Last weekend was held in Santiago de Compostela the first international meeting in Galicia of the Association of Friends of the Camino de Santiago. A forum where the associations born around the phenomenon of pilgrimages found a place to reflect on the tasks and challenges facing the way friends in their defense of the roads to Compostela. The main challenge was diagnosed generational change because the Friends of the Camino de Santiago is a community that wants to remain in time. 

The 154 Jacobean associations gathered in the framework of the celebration of the eighth centenary of the pilgrimage of St. Francis of Assisi in Santiago de Compostela. The visit of St. Francis of Assisi was not only a major impetus for the Way in its beginning, but also helped the religious orders and the temporal powers of his time establish a dedicated primitive system of care for pilgrims. Of those who relied on primitive hospitaleros parishes, it has now reached the associations of friends of the road and hospitaleros volunteers or professional restaurateurs.

Associations recognized that the Camino de Santiago is facing a process of globalization and popularization never before known. Never in recent history the Pilgrim had been traveled by so many people with so many different interests; It is no longer just a question of devout Catholics or people with promises to meet in front of the tomb of St. James. The Way now attracts those who have a cultural, sporting or therapeutic interest: many pilgrims understand the Camino de Santiago as a way to disconnect from social interactions based only on the interest and business, mediated by communication devices.

The Camino de Santiago serves to find yourself while you discover a new "other", embodied in all those who complete the Way, before, during or after your journey.

Despite this appreciation of the Camino de Santiago, many partners were concerned that traditional tasks undertaken by groups left without a generational shift necessary to maintain this task.

Watch the historical and natural heritage, check incidents paths or disclose today and report it to the pilgrim communities neck was as easy as in the information age, but is missing more young people than take over the baton of the spirit of the Friends of the Camino de Santiago.

The tourists and the pilgrims

One of the most passionate debates of the conference was the subject of discussion as the distinction between tourist and pilgrim. The conclusion is arrived stressed the need for improve information: it should be noted the difference between between tourism and pilgrimage. The pilgrimage still retains an intangible reason goes beyond enjoy an environment or meet some places, especially in long-haul pilgrims. Friends of the Way also noted the need to clarify that to be considered pilgrim must travel a hundred kilometers of road to get the "Compostela".

Another conclusion of the congress pointed to the need to coordinate local, regional and state administrations, next to the Church, to establish a new network of shelters and care for pilgrims. He pointed to this possibility in response to the gradual popularization of the routes and the need to reaffirm the spiritual and ecumenical character of the Camino de Santiago.