“Guidelines for the Pastoral Care of the Road”
That’s the document where these Ten Commandments for driving came from. It is part of the 59-page instruction, released June 19 by the Pontifical Council for Migrants and Travelers.
The “Ten Commandments” for drivers, as listed in the document, are:
- You shall not kill.
- The road shall be for you a means of communion between people and not of mortal harm.
- Courtesy, uprightness and prudence will help you deal with unforeseen events.
- Be charitable and help your neighbor in need, especially victims of accidents.
- Cars shall not be for you an expression of power and domination and an occasion of sin.
- Charitably convince the young and not so young not to drive when they are not in a fitting condition to do so.
- Support the families of accident victims.
- Bring guilty motorists and their victims together, at the appropriate time, so that they can undergo the liberating experience of forgiveness.
- On the road, protect the more vulnerable party.
- Feel responsible toward others.
It’s obvious that these
“commandments” are really more suggestions to avoid the occasion of sin that driving can bring about and should not be viewed as some kind of theological treatise on driving. IMHO simply stating,
“love your neighbor as yourself when you are driving,” would have sufficed and been less gimmicky, but then again, it did generate a fair amount of attention in the media and these suggestions did get out to a wider audience.