Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Vatican publishes "Pastoral Care of the Road"

Why are Christian virtues – justice, prudence, charity and forgiveness– so hard to practice in your car? I've always felt a person's auto gives them some feeling of anonymity; another faceless driver tooling through the world, and in a sense that's somewhat true. Come to think of it, it's difficult to remember most of my drive times. The tens of thousands of miles I've traveled through the world are just a blur, the countless run-ins with other drivers a fading memory.

I do sometime listen to religious CDs in my car, sometime John Hague (like his sermons, hate his politics) or my all time favorite Charles Stanley. They make the drive time more pleasant and lift my spirits the rest of the day. Now if only other drivers would do the same, wouldn't every one's drive experience be so much more rewarding.

As if to fill a void in the world, the Vatican has come out and published some drive time rules of the road. As you can guess, I'm not Catholic. I've always felt as an outsider the Vatican was invasive in people's lives in some senses and strangely silent in others. Doling out a odd mix of forgiveness and condemnation depending on which way the wind is blowing. On this subject, I'm glad they weighed in and published something useful. Maybe they'll produce air fresheners with this printed for their congregations. They can smell like that incense they burn at Mass.

Here are 1 - 10 as I've found searching the web:

I: You shall not kill. And continue
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 neighbor 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 toward others..

The news on the web said there were 15 rules published; if anyone can find the others and send them to me I'll publish them here.
Ernesto

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