  If anyone is interested in reading my opinions you can contact me.

Why do pilgrims have to walk the last 100 km to earn a Compostela anyway? 
There are two reasons.  One, included when the 100 km distance was introduced by the Archdiocese in 1993, is to ensure that pilgrims put in some effort and sacrifice for the expiation of their sins before being awarded the Compostela.   

“El esfuerzo y sacrificio en expiación de los pecados"

Two, is that pilgrims wanting a Compostela must actually walk to the shrine containing the tomb of the saint.  Walking 3 500km from Bulgaria won't earn you any kudos unless you walk the last 100 km to the cathedral.  

FICS' reasons are a little more obscure.  Many pilgrims presumed that it was to relieve the ever growing problem of overcrowding on the last 100 km, but the aim is to make pilgrims walk longer distances so that they can:

"reclaim the long distance Camino and the values that make it unique: effort, transcendence, searching. reflection, encounters with others, solidarity, ecumenism or spirituality, all of them oriented towards a distant, shared goal."

We know that this proposal came out of a meeting of FICS big-guns in Sarria.  Rebekah called them 'Camino heavyweights' and their combined knowledge, care for all things Camino and their integrity is not questioned. But there are unsubstantiated claims made, assumptions, negative terms used to describe particular pilgrims.   Were they unanimously accepted by all the esteemed and learned delegates, or are they just personal perceptions of a few people? 

To read what others think - visit this link:

https://www.caminodesantiago.me/community/threads/fics-forum-why-change-the-100-km-rule-to-300-km.39220/

 

Patron Saint of pilgrims and guides

Bona of Pisa (c. 1156 – 1207)

Info and Photo Wiki

When I was planning the amaWalkers guided walk to Santiago, I thought it would be nice to have a patron saint for our group.  I did a search on the internet and came up with Saint Bona of Pisa, a 12th c saint who led 10 groups of pilgrims to Santiago de Compostela. 

At a young age she saw a vision of Jesus, the Virgin Mary and three saints,  including James the Greater. She was frightened by the light around these figures, and ran away. James pursued her, and led her back to the image of Jesus. Bona observed a pronounced devotion to James for the rest of her life.

After leading her first group of pilgrims to Santiago she was made an official guide by the Knights of Santiago. She went on to lead 8 more groups and despite being ill she lead a 10th group and died at the age of 51 shortly after returning home.   Saint Bona is regarded as the patron saint of travellers, and specifically couriers, guides, pilgrims, travellers, flight attendants, and, of course, the city of Pisa.

Yesterday I discovered that her her feast day is celebrated on May 29 - the day our walking holiday starts from Roncesvalles! Is that synchronicity, or what?

Plans are going well for the walk and I have such a good feeling about it! Besides walking the three sections of the Camino we will have time for extra excurisons - to see the castle at Clavijo, where Santiago was first seen on his white horse fighting off the Moors and so became known as Santiago Matamoros: we'll have breakfast at O Cebreiro on our way to Sarria and we'll visit 'Las Meduals", the remains of the most important gold mine in the Roman Empire. We are planning on doing a Nocturnal Walking Tour of Santiago's old town culminating in a visit to a club for a Queimada and a Sunset trip to Finisterre with wine and tapas to celebrate the end of our walk.

Most of the hotels, inns, apartments, private albergues have been booked or chosen and we will take the Chu-chu tourist trains in Burgos, Leon and Santiago.  We only have two places left on the walk - with 4 friends waiting for a slot for four. 

I CAN AND I WILL

Whilst walking the camino Frances last year I often found myself singing, especially when the going got tough. One song that really gave me strength was the school song sung by the children at the Open Air School for physically disabled children in Durban that my younger son attended for 12 years.
The song is a poem by A.H. Ackley called
“You can Smile when you can’t say a Word”.


There are many troubles that will burst like bubbles,
there are many shadows that will disappear;
When you learn to meet them, with a smile to greet them,
for a smile is better than a frown or tear.

Chorus:
You can smile when you can't say a word,
You can smile when you cannot be heard;
You can smile when it's cloudy or fair,
You can smile anytime, anywhere.

Tho' the world forsake you, joy will overtake you,
Hope will soon awake you, if you smile today;
Don't parade your sorrow, wait until tomorrow,
For your joy and hope will drive the clouds away.

Chorus

When the clouds are raining, don't begin complaining,
what the earth is gaining should not make you sad;
Do not be a fretter, smiling is much better,
and a smile will help to make the whole world glad.

Chorus

It was especially poignant when being sung at assembly by some two hundred disabled children, some deaf, some blind, some mute, all disabled, belting out
“You can smile…”

“I can and I will” - this was the motto of the Open Air School. The children ranged from terminally ill – leukaemia, cystic fibrosis, muscular dystrophy and so on – to those born with cerebral palsy, spina bifida or brittle bones (like my son) and a few amputees or accident victims who might spend only some of their school lives at the special school.

The effects of being involved with children who have to overcome enormous odds just to live each day are profound. Can you complain of a headache when you see a child with a brain tumour? Can you complain of a sore arm when confronted by a child with no limbs? Can you complain about having to walk to a shop after watching a child struggling to walk in parallel bars wearing callipers? Can you complain about having a child who breaks his bones when your friend’s child is dying?

These children teach you to accept your life as it is, to persevere and to live life joyfully. Children are generally playful, carefree and full of mischief even though they have crippling disabilities. For a number of years I was in a lift club with three other mothers from my area whose children went to the Open Air School. Mark (with the fragile bones) always sat in the front. Russell, Belinda and Jaquetta sat in the back. I ended up calling it my ‘death row’. Russell had muscular dystrophy and Belinda had Cystic Fibrosis – neither survived past their teens. Jaquetta’s prognosis was bleak. She’d had numerous aneurysms and seizures which had left her unable to walk, speak, or use her right hand. She has confounded the doctors by surviving and is now almost forty years old.

The children teased each other unmercifully, joked, sang and played games like “The A Team” where the ugliest, most deformed child was “Face” and my fragile boy was “Hannibal”. All were included in school plays and if Cinderella looked a little incongruous in her wheelchair nobody seemed to notice.

When the going got tough, climbing muddy paths to the Alto del Perdon, or steep rocky trails to Manjarin or O Cebreiro, I sang the school song and it lifted my spirit and gave me strength to carry on. When it rained for three days in a row I sang:
" When the clouds are raining, don't begin complaining, what the earth is gaining should not make you sad;

Many people - like my son - are not physically able to walk the camino even though he has had incredible achievements in other ways.

I am eternally grateful that I am fit and healthy and able to walk the camino and remind myself every day, "Do not be a fretter, smiling is much better, and a smile will help to make the whole world glad."