From today until next Sunday, Mérida becomes one of the great international centers of the Camino de Santiago. Nearly 400 participants from 14 countries will meet at the XIV International Congress of Jacobean Associations, a meeting that will bring together veteran pilgrims, researchers, associations, hospital workers and specialists from different fields linked to the Jacobean routes.
The event comes at a particularly important time for the Camino. The international growth of pilgrimages, the role of associations, hospitality, inclusion, safety and the conservation of the historical values of the routes are part of an increasingly present debate.
For four days, Mérida will be the scene of much of that reflection.
Four days to think about the future of the Camino
The Congress is held from October 22 to 25 with an extensive program that includes four round tables, eight conferences and around twenty speakers.
The organization has brought together representatives of around fifty Jacobean associations from different countries, turning the Emeritus event into one of the most prominent international meetings of the associative movement linked to the Camino.
The objective will not only be to analyze the present.
A good part of the interventions will try to answer questions that directly affect the future of pilgrimages: how to preserve the essence of the Camino, how to face its growing internationalization, what role hospitaleros and associations should continue to play and how to ensure that the different routes grow without losing identity.
The “Homo Viator” opens the Congress
The opening day begins this Thursday with the reception of the congressmen and the delivery of documentation.
The institutional opening ceremony is scheduled for 6:00 p.m. and, half an hour later, the presentation of the video and the official anthem of the Congress.
One of the central moments of this first day will come at 7:00 p.m. with the inaugural conference by the priest and writer Jesus Sanchez Adalid, titled “Homo Viator.”
The concept of the walking man will serve to open a reflection that connects ancient pilgrimages, Christian tradition and the contemporary Jacobean phenomenon.
The day will end with a cultural performance and a welcome meeting between the participants.
Mérida and the origins of the pilgrimages
Congress also wants to highlight the historical role of Mérida within the tradition of pilgrimages on the Peninsula.
The figure of Saint Eulalia and the ancient pilgrimages to the city are part of the historical context on which some of the first sessions will be developed.
On Friday, the role of Mérida as a pilgrimage center during Christian Antiquity will be addressed precisely, before analyzing the origin of pilgrimages in Hispania.
The presence of archaeologists, historians, heritage managers and representatives of Jacobean institutions will allow us to expand the focus beyond Santiago de Compostela and analyze how pilgrim movements developed over the centuries.
Hospitality, associations and the Camino
Another of the great issues of the Congress will be hospitality.
The Friends of the Camino associations have played a fundamental role for decades in the recovery, signaling and conservation of numerous routes.
They have also sustained a good part of the traditional hospitality network that continues to receive pilgrims.
On Saturday there will be a specific table dedicated to associations and Jacobean hospitality, with the participation of heads of Spanish and international organizations and volunteer hospitaleros.
It will be an opportunity to debate one of the elements that best defines the experience of the Camino: the welcome of the pilgrim.
Security, economy and inclusion
The Congress will also address issues that are increasingly present in the daily reality of the Camino.
Among them will appear Jacobean security, with the participation of the Civil Guard, as well as the economic and social value generated by the routes.
There will also be space to analyze the Camino from an inclusive perspective.
The participation of entities related to people with intellectual disabilities reinforces an idea that is increasingly present in the Jacobean area: that the routes must be open, accessible spaces and capable of offering experiences to people with very different realities.
The concept of the Camino as a space for healing and personal growth will also be the subject of debate.
The Vía de la Plata wants to go one step further
One of the issues that may have the greatest impact after the Congress will come on the closing day.
On Sunday the reading of a Manifesto for the declaration of the Vía de la Plata as a World Heritage Site.
The proposal aims to reinforce the historical, cultural and territorial recognition of one of the great communication corridors of the Peninsula and one of the main routes linked to the Camino de Santiago from the south.
The Vía de la Plata will have a prominent presence throughout the meeting, both due to the location of the Congress and the role it plays in connecting Extremadura with the Jacobean routes.
Mérida takes over from Ourense
Mérida thus picks up the baton of the previous International Congress of Jacobean Associations, held in Ourense in 2023.
Starting today, hundreds of people linked to the Camino will begin four days of conversations, experiences, debates and meetings.
The conclusions will come on Sunday.
But the great challenge will continue later.
The Camino de Santiago is experiencing one of its moments of greatest international projection and, precisely for this reason, meetings like the one in Mérida will have to try to answer an increasingly important question:
how to ensure that the Camino continues to grow without ceasing to be the Camino.
