UNESCO recognises the Christian heritage of Europe?

It being the feast of St James, Apostle, today; and Zero and I having talked from time to time about walking to Compostella ... I thought, in this day of online gaming and the like ... there must, somewhere in the WWW, be a "virtual Way to Compostella" that one can "walk" in cyberspace.

Instead, I found out that, in 1998, UNESCO recognised a number of buildings on the routes through France to Compostella as World Heritage sites. This is the page on the UNESCO website that records this. Most of the buildings are Churches of one form or another - I am not clear that all of them are still used as Churches.

The reason given for the inscription is as follows - the criteria refer to the UNESCO criteria for judging a site to be a World Heritage site:

Justification for Inscription
Criterion ii: The Pilgrimage Route of Santiago de Compostela played a key role in religious and cultural exchange and development during the later Middle Ages, and this is admirably illustrated by the carefully selected monuments on the routes followed by pilgrims in France.

Criterion iv: The spiritual and physical needs of pilgrims travelling to Santiago de Compostela were met by the development of a number of specialized types of edifice, many of which originated or were further developed on the French sections.

Thus far, one can read the justification in a secular way - a religious phenomenon being assimilated or reduced to that of "cultural exchange and development" and the meeting of "spiritual and physical needs". But it is the last sentence, under criterion vi which is most interesting in recognising the role of Christian faith in the history of Europe. UNESCO's criterion vi reads, with my emphasis on "outstanding universal significance" added:

to be directly or tangibly associated with events or living traditions, with ideas, or with beliefs, with artistic and literary works of outstanding universal significance. (The Committee considers that this criterion should preferably be used in conjunction with other criteria);

And the citation for the Route to Santiago:

Criterion vi: The Pilgrimage Route of Santiago de Compostela bears exceptional witness to the power and influence of Christian faith among people of all classes and countries in Europe during the Middle Ages.

I wonder whether this recognition of a universal significance of Christian faith for the history of Europe will be allowed an expression in European legislation?

Oh, and if you do know where I can find a "virtual Camino", please drop me a note in the Comments Box.