August 2023
The Thirteenth International Conference organised by the Federacion Espanola de Asociaciones de Amigos del Camino de Santiago (‘the Spanish Federation’) took place in Orense, Galicia, in April of this year, the latest in the series of triennial gatherings begun in Jaca in 1987. Through the years I’ve attended most of these conferences (and count myself lucky to have been present in Jaca, too), but I had a particular reason for wanting to be in Orense. A European Federation of Camino-related associations – an idea first mooted in Jaca some 36 years ago – was finally on its way to becoming a reality. In other words, ‘history was in the making’.
Why has it taken so long? That’s a question without a very clear-cut answer. Good intentions were there from the beginning. The Jaca conference’s 4th Conclusion urged that the Council of Europe and ‘other International Organisations’ recognise ‘a Federation of associations’, while its 10th not only adopted the slogan ‘Camino de Santiago – Camino de Europa’ but invited every cultural group promoting the Way of St. James anywhere in Europe to do the same. The next FEAACS conference, in Estella in September 1992, even took this motif as its title. Subsequent conferences raised the subject, even debated it, but it was not until the one in Ponferrada in 2005 (‘The Camino de Santiago – a Bridge Towards a New Europe’) that it again surfaced as a concrete aim. Another decade went by…and the better part of another…. Perhaps the challenges implicit in the tremendous growth of the pilgrimage during those years simply absorbed all the dedication, funds and energy available. The Council of Europe had, in fact, recognised the Camino de Santiago as ‘Europe’s first Cultural Itinerary’, back in 1987, but thirty years later, there was still no organisation uniting the Camino-based associations of Europe.
Whatever the obstacles may have been, they were overcome by the general resurgence of the Camino spirit as the Continent emerged from the pandemic. The Camino community took up the idea again, this time with a renewed will to see it through. There is much still to be done, but here we are, in Orense’s Centro Cultural Marcos Valcarcel , watching as the representatives of six founding associations sign the Declaration of Intent that will create the new Federation, Europe Compostelle. Its fundamental aim - but on a pan-European scale - is much the same as that of any of our existing jacobean associations: to promote and protect the great cultural legacy of the Caminos, in all its aspects. May it fulfil all the hopes invested in it, for the benefit of pilgrims everywhere.