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Vatican drives home vehicle courtesy
Motor City area Catholics weigh in on Pope Benedict's 'Ten Commandments' for driving

Joe Kohn of The Michigan Catholic
Published June 29, 2007

Metro Area — Pope Benedict XVI's "Ten Commandments" for drivers, released by the Vatican last week, seem to have struck a chord in the Catholic community of the Motor City.

Since the issuance of the pontiff's "Guidelines for the Pastoral Care of the Road," local car dealers, body shop owners and driving instructors have joined with spiritual leaders in voicing their opinions on what driving has to do with following Jesus Christ.

"It just makes perfect sense," said Deacon Bill Jamieson of Our Lady Star of the Sea Parish in Grosse Pointe Woods about the pope's driving guidelines. "Automobiles are so much an extension of who we are. When you talk about things like road rage, which can be almost a physical extension of a person. Instead of, say, punching someone in the nose with your fist, you use a car as a conduit for your anger."

The pope's document focused on the moral responsibility of drivers, stressing that the roadways are another means through which a person relates to others. Likewise, Christians on the road have a responsibility to practice charity and concern for the most vulnerable, and an obligation to avoid the "sin" of aggression toward others.

Like many faithful in the area, Deacon Jamieson deals with automotive matters as a nine-to-five job, handling the public relations of Driving Skills for Life, a driving safety program established by Ford Motor Company Fund.

He said he was "very pleased" to see the pope come out with a simple outline for safe and compassionate driving.

"The universe itself is permeated by God," Deacon Jamieson said. "We are immersed in this universe, so I think we have to recognize the presence of God everywhere — which would be in our automobile, too."

With safe driving already a concern in secular society — where promotions can be seen encouraging people to buckle up and avoid drunken driving — the Ford Fund offers programs through its Web site, drivingskillsforlife.com, to help teenagers who already have their licenses learn how to drive better.

Some Catholics in the area have had their day-to-day life directly impacted by the pope's document. For instance, the fourth "commandment" calls on drivers to be charitable to those in need, especially accident victims.

Body shop owner Paul Kowalski, also a parishioner at Our Lady Star of the Sea Parish, deals with accident victims each day. And each day, he says, people at his shop have to practice the wisdom that the pope preaches.

"People come in and express what happened, and often they feel they've been wronged," Kowalski says. "We kind of take the stress out of people who are in that position. We explain to them the repair process, and we try to put their mind at ease."

There's charity, too, he says, as his shop takes care of body shop work for institutions such as Catholic Social Services and St. John's Hospital.

Car dealerships are a hotbed for stories about motorists who seem to be too busy to think about Christian charity in their driving, says Mike McDonald, a salesman at Fairlane Ford and parishioner at Divine Child Parish in Dearborn.

McDonald appreciated the tone of the pope's message about driving.

"It's a good idea," he says. "It lightens things up a little bit."

As far as those stories go, just the other day he saw a distracted driver cause a fender-bender right in front of his office on Michigan Avenue. He's got plenty more stories, too.

"Especially when it comes to cars we see in the body shop," McDonald says. "We hear a lot of 'This guy was in front of me shaving and eating a McDonald's breakfast sandwich at the same time.'

"Everybody's just too dang busy doing everything at once."

Another perspective comes from Bill Evan, who advertises his Shelby Driving School in the weekly bulletin for St. Andrew Parish in Rochester. Evan says personality is reflected in driving from the very beginning — and he can tell based on the attitude that a teenager has in class just what kind of driver he or she will be.

"As far as courtesy goes, a lot of it has to do with their personality and upbringing," Evan said.

When teaching young drivers, the rule of Christ is an apt rule to bring up, he adds.

"We just went over road rage today in class," he said. "You kind of have to tune out the drivers with anger issues. You can't respond to that. If somebody does something like that to you, you have to do like a wise man said 2,000 years ago and turn the other cheek."

Then there are those who didn't learn to drive as teenagers, such as Fr. Stephen Rooney, pastor of St. Michael Parish in Monroe. Raised in Ireland, Fr. Rooney didn't learn how to drive until Fr. Bill Promesso, now pastor of St. Cyprian Parish in Riverview, helped teach him when he came to the United States in the late 1980s.

"It was very difficult for me to learn how to drive in Michigan in January, but thanks to Fr. Bill Promesso — he was a seminarian at the time — and some of the other priests, my driving is… well, I'm a very careful driver."

Fr. Rooney says he was surprised by how Pope Benedict presented his guidelines for the road, calling it "a wee bit Hollywoodish to have 10 commandments." Still, he said, it speaks to a significant part of life in the United States.

"It is an indication that people in the Church recognize that (driving) is a central part to the lives of many people," he said, "and it has to be related to our religious life, our devotional life, our life of faith."

He pointed out that, until recently, the rite for the blessing of a car was the very same rite used ages ago to bless chariots. Yet when it comes to the people he shepherds, they do think about their actions behind the wheel when they examine their lives before the Lord.

"There's a real consciousness in people's lives about traffic violations," Fr. Rooney says. "Not so much running a stop sign, but I think specifically with road rage and drinking — those two things are very prevalent."

And as Deacon Jamieson noted, some people aren't only conscious of their driving when they pray; they also pray while driving.

"When you're in your car, for the most part you're by yourself," Deacon Jamieson said. "And that's a good time for meditation."

He added: "While keeping your eyes on the road, of course."