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CajunRick
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Posted: Tue Jun 19th, 2007 09:03 pm |
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VATICAN CITY, JUNE 19, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Negligence on the road results annually in 1.2 million deaths and 50 million injuries, a grim statistic that a Vatican official noted as he presented the "Guidelines for the Pastoral Care of the Road."
The document from the Pontifical Council for Migrants and Travelers was released today. Its four sections cover issues ranging from road rage to ministering to prostitutes. And the document includes a list of "ten commandments" for drivers.
The document was published in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian. The four sections are titled: The pastoral care of road users, pastoral ministry for the liberation of street women, the pastoral care of street children, and the pastoral care of the homeless.
The guidelines seek to "create a coordination between all the ecclesial realities of the world of the road and motivate the episcopal conferences of the countries in which this pastoral ministry does not exist, so that they organize one," Cardinal Renato Martino, president of the Pontifical Council for Migrants and Travelers, explained when presenting the document.
The cardinal stressed a point from the document's first section: that roads be "at the service of the human person, as instruments to facilitate the life and integral development of society."
The guidelines make a distinction between the use and abuse of roadways and note the "particular psychology of the driver" that, in a negative sense, can lead one to see as "limitations the prohibitions that road signs designate." The driver can also be led by a "dominating instinct," the document explains.
Thus, Cardinal Martino said, "It is of fundamental importance that the driver behaves responsibly and with self-control when he drives."
Moral aspects
Cardinal Martino affirmed that driving also has a moral aspect: "The capacity to exist together and enter into relationships with others presupposed, on the part of the driver, some specific qualities: self-control, prudence, courtesy, an adequate spirit of service.
"We know that, as a consequence of transgressions and the lack of discipline on the road, each year, on the roadways of the world, 1.2 million people die, and 50 million are wounded … a sad reality, and at the same time, a great challenge both for society and for the Church."
In the face of this reality, the 74-year-old cardinal encouraged both the Church and the state, each in their own way, to "create a general and public awareness of that which relates to security on the road and promote […] an adequate education of drives, travelers and pedestrians."
The commandments
The document highlights four virtues to apply on the road and offers the drivers' "ten commandments."
The virtues are charity, prudence, justice and hope.
And the commandments include:
-- "The road shall be for you a means of communion between people and not of mortal harm.
-- "Cars shall not be for you an expression of power and domination, and an occasion of sin.
-- "Bring guilty motorists and their victims together, at the appropriate time, so that they can undergo the liberating experience of forgiveness."
The above article is reposted with permission from Zenit.
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CajunRick
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Posted: Tue Jun 19th, 2007 09:08 pm |
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The document mentioned above includes the following Ten Commandments for Drivers:
I. You shall not kill.
II. The road shall be for you a means of communion between people and not of mortal harm.
III. Courtesy, uprightness and prudence will help you deal with unforeseen events.
IV. Be charitable and help your neighbour in need, especially victims of accidents.
V. Cars shall not be for you an expression of power and domination, and an occasion of sin.
VI. Charitably convince the young and not so young not to drive when they are not in a fitting condition to do so.
VII. Support the families of accident victims.
VIII. Bring guilty motorists and their victims together, at the appropriate time, so that they can undergo the liberating experience of forgiveness.
IX. On the road, protect the more vulnerable party.
X. Feel responsible towards others.
The above excerpt is taken from the document Guidelines for the Pastoral Care of the Roadand is reposted with permission from Zenit.
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japhy
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Posted: Tue Jun 19th, 2007 11:18 pm |
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The Ten Commandments for drivers should come with a "I Love My German Shepherd" bumper sticker.
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[Mary said,] "Do whatever he tells you." - John 2:5
My Blogs: The Cross Reference and Critical Mass
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Credo Catholic
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Posted: Wed Jun 20th, 2007 12:47 am |
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| This is not an area I expected the Vatican to speak on but it sure is welcome and I hope the world will sit up and listen. I confessed once that I had gotten so angry with another driver I honked my horn not once but twice, the priest chuckled but warned me that the other driver could have gotten more angry than I did and pulled out a gun. It can be a lesson in patience and charity to drive these days. St. Christopher pray for us!
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BettyBoopToo
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Posted: Wed Jun 20th, 2007 05:37 am |
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Thank you Rick for posting this!
My future daughter in-law mentioned tonight at dinner that the Vatican had come out with some instructions for Road Rules, she wanted to know if I had seem them yet.
I sent her a copy by e-mail -
So when I got home, here they were, you had already posted them for me.
God Bless
Betty
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Patience
"Whenever anything disagreeable or displeasing happens to you, remember Christ crucified and be silent."
St. John of the Cross
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heardclarke
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Posted: Wed Jun 20th, 2007 12:01 pm |
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Amen to the bumper sticker! I might have to go over to Petco and get one now!
Lisa
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Ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est.
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BodRod
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Posted: Wed Jun 20th, 2007 01:44 pm |
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| Someone in Rome has waaaaaaaaaaaaay too much time on their hands !!!
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Gratias agamus Domino Deo nostro.
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CajunRick
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Posted: Wed Jun 20th, 2007 09:20 pm |
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BodRod wrote: Someone in Rome has waaaaaaaaaaaaay too much time on their hands !!!
I think it's a great way to show how Catholic social teaching relates to everyday life!
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BodRod
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Posted: Wed Jun 20th, 2007 09:31 pm |
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| Here in the southern left coast, the news reporters are reporting it in a joking manner. I think some of this situation comes from our laws being much more direct and even then, they don't prevent such behaviors from happening. On the other hand, the Popes words are so general and almost of a kind nature. So, the feeling I get is that if the tough approach doesn't work of what use is a soft gentle approach.
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Gratias agamus Domino Deo nostro.
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Steven Barrett
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| Location: | Hadley, Absurdistan, AKA , Massachusetts USA |
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Posted: Tue Jul 3rd, 2007 04:31 am |
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I'll admit that "road rage" just doesn't pack as much theological punch as other matters such as restoring the Latin Mass to its once prominent place in the hearts of many Catholics. But a couple of thoughts came to mind in a jocular sort of way.
We have to remember after all that while the Pope speaks perfect Italian and has captured the Romans' hearts, he is a German, excuse me, a Bavarian German. (The most easygoing Germans. Does Berlin have the Hofbrauhaus? Nein!) Having lived in central Germany during the early Sixties (before Europe went to hell in a handbasket during the student and sexual revolutions), I know pretty well how they drive. You rarely had survivors from big crashes on the Autobahn. Pieces, yes; survivors, seldom. If you were in the left lane on the Autobahn and a guy with a Mercedes Benz was on your tail, you had best take his first warning of two lights. If he had to resort to the honking of the horn after that, Viel Gluck (Good Luck).
One of the more amusing memories I carried back with me was the way the Catholics and Methodists used to fight for the few parking spots in the Wiesbaden H.S. parking lot, which was conveniently located across the street from the Main Chapel. My mother said "If the Germans could see this wrangling over parking spaces between us and the Methodists, they'd think they were watching the Thirty Years War all over again."
No matter what people say about German and Italian drivers: NOTHING, and I repeat NOTHING beats eastern Massachusetts drivers for their rudeness, boorishness and pushyness on the state's highways. Miami-Dade and Broward County drivers give their best efforts to drive themselves down to the greater Boston area's notorious drivers, but hands down, they are they are the best at being the worst and rudest of any drivers anywhere.
If you're from that area, please don't take it as an insult, because I lived in Boston for four years and I never heard a peep against this rap. They relished the reputation. And they still do.
Now if only they'd read up on Benedict's New Ten Commandments, perhaps the students they send out our way might make driving a lot less stressfull for people who live west of the Quabbin Reservoir. (At least if somebody from around here has a thing or two to say, all parties can understand what he's saying; not so for people on the eastern side of the Quabbin.
Having exposed my neck due to my humble opinions, I'm going to hit the hay. Guten abend and safe driving!
s.
Last edited on Tue Jul 3rd, 2007 04:33 am by Steven Barrett
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James Michael Curley to a young Thomas “Tip” O’Neill -- “Son, it’s nice to be important, but it’s more important to be nice.”
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susiedear
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Posted: Tue Jul 3rd, 2007 09:57 am |
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It wasn't only on the "left coast" that the press had a field day with the Ten Commandments for Drivers. The media here in "nice Minnesota" had their fun too, painting the Vatican as the grouchy uncle who has to intrude in every facet of life. Then, this past weekend, two separate road rage incidents claimed the lives of two innocent young women and another life is hanging on by threads. The drivers who caused the accidents fled from the scene and have not been found. You have to wonder if the media will squeek out a mea culpa. They should, but it's not likely to happen.
So do cars become an occasion for sin? Absolutely! Is the Vatican right to speak out? You betcha! It's great that we have a Church that speaks truth to all of life, not just our life in the pews!
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But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the return you get is sanctification and its end, eternal life. St. Augustine
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Tina in Ashburn
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Posted: Tue Jul 3rd, 2007 10:24 am |
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Road rage does seem to be a minor issue to speak against in the context of other more egregious behavior like blasphemous behavior towards the Eucharist, under-catechised Catholics, or clergy behaving badly. But to Rick's point about how our Faith should be practiced in all aspects, this is relevant.
How many of us tell ourselves "I'm a good person" because we don't yell at our mother-in-law regularly or have murdered anybody recently? Yet we exceed the speed limit, harbor resentment, cringe when others get praised, talk about others when they are not right there, fail to see the relationship between gossip and murder of reputation, make personal and petty attacks in arguments, on and on we go, oblivious to how the Faith should integrate with every kind of behavior in our lives.
I wonder if this is a commentary about how giving into repeated venial anger eventually causes the mortal sin of murder?
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Tina
Arlington Diocese
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