Vatican Issues 10 Commandments for Driving
Aside from an occasional Popemobile replacement — perhaps now with aftermarket kits to discourage unexpected hangers-on — the Vatican isn’t the first place we turn to for car news. That could change with the “Guidelines for the Pastoral Care of the Road,” a 36-page document that includes, among other things, the “Drivers’ 10 Commandments.”
The guidelines call for people to resist the “psychological regression” that driving can promote, according to Reuters. Front-seat foibles include using a car to show off, speeding, driving under the influence and failing to maintain a car. Who knew the pope was a secret garage guy? The document took special issue with drivers in Rome, where danger comes from “youngsters and adults who do not have (full) driving licenses,” according to the Associated Press. Oh, those Romans.
At a press conference today, Cardinal Renato Martino bemoaned situations where “a car is used as a place for sin,” Reuters reported. The commandments warn against such indiscretions, and they try to promote courtesy behind the wheel along with compassion for accident victims. Click below for the full list, and let us know what you think.
The “Drivers’ Ten Commandments,” as listed in the document:
1. You shall not kill.
2. The road shall be for you a means of communion between people and not of mortal harm.
3. Courtesy, uprightness and prudence will help you deal with unforeseen events.
4. Be charitable and help your neighbor in need, especially victims of accidents.
5. Cars shall not be for you an expression of power and domination, and an occasion of sin.
6. Charitably convince the young and not so young not to drive when they are not in a fitting condition to do so.
7. Support the families of accident victims.
8. Bring guilty motorists and their victims together, at the appropriate time, so that they can undergo the liberating experience of forgiveness.
9. On the road, protect the more vulnerable party.
10. Feel responsible toward others.
Vatican Issues 10 Commandments for Drivers: Don’t Drink, Don’t Kill, and Pray (AP via Houston Chronicle)
Ten Commandments for Cars: No Vrooom! at the Inn (Reuters)
