Vatican road guidelines get attention

Well, I said they deserve attention in that post below, and it turns out the Vatican’s guidelines for pastoral ministry of the roadways has captured the imagination of the media. The stories increased out there as the day went on yesterday. Like this one:

St. Christopher, that patron of pedal pushers, must be beaming. The Vatican has issued a Ten Commandments of driving.

Of course, they’re all having fun with it. Like I said, it’s capturing their imagination. 

Noting that driving has become a ”big part of contemporary life” (who says the Catholic Church is behind the times?)

(actually, you guys in the media)

Cardinal Renato Martino at a news conference Tuesday introduced a document urging courtesy and attention on the highways and cautioning against drinking and road rage, among other temptations.

The document is called ”Guidelines for the Pastoral Care of the Road” and includes a 10-item list of highway commandments that begins with an outright borrowing from the original Decalogue: You shall not kill.

Good place to start, no?!

After that, though, it veers off into territory never imagined by Moses.

Cute. Moses did, however, contend with some nasty chariots and charioteers. (Exodus 14:16-28)

Motorists are warned against allowing their vehicles to become ”occasions of sin” by such acts as driving recklessly or using them as havens for prostitution.

Road rage, the document says, can lead to ”impoliteness, rude gestures, cursing, blasphemy, loss of sense of responsibility or deliberate infringement of the highway code.”

Motorists are also encouraged to help others on the road and pray while driving — especially the rosary, because it can create a pleasing rhythm.

”You wouldn’t think that would be church-related,” mused Francis Walter, a driving teacher of 35 years who has taught students ”age 16 to 80” at his Bethlehem business. Even so, he noted, anything that promotes road safety is a good idea.

The Associated Press carried the story with this headline: ”Vatican issues 10 Commandments for drivers: Don’t drink, don’t kill, and pray.”

”My first reaction on seeing the headline was to chuckle wholeheartedly,” said the Rev. Thomas Dailey, a theology professor and head of the Salesian Center for Faith and Culture at DeSales University, a Catholic school in Center Valley.

Dailey said driver safety is a natural topic for a church based in Rome. ”As anyone who has lived in Rome knows, there’s really only one rule on their roads: Whoever hits the horn first has the right of way,” he said.

Still, he added, ”the larger document is not something to be chuckled at, since it deals with a significant reality.”

Actually, that AP article did a good job reporting this story. Here’s just a snip from the middle of it:

The Rev. Keith Pecklers, a Jesuit professor of liturgy at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, said Martino was clearly responding to an underreported social concern: an increase in traffic deaths in places like Italy and Spain because of speeding, as well as an increase in road rage, aggressive driving and DUI in places like the United States.

”It may be surprising for people because we’re accustomed to the church speaking out about sexual matters, capital punishment, immigration,” he said. “The point Cardinal Martino is making is that driving is itself a moral issue. How we drive impacts on the lives of ourselves and others.”

And as I write this, CNN’s morning show just did a news tease going into a break, “Thou shalt not commit road rage. Vatican rules for the road, coming up in the Newsroom.” No kidding. So when they came back, Tony Harris sets up the piece saying “So you want to get on the highway to heaven, huh? Follow the 10 commandments of driving…” CNN handled it well, with a priest saying “this is a moral issue”, and CNN ‘religion and values’ reporter Delia Gallagher explaining that the Vatican wants to show that they understand concerns like road rage and traffic problems folks face.

Especially since the streets just outside the Vatican are so treacherous!

CNN wrapped up the piece with reporter Carol Costello concluding that “the Vatican says it wants to save lives, because there are too many people dying needlessly on the roads.”

Okay then. Good to give this attention.

Now it would be nice if they would read the rest of that Vatican document…