Pilgrimages: Law and Culture in Multicultural Societies

Abstract

Pilgrimage is an age-old way of expressing one's religious faith through a collective religious ritual that can be found throughout the ages and among all peoples. Pilgrimage is, however, also an institution regulated by precise rules. In fact, there is a real and very ancient regulatory system whose rules have gradually been established over the centuries. The pilgrim who nowadays goes on the road to Santiago de Compostela, Rome, Jerusalem or Mecca is often unaware that he’s following in the footsteps of generations of believers who have gone this same route. This tradition has led to the creation and development of rules and legal norms, not only in the religious laws, but also in European law. Pilgrimage to Jerusalem was a duty for Jews up to 70 A.D., the year of the destruction of Solomon’s Temple. In Islamic tradition, the pilgrimage to Mecca, at least once in a lifetime, is a duty, one of the five pillars of the faith. Finally, while not an obligation, pilgrimage has been a ritual for Christians since ancient times, regulated by canon law. Every year millions of people all over the world make a pilgrimage. Aware of the cultural, but also economic, richness of pilgrimages, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has included among the world heritage sites to be protected many shrines and pilgrimage routes and destinations. The Council of Europe considers the pilgrimage routes as European cultural routes. Pilgrimage is generally studied from either a historical or sociological perspective while this paper deals with the subject from a legal point of view, and this is a novelty. Its aim is to demonstrate that pilgrimage is not only a social but also a juridical phenomenon. Pilgrimage is different from other kinds of travel, including religious tourism, and for this reason pilgrimage is regulated by law.