Hi, Dave,
There is only one compostela. It is for everyone who has completed at least 100 km on foot and who attests that his/her walk was for "spiritual or religious" reasons. If the pilgrim does not fall into one of those two categories, he/she will receive an equally beautiful certificate of welcome. The main difference is that the "certificate of welcome" is not religious, whereas the compostela is -- translation here:
https://www.caminodesantiago.me/com...of-the-compostela-from-latin-to-english.6745/
The compostela is available for a donativo contribution, sadly many pilgrims leave nothing.
There is also a "distance certificate" -- this is different than the compostela, has no religious significance and is written in castellano rather than Latin. The pilgrims' office staff will put your name in its non-Latin form, your starting point, the name of the camino you walked, the total kms you walked, etc. In my experience as a volunteer in the pilgrims office a couple of years ago, staff were always willing to defer to the individual's calculation of kms walked, so if you or the servicemen walking this camino have either used a GPS track or have some clear idea of how many kms they have walked, they should make sure to let the office staff know before the office staff enters the number of kms that they have on file for each starting point.
How is preparation going? When will people be embarking? Hoping that plans are all falling into place. (For those who may not know, Dave has raised funds and organized things so that Canadian veterans with PTSD will be able to walk the Camino).
https://www.caminodesantiago.me/community/threads/an-operational-stress-injury-initiative.34981/
Buen camino, Laurie