As someone who spends a good hour and a half to two hours on the road going to and from work, I was intrigued to hear that the Vatican's Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People had published a document entitled, "Guidelines for the Pastoral Care of the Road." The document made headlines for giving the "Driver's Ten Commandments":

I. You shall not kill.
II. The road shall be for you a means of communion between people and not of mortal harm.
III. Courtesy, uprightness and prudence will help you deal with unforeseen events.
IV. Be charitable and help your neighbour in need, especially victims of accidents.
V. Cars shall not be for you an expression of power and domination, and an occasion of sin.
VI. Charitably convince the young and not so young not to drive when they are not in a fitting condition to do so.
VII. Support the families of accident victims.
VIII. Bring guilty motorists and their victims together, at the appropriate time, so that they can undergo the liberating experience of forgiveness.
IX. On the road, protect the more vulnerable party.
X. Feel responsible towards others.

While there have been some amusing jokes made in the media about the Church speaking out on this issue, I actually think there is much wisdom in these guidelines. I will be the first to confess that I am an impatient driver, and I have a tendency to speed. While these "commandments" are a good reminder to all of us that when we take to the roads we have a responsibility for our own lives and the lives of those around us, the document actually goes far beyond simply stating these basic rules of the road.

While the document acknowledges the benefits of increased mobility in our world, it also uses our role as drivers as a metaphor for our approach to life. Are we aggressive, self-centered, and domineering as drivers? Do we manifest an attitude that respects the life, needs, and rights of others? What is it about driving that can bring out the worst aspects of ourselves? Being responsible drivers is not simply about "being nice," but can be a matter of life and death:

During the 20th century approximately 35 million people lost their lives in road accidents, whilst around one and a half billion were injured. In 2000 alone, deaths amounted to 1,260,000, and it is also noteworthy that around 90% of accidents were due to human error.

We literally hold one another's lives in our hands when we drive; and the tragedy of an accident is not only for the victims and the families of the victims, but for the driver who never intended anyone harm, but must now live with the consequences of the accident.

While the section on driving got the most (only?) press, it is important to note that that section is only one of four in the document. The remaining sections are on the liberation of prostitutes, the care for street children, and care for the homeless. The document speaks of the slavery of prostitution as human trafficking and exploitation. It recognizes that not just women, but also men and children are victims of this form of exploitation. The document notes that many prostitutes experienced violence and sexual abuse as children and that prostitution is often the effect of an unjust society where people are looking for a means to support themselves and their families or a way out of an impoverished country. The document states that:

The victims of prostitution are human beings, who in many cases cry out for help, to be freed from slavery, because selling one's own body on the street is usually not what they would voluntarily choose to do. Of course, each person has a different story to tell, but a common thread of violence, abuse, mistrust and low self-esteem, as well as fear and lack of opportunities, runs through them. They all bear deep wounds that need healing, whilst they seek relationships, love, security, affection, self-assertion and a better future for themselves and their families.

The "deeply rooted problems" of the "customers" are also acknowledged. A call is issued for churches to offer solidarity and compassion, engaging in an active involvement to bring about the end of this form of exploitation and to foster opportunities for the rehabilitation of its victims, both prostitutes and customers.

The section on street children, defined as "those with no ties to their families, which means that they have made the street their place of abode," notes that there are around 100 million children living on the streets, and the numbers are increasing. Added to this number are those who have a home and a bed they return to at night, but who spend most of their waking hours on the streets. The document notes the primary causes for this phenomenon as:

Increasing family breakdown; tensions between parents; aggressive, violent and sometimes perverse behaviour towards children; emigration, which entails uprooting from everyday life and consequent disorientation; conditions of poverty and hardship that destroy dignity and deprive people of the wherewithal to survive; the spread of drug addiction and alcoholism; and prostitution and the sex industry, which continue to take an extraordinary toll of victims, often driven by terrible violence to the most brutal kind of slavery. Other factors are wars and social disorder that upset normal life, including for minors, and the spread, primarily in Europe, of a "culture characterised by pleasure and transgression" -- which should not be underestimated -- in environments marked by a lack of reference values, in which young people in general suffer from loneliness and an ever deeper sense of the emptiness of existence.

Again we, the Church, are called upon to address these very serious issues in our society and our world.

The final section is on the homeless in general. It calls on us as Church "to accompany and serve these people whatever their moral or personal situation might be." Furthermore, we are called to recognize that:

People who live on the street are looked on with wariness and suspicion, and being homeless is the start of gradually losing one's rights. It is more difficult to obtain welfare, almost impossible to find work, and no longer possible to obtain identity papers. These poor people become a nameless and voiceless crowd, unable to defend themselves and find the necessary resources for a better future. The Word of God censures any form of irritation or indifference towards poor people (poverty fatigue), reminding us that the Lord will judge our lives by assessing how and how much we have loved the poor (cf. Matthew 25:31-46). According to Saint Augustine, we are requested to help any poor person so as not to run the risk of denying someone who might be Christ himself.

We are reminded that the homeless are in need, not only of food and shelter, but also of "kindness, respect, and human warmth." There is so much in this document to think about, pray about, and act upon! I am struck by how unfortunate it is that most of the time we hear very little about the wisdom that the Church offers in the documents it publishes and that when the media does pick up a story like this because of its "curiousity" element, it leaves out the most important parts. (Note: If you would like to read the document yourself, you can access it by clicking here!)