HOW WOULD JESUS DRIVE?

The Vatican, in a departure from theological matters, has issued a “Ten Commandments” for drivers. It tells them not to kill, not to drink and drive and to avoid road rage. It even seems to warn against tailgating.

The new papal rules are as concise and pointed as the original Ten Commandments that the Old Testament says Moses brought down from Mount Sinai. Like the originals, they start right out with “Thou shalt not kill.” They go on to say that “the road shall be for you a means of communion among people and not of mortal harm.” They prescribe courtesy, uprightness and prudence to “help you deal with unforeseen events.”

The fifth commandment says, “Cars shall not be for you an expression of power and domination, and an occasion of sin.” The eighth: “Bring guilty motorists and their victims together at the appropriate time, so that they can undergo the liberating experience of forgiveness.”

The Holy See Press Office presented the driver commandments as part of an official 36-page document called “Guidelines for the Pastoral Care of the Road.” It was published in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian by the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People. Automobile drivers, of course, are itinerants.

Cardinal Renato Raffaele Martino said the idea of preparing the document arose in 2003 at a European meeting on traffic problems. He said, “We know that as a consequence of transgressions and negligence, 1.2 million people die each year on the roads. That’s a sad reality and at the same time a great challenge for society and the church.”

The document praised the benefits of driving – touring with the family, taking the ill or injured to the hospital and observing other cultures. But it frowned on speeding, use of alcohol and drugs and failure to get regular tune-ups. It also denounced driving without a valid license, the reckless use of motorbikes and motorcycles, and “impoliteness, rude gestures, cursing, blasphemy, loss of sense of responsibility or deliberate infringement of the highway code.”

It suggested group recitation of the rosary by all the passengers, since its “rhythm and gentle repetition by all in the car does not distract the driver’s attention.”

The Vatican’s admonitions and warnings are especially appropriate in Italy, where speeding cars weave in and out on the autostrada freeways and in Latin America, which is largely Roman Catholic and where traffic discipline is notably lacking. They may even fill a need in Maine.

What will the Vatican think of next? How about a code for manners on e-mail and cell phones?