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Saint Jean Pied de Port

Saint John “at the foot of the pass” is the traditional beginning of the Camino Frances, or French Way, the pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela. Technically in France, Saint Jean is a Basque town, just like those across the border in Spain. It lies along the main route across the Pyrenees mountains: Napoleon took this way, as did Roland and the Moors. None found the local inhabitants very welcoming.

We had a better reception. We arrived on May 1st, Labor Day everywhere but the US, so many businesses were closed. At least there were no local partisans lurking with ill intent. Saint Jean is a picturesque, tiny village. It is a company town, and the business is pilgrimage. There are restaurants geared toward pilgrims, hotels and albergues, gear shops, and a pilgrimage office where one goes to officially begin one’s pilgrimage.

As we got in late in the afternoon on Tuesday, we planned to take a full rest day on Wednesday, attend to some admin details, then begin the Camino bright and early on Thursday. We met some fellow pilgrims, walked the old town walls, visited the citadelle, and had a proper French picnic in the park. All the while, looming over us in the distance, was the route over the Pyrenees. Tomorrow, buen camino!

Lourdes, France

After an uneventful Ryanair flight, we arrived in Lourdes, France. I do need to give Ryanair kudos: although their seats are uncomfortable and they hawk way too much merchandise, they boarded the aircraft efficiently, took off on time, landed early, and did not lose our bags. We didn’t get a super cheap fare, but they were the only carrier with a non-stop flight from Krakow to Lourdes, which was key to making the Eastern European part of our pilgrimage work.

Certainly most readers are familiar with the story of Bernadette Soubirous, the young French girl who saw an apparition of the Virgin Mary in 1858. Mary asked her to have a chapel built over a foul local spring which would prove to be a source of health. The spring became clear and the waters became a source of miraculous cures, leading Lourdes to become a major pilgrimage site. Bernadette went on to become a nun, and died from tuberculosis in 1879. Her remains have been exhumed and examined by doctors three times, all commenting on the general lack of decay. While the Church has found the private revelation of Lourdes worthy of belief (i.e., it is consistent with the public revelation of Jesus Christ), no Catholic is obligated to believe in it. As is often the case, local church leaders were very skeptical, and scrutinized the case closely. It was only after Bernadette explained that the woman who appeared to her called herself “the Immaculate Conception,” an obscure reference to a Papal decree on Mary that the nearly illiterate Basque schoolgirl would not have been familiar with, that the local officials’ opinion changed.

For perspective, the grotto is lower right here

However you feel about Marian apparitions, the grotto at Lourdes has been the sight of 67 confirmed miraculous cures since it was established. There are thousands more claimed cures, but boards of doctors have officially only identified these 67. The power of faith among the sick coming to Lourdes is something to behold. There is an endless stream of people on crutches, in bandages, in wheelchairs, all heading to the grotto or the baths.

We had the opportunity to attend Mass in English and pray the rosary. We also hiked to the top of the citadelle.

In the fort they have a very nice museum of the Pyrenees, and some amazing views.

Here’s a money shot:

We enjoyed a first taste of Basque cuisine (hearty vegetable soup, octopus in chili garlic sauce, pear crumble, all washed down with a fine local red wine) and got ready for our last move before the Camino.

One last comment: Lourdes is sometimes called the “Catholic Disneyland” because of the commercialization surrounding the grotto. On the grounds it is peaceful and solemn, but next door?

Krakow: Sacred and Profane (II)

The city of Krakow is a jewel. What makes it so unique is that it has been any important city since the 7th century, yet it has remained relatively intact over all those violent years. If you have visited Europe you know there are many amazing cities where so much of the architecture has been recreated after its destruction during the Second World War. Krakow escaped such destruction. By the time the Nazis occupied it the fighting was over at the beginning of the war. When the Soviet Army came to liberate Krakow they swept through and caused very little damage. Thus Krakow retains much of its charming medieval character.

This is St. Mary’s Basilica in Krakow’s old town; it dates to the 14th century. I have no interior pictures because we entered to pray, not as tourists, so no photos.

We took some organized tours for our final days in Krakow. One went to the Wieliczka salt mine, an absolutely huge underground site on the outskirts of town. The mine functioned from the 1200s until 2007; now it’s a UNESCO world heritage site. It has numerous chambers and over 100 miles of tunnels. The most amazing thing to me was the various salt sculptures completed by the miners, along with almost 40 chapels: the miners apparently never wanted to be far from a place to pray when they were underground. And yes, JPII even has a salt mine statue!

“Polish for foreigners?” I guess the domestic market is saturated.

I’ll conclude my Krakow thoughts by returning to John Paul II. Our tour guide compared the way locals feel about him to Americans and Elvis. While the comparison is superficial, it does capture the warmth of the relationship. Perhaps based on their unique history, the Poles grasp something about JPII that others miss: just as the triumph of freedom over Nazi tyranny was essentially the story of FDR and Churchill, the triumph of freedom over communism ended up being the story of Reagan and Wojtyla.

Krakow: Sacred and Profane (I)

Vilnius was just beginning to look like Spring; in Krakow, Spring has fully sprung.

Prior to his death in 2005 there was some evidence of Saint Pope John Paul’s life in Krakow. However since the death of its former bishop and first Polish Pope, Krakow has really embraced its most favorite son and now he literally looms over the city. Karol Wojtyla was a most amazing character. He lost his mom and brother when he was still young, and his dad died during World War II. All alone and in the midst of Nazi-occupied Poland, he decided to become a Catholic priest, and attended a secret underground seminary in Krakow.

This sounds matter-of-fact now, but at the time it was a particularly courageous decision. The Nazis had singled out the Catholic hierarchy (all of the priests and religious) as well as the Polish nobility for liquidation. They sought to turn Poland into a vast farm and industrial labor camp to support their master race. Polish peasants would be the workforce for their Nazi overseers, but if the Polish leadership was still intact, they would oppose the Nazi plan. By joining the Polish clergy, Karol Wojtyla was signing his death warrant, since 90% of Polish priests were killed during the war!

Today, Saint John Paul is everywhere in Krakow. We visited his shrine, as well as the Shrine of Divine Mercy which John Paul established in Krakow in honor of Saint Faustina. Unlike some modern churches which resemble theaters-in-the-round or gymnasiums, the Divine Mercy Basilica is a remarkably modern take on ancient religious architecture.

When we travel, we prefer to stay in eclectic local accomodations and eat where the locals do. For example, our BnB in Vilnius was a converted monastery connected to a church, but with no resident staff. In Krakow our room is just around the corner from the main square, off a dark entryway and up three flights of stairs. We had an excellent lunch at one of the few remaining milk bars in Poland. Milk bars were a communist phenomenon: inexpensive, government subsidized diners serving large portions of hearty fare for the workers of the worker’s paradise. After communism collapsed, most milk bars did too. Krakow still has one, although it is a cross between a traditional milk bar and a Portlandia sandwich shop. Dinner that night was a basement cafe hidden inside a library. The theme was Grandma’s cabin in the woods. You stand in line to order, pay and wait for your number to be called, retrieve and eat your dinner, then bus your own plates. Meanwhile, the staff is mostly grandmothers supervising everything.

There is an amazing archaeological museum beneath the Rynek market in the middle of Krakow. They discovered layered ruins back in the early 2000s, and decided to unearth and preserve them. They did so, then rebuilt a roof over the now underground museum so the square looks unchanged. The layers of market history trace all the way back to the 14th century, showcased in a state-of-the-art facility which overlays video effects on the exposed ruins. The market square remains much as it has been for 700 years, despite all the other changes over that period.

Krakow is a very interesting mix of well-preserved tradition, proud culture, and vibrant youth (Jagiellonian University is one of the world’s oldest) and well worth the visit.

Travel day

Wednesday was a non-stop day on the move. We departed for the bus station around 5 AM and hiked a mile in the dark with everything we owned packed on us like mules. It was so early nothing was open yet except the McDonalds at the adjacent train stration, so we had that for breakfast. We took an uneventful 8 hour bus ride to Warsaw, where we intended to catch a train to Krakow.

But the first train was full, so we ended up with one first class ticket and one standing ticket on a later train. Which took 3 hours to get there. I’ll let you guess who got what ticket. What I don’t understand is that with one hour left on the trip, the train staff opened up another car and gave us seats, when they could have just sold us those seats in the first place, and the standing ticket I had was discounted. Sometimes you just have to accept things as they come: those “why?” questions can drive you crazy.

The extra time in Warsaw gave us a chance to grab a lunch at…wait for it…McDonalds. This one was outfitted with surly big city folk, people crowding the aisles and talking loudly on cell phones, security guards making sure only customers used the restroom, and wait staff who dismissed our questions with a contemptuous wave of the back of the hand. We looked like a couple of refugees with all our packs and bags, and we were treated accordingly. Even the view out the window was ugly.

We squezzed on board the train, rode to Krakow and disembarked. We had to traverse a shopping mall to get to the old city and arrive at our BnB, where we unpacked and went out for some warm cabbage soup, kielbasa, and beer before collapsing into bed.

Travel days are never fun. They must be rated on an entirely different scale. Did you arrive safely? Were you injured? Were you ever at risk? If you can answer yes, no, and no, it was a good day.

Vilnius, Lithuania

On the way to Vilnius we got sidetracked by a cancelled SAS flight which cost us the better part of another travel day at the Stockholm airport. All of which reminds me of two more travel tips! First, whenever flying a minor route which has multiple flights a day, always search to see what the cancellation rate is. Some airlines are known to cancel flights just to consolidate the route, and they do it often enough to make planning on a given flight impossible. I can’t swear that is what happened to us, but our half-filled morning flight got cancelled and we flew on a now full flight in the afternoon.

Very suspicious. The other tip is related: if you are flying in the Eurozone, you have great customer rights to refunds and compensation. Despite getting us on a later flight, SAS now owes us almost 500 Euros cash! They don’t advertise it much, but that is the law in Europe.

We are staying just down the street in Vilnius from the Shrine of Divine Mercy. Here’s the story:

Back in the early 1930s, a young Polish woman named Helena Kowalska joined the sisters of Our Lady of Mercy in Vilnius. As Sister Faustina, she started having ecstatic visions of Jesus, who instructed her to keep a record of what He said. Her diary became an extended meditation on the notion of Divine Mercy, despite the fact she only had a few years of formal education. Many of her fellow religious were skeptical, although one priest, Father Michael Sopocko, believed and encouraged her.

According to her diary, Jesus instructed her to be his “Secretary” of Divine Mercy, in order to help mankind understand just how overwhelming God’s mercy is. He directed her to have an exact replica made of His image of Divine Mercy, to profess certain prayers, and to have a Feast of Divine Mercy established for the entire world…quite a to-do list for a poor, barely literate, Polish nun.

While Sister Faustina was having the image painted, she began a long decline in health (probably due to tuberculosis), resulting in her death in October, 1938. She had predicted a terrible war would break out, and when the Nazis and Soviets occupied Poland, her cause and most of Church leadership in Poland went underground. The Divine Mercy image went on an extended, secret journey to escape capture by first the Nazis, and then the Communists.

While the Divine Mercy devotion continued to grow over the next few decades, it remained mainly a Polish or Polish-American phenomenon. Some in the Church opposed the devotion, and sought to have it declared heretical. In a twist of fate (perhaps Divine intervention?), a papal conclave in 1978 elected the first ever Polish Pope, John Paul II, who happened to be one of the principal proponents of the Divine Mercy cause. He canonized now Saint Faustina in 2000, and established the worldwide feast of Divine Mercy as the second Sunday of Easter.

Judy has been especially devoted to the Divine Mercy cause, so this stop was especially meaningful for her.

Vilnius is a lovely city with much intact architecture despite its violent history. We really enjoyed strolling its narrow streets and trying some of its hearty cuisine. We walked over seven miles and climbed the Hill of Three Crosses, a local landmark with amazing views. We also enjoyed such Lithuanian delicacies as meat-filled dumplings (Zeppelins), cold beetroot soup with warm potatoes, and hearty game stew.

Here are a few parting shots:

Travel tips en route

We made it successfully to Stockholm, Sweden where we are staying overnight. The Aeromexico flight from Guadalajara to Los Angeles went without any fuss. I wish I could say the same about the Norwegian Air Shuttle from LAX to Stockholm.

When we arrived at LAX, we changed terminals and got into a Catch-22. Norwegian does not check your bags until three hours before take off, so we could not check our bags or proceed to enter the terminal, beyond security. The Tom Bradley International terminal is very nice, but before security it is a service wasteland with few seats or restaurants. The bargain airlines it serves all have similar policies, so we found ourselves stuck in an old fashioned airport hub dump with several hundred of our closest friends for three hours.

When we finally checked bags and passed through security, our plane was three hours late for takeoff due to poor ground coordination. Luckily, we had premium seats which gave us access to the OneWorld lounge, so we waited and waited in relative comfort.

The buffet,

and Judy (rolling her eyes) fresh back from the showers.

The open bar.

The indoor fire pit.

Travel tip #1: if you book Norwegian, do not try to make close connections. They have very cheap fares (some on our flight flew to Europe one way for under $200 USD), but they are notorious for delays.

Travel tip #2: if you book with Norwegian, know that the low cost fare means everything will be extra. No water, no checked bags, weight limited carry-ons. If you want better services, upgrade to their Premium, which is something closer to Business class at other airlines.

Travel tip#3: if you can, fly the new 787 Dreamliner for long haul trips. It uses more modern technology to fly faster, with a darker cabin, better humidity and air pressure, leading to a significantly better experience in whatever class you fly.

Our biggest worry was losing our backpacks. So far we are two-for-two.

Final Travel tip: if you ever need to travel with a backpack, many airlines won’t let you take them as carry-ons. Just buy an Ikea Cary sack for a few bucks! They are large enough to hold even a very large backpack, and they are easy to spot coming off the luggage-go-round.

More from our first official stop tomorrow.

Truckin’

We are leaving for our extended religious pilgrimage to Europe on Saturday: to say we are excited is an extreme understatement. Months of physical training, research, prayer and preparation can now be put to practical use. This week, we’re taking care of all the admin details surrounding an extended absence, getting final dental and doctor visits in, packing and re-packing, and then settling in for planes, trains, buses, automobiles, and–of course–walking.

Last Sunday our parish sent us off with a Pilgrim’s Blessing, an ancient rite of the Church which was very emotional for both Judy and me. We were called forward before the altar, promised to pray for our congregation while we are on the pilgrimage, and then the entire congregation called down God’s blessing on us for our safety, sanctity, and sanity (I may have made the last one up).

A recent commercial Stateside asks “Who glows?” Well, we are.

Our itinerary takes us on flights from Guadalajara to Los Angeles to Stockholm, with a overnight to account for time change. Next morning, off to Vilnius, Lithuania. I know it is not exactly on everybody’s bucket list, but I’ll explain why when we get there. After a day and a half there, we’ll take a bus to Warsaw and then a train to Krakow, Poland, where we’ll spend three days. From there it’s an early Sunday morning RyanAir flight to Lourdes, France, for a day and a half. Then some occasionally reliable French trains to Saint Jean Pied de Port, where we’ll begin the 800 kilometer (500 mile) walk to Santiago de Compostela, after a few days rest, on May 3rd. After arriving in Santiago (God willing) some thirty days (mas o meños) later, we’ll get a rental car and visit Muxia (a quiet pueblo on the Atlantic coast), travel down to Fatima, Portugal for a day or two, and then to Lisbon to start the flights home. The end of the trip is less exact: when you don’t know when you’ll be where, you need to leave the details to later.

Needless to say, my blog will be less about expat life and more about travel, which is (for us) an important aspect of expat life. In addition to all the usual fun of travel, we’ll be praying and offering thanks to God, so if you have a prayer request, share it with me via the comments function or private message, if you prefer.

Oh, and since I titled this Truckin’, let me end with an appropriate cut:

The rest of the story

Those who suffered through my last commentary (Everything you know is wrong III) learned about the US Republic, but you probably left the blog wondering “what was that all about? Did Pat drink some bad tequila?”

The answer to the second question is “no” (because there is no bad tequila), but here’s the answer to the first question.

The fact that the US is a Republic based on a Constitution has two important implications: one about the document itself, the other about the people it serves.

Americans hold their Constitution in high regard. We are right to do so, as intelligent observers around the world have commented on its simplicity, its insight, and its longevity. But the document is not magical. It works not just because it was brilliantly designed, but because it was ideally matched to the culture and characteristics of the American people (circa 1791).

Freed America slaves who returned to Africa to establish the nation of Liberia borrowed large parts of the US Constitution to little success. The US Constitution begat similar efforts in 19th century Latin America, post-Great War Europe, and post-colonial Africa, again with mixed success. The US Constitution was a unique match of brilliant political theory and informed citizenship.

What was the indispensable characteristic of that citizenry? Here the founders were unanimous: virtue, or as we call it today, morality. Franklin, Jefferson, Madison, Patrick Henry, and George Washington wrote about it. Samuel Adams said “Neither the wisest constitution nor the wisest laws will secure the liberty and happiness of a people whose manners are universally corrupt.” John Adams said, “Public virtue cannot exist in a nation without private virtue, and public virtue is the only foundation of republics.” and added “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

And these are just the pull quotes. All the Founding Fathers wrote and spoke about how important the virtue and morality of the American people were. This is not to say the Founders or the citizens were saints. Those same Founders tolerated America’s original sin–slavery. The candidates and their supporters in the Presidential election of 1800 engaged in far more slander than anything any candidate said in 2016!

Rather, the comments about the virtue or morality of the American citizenry described their common understanding of right and wrong. While the United States had no established religion, its people broadly accepted a code of conduct based on Judeo-Christian values. Even the Founders, many of whom were Deists, held the same beliefs, as Deism was a Christian off-shoot (heresy is the technical term). This morality, these virtues, matched uniquely with the Republican government developed under the Constitution.

Back at the beginning of the Republic, the American people had a common conception of right and wrong, even if those same citizens were individually more or less virtuous. Today, our citizens are just as likely to have different levels of virtue, but there is no common understanding of how to measure right and wrong. Religious participation continues to dwindle, and many organized religions follow, rather than lead, public mores. Some argue religion has no right to a voice in American government: a point historically inaccurate and (frankly) bigoted. Nevertheless, I would concede that religion has mainly lost its voice, while no alternative voice has succeeded it.

Instead, we have replaced a shared public morality with an individualistic one. As Justice Anthony Kennedy put it in Planned Parenthood vs. Casey, “At the heart of liberty is the right to define one’s own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life.” There is little room for me to compromise with you when you have the right to define the meaning of the universe.

All of which leads to my final point: many of the problems we as Americans identify today are actually only symptoms of the real problem: the lack of a common morality. Our Republic requires it. Arguments about policy are just about politics (the art of compromise), while arguments about morality are good versus evil, and compromise is immoral. You can see this play out in issue after issue today: gun control, abortion, free speech, police violence, marriage, welfare, etc.

This is not a call to return to the days of that good, old-fashioned religion; a culture can never return to its past. This is more a caution. America has only once experienced a similar moral debate: slavery. The issue was fundamental to concepts ranging from individual freedom and human rights to property, states’ rights, and habeus corpus. It took a bloody civil war to address that issue, and another one-hundred years to finish the argument.

I trust I have made a case for why our Republic needs a shared morality. I wish I had an easy answer for how we regain one. I have not heard anything beyond some platitudes thus far. I am open to good ideas: I know I am praying on this already.

As Paul Harvey used to say, my friends, “and now you know the rest of the story.”

Everything you know is wrong (III)

The topic today is government, specifically, the type of government in the United States. If I asked you what form of government the United States has, what would you say? A democracy? A constitutional democracy? A representative democracy? An oligarchy, run by big government elites? Anarchy (especially under the current administration)?

This is not an academic question: if you don’t know what type of government you have, you may be surprised when things happen that you thought could not–or should not–happen. I noticed this after the last Presidential election, when the popular vote did not track with the electoral outcome, and many commented that this should not be. I saw it again recently when the very vocal students marching for gun control were talking about making democracy work. You will often hear politicians and thought leaders referring to “our democracy.” I trust they are using a shorthand reference, but are they correct? What is our form of government? As Warner Wolf used to say, “Let’s go to the videotape.”

Okay, there is no videotape, but there is a historical record. But when asked what form of government the new Constitution established for these United States, Benjamin Franklin responded, “A Republic…if you can keep it.” The Founding Fathers had many negative things to say about democracy as a form of government: they saw it as majority rule, or the rule by factions, as they called it. The Federalist Papers (especially Federalist #10) detail their concerns: They wanted a government “of the people,” but they distrusted the average “person.” So they built in several safeguards, limiting the franchise (i.e., the right to vote) creating the electoral college, bifurcating the legislature. While we can all agree some of their methods were morally suspect (e.g., denying women the right to vote), their intent was sound: people making the choice of our governmental representatives should be informed and properly disposed. The Founders thought it very important to use voting as a means to establish the representatives in our government, but they knew the masses could be impassioned and misled.

Here’s another hint: recall the beginning of the Pledge of Allegiance. “I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands…” Now the pledge has no authoritative standing, but it has been around since the late 19th century, and represented the common knowledge and wisdom of our culture.

Now, before I go any further, one must recall that the names political parties give themselves (today and historically) are not relevant within this discussion. In the Cold War, communist governments called themselves democratic socialist republics. In the United States, today’s Republican party was cobbled together out of the old Whig and Free Soil parties, and once gave birth to the Progressive party (in the early 20th century). Today’s Democratic party began as the anti-federalist Democratic-Republicans! As so much else in politics, you have to look past the labels. So forget about them, for the time being.

Every form of government has to have two things: a source of its legitimacy (hereafter source), and an authority for its actions. In a democracy, the source is the people, and the authority is the majority. If you further define a government as a representative democracy, the source remains the people, but the authority becomes some form of legislature. Communist governments also said the people were the source, but claimed the party was the authority.

Republics can choose different forms of source and authority. A Monarchy can be a republic that chooses God’s divine right as source and a King /Queen as authority (or perhaps vice versa). Our own republic claims the people as source, but establishes a constitution as the authority. How do we know this? Majorities of the U.S. population have frequently been told that what they wanted was not to be, according to the Constitution. Likewise, various governments at the federal and state level have been denied their policies for the same reason. Now, the astute reader will point out that a majority can amend the Constitution. True, but not just any majority: only by a two-thirds majority of both Houses of Congress and three-fourths of the States! As you can see, it is a most difficult proposition, and hardly represents a trump card for “the majority” over the constitution as authority.

Over time, democratic methods have become more and more important within the U.S. republic. Federal senators were originally appointed by the States, to be the voice of the state governments to Washington (in addition to being the curative to the passions of the more democratically-elected House of Representatives). Some states sent poor representatives, since they saw it as a chance to get rid of one of their worst, or because Washington was far away and less important. In the early 20th century, this led to direct election of federal senators, a victory for democracy but a loss for the state governments, who to this day have no representative to the federal side.

Likewise, various states have experimented (as was intended by the Founders) with greater democracy. California has been at the forefront of this movement, especially with its ballot initiative process that permits simple majorities to enact amendments to the state constitution binding on the state government (recall Proposition 13, which famously tied the state government’s hands with respect to taxes).

Based on the evidence, it is clear the United States began as a republic. It is fair to say it has changed, and continues to change, toward more democratic aspects and methods. It cannot be called a democracy, even in shorthand. Why does this matter (“now he asks, after I read all this!”)?

That must wait for a future post!