[RickJ]

Yesterday the Holy See issued "Guidelines for the Pastoral Care of the Road"

Story.

It seems they don't have the full text on the Vatican site yet, but I bet it's a good read.

[magprob]

Can I still have my little Jesus on the dash board?

[shygrneyzs]

Interesting. Growing up we always made a Sign of the Cross before getting into the car, for a blessing to safe travel, even if it was across town. Sometimes, depending on who was driving, we made a Sign of the Cross after getting back home safely! I am not joking on that either.

[Fr_Chuck]

Normally I have been said to have religious driving, it scares ( well the devil) out of you

[RickJ]

Can I still have my little Jesus on the dash board?

Sure. But don't hang rosary beads from your rear view mirror. They might poke you in the eye if you accelerate quickly.

[Wangdoodle]

Just a side note. It kind of bothers me when I see rosary beads hanging in the rear view mirror. Call me a stuffy Catholic if you like, but that's just not what they are for. Any how, I would like to read the whole document.

[RickJ]

Just a side note. It kinda bothers me when I see rosary beads hanging in the rear view mirror. Call me a stuffy Catholic if you like, but that's just not what they are for. Any how, I would like to read the whole document.

I agree. I joked with my non-Catholic friend.
Catholic Christians should NOT hang rosaries from the rear view mirror. It reminds me of the practice of blessing one's self so quickly that people wonder whether we're blessing ourselves or swatting flies.

Both practices only help serve to make our faith look shallow.

[Fr_Chuck]

And I will even add a funny police side of this, in "most" states ( laws are all state) it is actually against the law to have anything hanging from your mirror while driving. That was the number one reason we always had for a reason for a traffic stop if we suspected the car of something.

Yep even read those handicap tags hanging, they all say to remove while driving. Even those little air freshners are illegal from hanging while you are driving. ( at least in every state I was a police officer)

I do carry my rosary with me all the time, I have a pouch that hooks to my belt and I always carry it.

[Fr_Chuck]

From the Vatican web site.


DOCUMENT OF THE PONTIFICAL COUNCIL FOR THE PASTORAL CARE OF MIGRANTS AND ITINERANT PEOPLE: "GUIDELINES FOR THE PASTORAL CARE OF THE ROAD"

CONTENTS

Presentation
PART ONE
THE PASTORAL CARE OF ROAD USERS

I. The phenomenon of human mobility

Road traffic and human progress

II. The Word of God illuminates the road

Signs from the Old Testament
Signs from the New Testament
Christ is the Way, He is the Road

III. Human aspects

The particular psychology of drivers
Escape from everyday reality and the pleasure of driving
The domination instinct
Vanity and personal glorification

Unbalanced behaviour and related consequences
Various manifestations
A non-pathological phenomenon

IV. Moral aspects of driving

Driving means coexisting
Driving means controlling oneself
Ethical aspects
Driving a vehicle and the risks entailed
The mandatory nature of road regulations
The moral responsibility of road users

V. The Christian virtue of drivers and their “Ten Commandments”

Charity and serving one's neighbour
The virtue of Prudence
The virtue of Justice
The virtue of Hope
Drivers' “Ten Commandments”

VI. The Church's mission

Prophecy in a serious and alarming situation
Road safety education
Target audiences
Appeal by the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council

VII. Pastoral Care of the Road

Evangelisation within the context of the road

PART TWO
PASTORAL MINISTRY FOR THE LIBERATION OF STREET WOMEN

I. Some key points

Prostitution is a form of slavery
Migration, people trafficking and human rights
Who are the victims of prostitution?
Who are the “customers”?

II. The Church's duty

Promotion of the dignity of persons
Solidarity and proclamation of the Good News
A multi-dimensional approach

III. Rehabilitation of women and “customers”

Education and research
The Church's social teaching

IV. Liberation and redemption

Provision of assistance and evangelisation

PART THREE
THE PASTORAL CARE OF STREET CHILDREN

I. The phenomenon, its causes and possible initiatives

The problem
The causes of the problem
Possible initiatives and their objectives

II. Issues regarding methods

A multi-dimensional approach

III. The task of evangelisation and human promotion

Specific pastoral care
A pastoral ministry based on encounter, a new evangelisation

IV. Some concrete proposals

V. The educators' icons

Jesus, the Good Shepherd, and the disciples at Emmaus
One final goal

VI. Pastoral agents

Training
Together for a joint commitment
Networking with a minimum of pastoral structures

PART FOUR
THE PASTORAL CARE OF THE HOMELESS (TRAMPS)

I. The beneficiaries

Causes of the situation
The precariousness of the situation
The dignity of persons

II. Methods of approach and means of assistance

Christian care

[Fr_Chuck]

GUIDELINES FOR THE PASTORAL CARE OF THE ROAD

VATICAN CITY, JUN 19, 2007 (VIS) - In the Holy See Press Office this morning, the official presentation took place of the document "Guidelines for the Pastoral Care of the Road," published by the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People. Participating in the press conference were Cardinal Renato Raffaele Martino and Archbishop Agostino Marchetto, respectively president and secretary of that pontifical council.

The document - published in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian - is divided into four sections: The pastoral care of road users, pastoral ministry for the liberation of street women, the pastoral care of street children, and the pastoral care of the homeless.

Cardinal Martino indicated that the idea of preparing this document arose during the First European Meeting of National Directors of the Pastoral Care of the Road, held in 2003. "Its aim," he said, "is to guide and coordinate all the ecclesial bodies in the world of the pastoral care of the road, and to encourage and stimulate episcopal conferences of countries in which this form of pastoral care does not exist, to organize it."

Commenting on the first part of the document, Cardinal Martino expressed the view that "Church and State, each in its own field, must work to create a generalized public awareness on the question of road safety and promote, using all possible means, ... an adequate education among drivers, travelers and pedestrians."

Referring to the evangelization of the road, the president of the pontifical council recalled that the Church also aims at "the religious formation of car drivers, professional transporters, passengers, and all those people who, in one way or another, are associated with roads and railways." In this context, he recalled the fact that in many countries there are "fixed or mobile highway chapels, and pastoral workers who visit motorway service areas and periodically celebrate liturgies there."

For his part, Archbishop Marchetto explained the remaining three parts of the document: pastoral ministry for the liberation of street women, the pastoral care of street children, and the pastoral care of the homeless.

In order to respond effectively to the first of these, said the archbishop, "it is important to understand the factors that push ... women into prostitution, the strategies used by intermediaries and traffickers to make them submit to their will, the paths along which they move from their countries of origin to those of destination, and the institutional resources needed to face the problem. Fortunately the international community and many non-governmental organizations are seeking ever more energetically to combat criminal activities and to protect the victims of human trafficking, developing a vast range of resources to prevent the phenomenon and to rehabilitate its victims back into social life.

"The Church," he added, "has the pastoral responsibility to defend and promote the human dignity of those exploited by prostitution, and to work towards their liberation, providing economic, educational and formative support to this end. She... must also prophetically denounce the injustices and violence perpetrated against street women and invite people of good will to commit themselves to the defense of their human dignity,. putting an end to sexual exploitation."

Archbishop Marchetto described the issue of street children, as "a phenomenon of unimaginable proportions,. 150 million according to the International Labor Organization." He identified its causes in "the increasing disintegration of families,. immigration which uproots people from their familiar environment and disorientates them, and conditions of extreme poverty."

"In order for children to have a future in life, it is of fundamental importance to infuse in them a feeling of self-confidence, self-respect and dignity,. in order for them to develop a genuine desire to resume studying... and to create dignified and gratifying life projects, through their own efforts and not dependent upon others." In this area, he continued, "it is necessary to seek out and meet the young people in the places they gather, on the streets,. and in the 'hotspots' of our metropolises."

"Generally speaking, street dwellers are considered with diffidence and suspicion, and the fact of not having a house becomes the start of a progressive loss of rights. Thus they become a multitude without a name and without a voice, incapable of defending themselves or of finding the resources to improve their future." Fortunately, "there is no lack of pastoral responses,. though insufficient, by parishes Catholic organizations ecclesial movements and new communities. There are people who go out to seek these brothers and sisters in need, creating a network of friendship and support and giving life to generous initiatives of solidarity."

In closing, Archbishop Marchetto highlighted "the close link of the pastoral care of the road with its source, Christ the Lord in the mystery of His incarnation, and with the Church and her preferential option for the poor, who must be evangelized while respecting everyone's freedom of conscience and letting oneself, in turn, be evangelized by them."
OP/PASTORAL CARE ROAD/MARTINO:MARCHETTOVIS 070619 (840)

[Fr_Chuck]

First European Meeting of National Directors for the Apostleship of the Road

Press release
The First European Meeting of the National Directors of the Apostleship of the Road was held on 3 and 4 February 2003 at the headquarters of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People at Vatican City.

It was attended by four bishops, national directors and delegates from the Bishops' Conferences of the following eleven European countries: Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Czech Republic, Croatia, France, Italy, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Spain and Ukraine. It is important to note the active presence and the proportionally large number of countries from Eastern Europe.

In his introduction to the working session, the President of the Pontifical Council, H.E. Msgr Stephen Fumio Hamao, pointed out that consideration of human mobility from the viewpoint of the world of the road is quite a recent innovation that calls for the attention and pastoral care of the Church. In particular, the archbishop said: “the road is becoming a place of expressing fraternity” to promote a Christian culture of the road.

Archbishop Agostino Marchetto, Secretary of the Dicastery, - taking up the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council's request to read the signs of the times (cf. GS 24) - outlined some criteria for evaluating these new phenomena of mobility in the sector of roads so as to provide an adequate response to them. He sees them making up a vast new area of apostleship, which calls for new givers and receivers of pastoral care and protagonists. He was referring to long-distance lorry drivers, car and bus drivers, tourists, road safety officers, filling station attendants, etc. and also the homeless (those who “live on the road”), with particular concern for children, many of whom live “on the streets” and “under the streets” of large indifferent cities.

Roads, therefore, are not just thoroughfares or routes of passage but also meeting places. So, as a result of the socio-cultural exchanges taking place there, a motorway or a railway station becomes a forum - an Areopagus - for new evangelisation. This gives rise to the urgent need to train pastoral agents, priests, deacons, religious men and women, and lay people, who know how to bring alive and bear witness to the Gospel of Jesus Christ our Lord, with suitable and creative forms of apostleship.

In dealing with these new phenomena, Church institutions and organisations and Christian associations and movements, as well as those civil authorities and bodies concerned, should improve coordination of efforts and resources in promoting the dignity of people as road users by pooling all their resources relating to a sense of responsibility, fraternity and solidarity. In this way, the mobility of the modern world should correspond to the mobility of the pastoral care of the Church and to refocused attention on this area by the management of public authorities. Some positive signs can already be noted in this respect.

Subsequent contributions by those attending the meeting highlighted positive aspects of the current “road phenomenon” - so to speak - achieved thanks to new technologies, cultural acquisitions and ways of behaviour that promote the human person and socialisation. The Church thus regards this “phenomenon” sympathetically and invites us to embrace its underlying spiritual and theological values, which reveal God's will (benevolence) for humanity. Indeed, roads can encourage personal interaction, and thereby a life of more intense relations, that render travel easier and offer greater freedom and safety at the same time. Movement is thus a human value, which can also reveal God and provide us with the opportunity to recognise the fellowship of humanity or faith in another person. Today's “credo” - as some would define movement - should in any case be experienced by believers with faith, hope and charity. For Christians, animated by these theological as well as cardinal virtues, the road thus becomes a path of sanctification.

Don Vicente Hernandez García, the former National Director in Spain, then gave a lengthy, in-depth presentation of the past and present of this pastoral care and outlined future prospects. The Church's commitment in this particular sector began long ago in Spain with initiatives aimed at lorry drivers and then other categories of road users. The objective was, and is, to raise awareness regarding road safety and the mutual responsibility of pedestrians and drivers.

Don Hernandez García also stressed the urgent need to evangelise among those immersed in traffic, promoting values that are rooted in the commandment to love and respect one's own life and those of others.

Thus, the apostleship of the road is mainly aimed at fostering greater awareness of the need to lay the basic foundations for peacefully living together, even on the roads, in a society that needs to become less aggressive, domineering and violent. This calls for urgent implementation of social virtues, such as meekness, respect for rights and duties and prudence.

The Church also intends to lift the veil on the great drama of suffering caused by road accidents, 90% of which are due to human error. During the 20th century, 35 million people died and a billion and a half were injured in road accidents. This obviously draws the attention of our pastoral care.

Faced with this tragedy, utmost priority should be given to a common commitment to road safety education, even from early childhood, and to attention for the families of those who died on the road and for those injured with the purpose of fostering mutual understanding and forgiveness. Those involved should include civil society, Churches and ecclesial communities, as well as the leaders of the various religious faiths. The apostleship of the road should also support its “professionals”, make the mass media aware of the situation and problems of traffic and promote collaboration between pastoral care agents and those responsible for road traffic. Equally important are safety measures for vehicles, road practicability, observance of the Traffic Code, at least some reduction of pollution, the safeguarding of living creatures and taking care of vehicle insurance matters.

The participants also focused on rail traffic by analysing initiatives in progress and its possible inclusion under the Apostleship of the Road.

The worrying problem of those “who live on the road” was also considered, particularly regarding the dramatic rise in the number of children concerned. Urgent global pastoral action was envisaged, in addition to the commendable charitable initiatives underway, although, as some of us are well aware, it is difficult to include such actions in the current structures of the Apostleship of the Road.

The objectives of the Apostleship of the Road regarding pastoral care agents and the Pontifical Council were then analysed.

As far as pastoral agents are concerned, evidence from various countries indicates the presence of some prophetic figures working with groups of road users, such as, for example, motorcyclists. Such presence of a specific apostolic charisma will be looked into by the bishops, likewise with a view to promoting the necessary pastoral structures. Pastoral agents must also undergo suitable preparation and training.

A service is envisaged at the Pontifical Council to coordinate all the ecclesial organisations connected with road users and to encourage and stimulate the Bishops' Conferences in countries where such an apostolate doesn't yet exist. More specifically, debate took place on whether it is necessary to draft a document on this pastoral care, either as a directory or guidelines, whether to celebrate an international day and convene meetings at the regional level for the Apostleship of the Road in other continents, possibly with a view to holding a world conference.

At the end of this European Meeting, the National Directors and Representatives of Bishops' Conferences for the Apostleship of the Road, after an exchange of news, opinions and in-depth analyses, expressed appreciation for the initiatives already undertaken by local Churches and recognized the diversity of pastoral situations in the different countries. The meeting also considered the recently acquired freedom of Churches that had undergone a time of troubles and persecution. These Churches now wish to know the pastoral experiences in the West that are not strictly linked to territory for the sake of a new evangelisation.

The participants reaffirmed their intention to continue the work carried out during the two-day meeting and examined future “tactics” and “strategies”, setting themselves, among others, the following objectives:

1) to promote greater awareness of the urgency of the Apostleship of the Road. In particular, where they do not exist, initiatives and structures - even if on a small scale - should be set up at least at the national level (within Bishops' Conferences). The formation of reflection groups was proposed to look more deeply into the current situation and identify the best opportunities for future actions. In countries where this particular pastoral care is already well established, efforts should be made to expand and strengthen it, reaching, if possible, all dioceses.

[Fr_Chuck]

*** continued from above. *** sorry if this is too much, but they asked about what it really said

2) To step up the exchange of information and materials regarding pastoral experiences among Bishops' Conferences in order to make progress together in pastoral efforts in Europe.

In this respect, it would appear opportune to fix a common date to celebrate a Road Safety Day, perhaps at the same time as similar European Union initiatives, by studying ways of civil and religious collaboration with the common purpose of fostering the welfare of the family of nations.

3) To prepare a second meeting of the national directors of the European pastoral organisations in the sector, to take place in three years' time, thanks to the initiative and coordination of the Pontifical Council. In the meantime, the national directors and the delegates of Bishops' Conferences will continue to consolidate their activities, which they will present at the next meeting.

This will be aided by the drawing up of general and practical guidelines on the Apostleship of the Road, which will be the responsibility of the Pontifical Council, but with suggestions and comments being provided by all the participants at the meeting.

Finally, since the problem of traffic and the Apostleship of the Road is an urgent matter everywhere, even though in different ways, it was deemed opportune to try and hold other similar meetings at the continental level, also ahead of a possible future world conference on the theme of the Apostleship of the Road, once the time is ripe for such an event.

[Fr_Chuck]

And of course this web site gives a lot of traffic death stats and the such.

Road: European meeting Hernandez