Sunday, June 26, 2005

The Pope Says "Drive Safe"

I just had to put this up. The first paragraph of this morning's Angelus was about the celebration of Peter and Paul this coming Wednesday. And then B16 made an impassioned plea to vacation commuters to be careful while driving.

As the full text is not yet available in English, here's my rough translation of the graf appealing for road safety:

"The end of June marks, for the countries of the northern hemisphere, the beginning of the summer season and for this reason starts vacation season. While I wish a happy vacation to all who are able to spend peacefully some time of well-deserved rest and relaxation, I'd like to make an appeal to prudence to all those who take to the roads to reach their holiday destinations. Each day, sadly, but especially on the weekends, accidents occur where human lives are tragically cut short, and more than half of the victims are of a young age. In recent years, efforts have been made to prevent these tragic events, but more can be done with the contributions and the help of all. We must combat distractions and superficiality, which in a moment can ruin one's own future and that of others. Life is precious and unique: we must respect and protect it always, and we do this also by our correct and prudent behavior on the road."


Now that's a pro-life speech. I put it right up there with John XXIII's Window Exhortation to "Go home, kiss your children and tell them the Pope loves them."

-30-

1 Comments:

Blogger Perry Lorenzo said...

WEll, I understand the superciliousness with which the Pope's comments might be received. But let's remember a couple things. First, he is actually acknowledging a real fact--lots, yes, LOTS of people are killed or maimed in driving crashes, usually caused by alcolhol, and he is lovingly warning us all to be careful, not to be frivolous, and to enjoy our vacation time with integrity and responsibility. Hardly an inappropriate comment from the Universal Pastor. Second, the Pope's comments come from Love, the Love that is concerned for all of us at the moment of our death--that one and only moment that comes for all of us--that moment for which our entire life is a preparation. So I, for one, even little me living in callously liberal Seattle, am warmed by the Pope's warning and encouraged by his loving and paternal care. There's no point in having a supercilious heart. After all, a heart looks pretty silly above the eyebrows!

26/6/05 22:43  

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