VATICAN CITY - The Vatican on Tuesday issued a “Ten Commandments” for motorists to keep them on the road to salvation, warning drivers against the sins of road rage, abuse of alcohol or even simple rudeness. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070619/ap_on_re_eu/vatican_road_rage
I had a discussion with a friend of mine on the preceding article.
When I read the article I sent him a, little known, teaching from the Catechism of The Catholic Church (CCC), that speeding can be a mortal sin. http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc/p3s2c2a5.htm#II
2290 The virtue of temperance disposes us to avoid every kind of excess: the abuse of food, alcohol, tobacco, or medicine. Those incur grave guilt who, by drunkenness or a love of speed, endanger their own and others’ safety on the road, at sea, or in the air.
Here is what he sent me, in reply.
“BUT to drive recklessly is a mortal sin??? that is sick! all my life i thought a mortal sin was an XTRTEMELY serious infraction like nothing short of murder. u know something that only the worst of the worst could ever possibly commit. But thanks to your quoting of the catlic chrch “rules” i feel “mortal” sins have been cheapened to the point of making them meaningless. i mean to put murder, & rape in the same category as reckless driving and adultry is to me just ridiculous and further degrades the chrches credibility in my book.
sorry but i had to say it after u said it was a mortal sin…… all i asked was if ya think the popes driver always obeys the limit and not speaking of emergencies,”
This is what I have to say to anyone who may think as my friend does. When mankind holds the lives, health and welfare of other humans in contempt that is a “grave” - “mortal” (as the Bible puts it, 1 John 5:16-17; James 1:15), sin. If I through my own lack of respect for another person’s dignity and welfare, use that person’s body in a sinful contemptuous way then it is a Mortal Sin. If some one has a contemptuous attitude for those around him and drives recklessly so as to endanger their lives needlessly, then it is a Mortal Sin.
To take human life or to use human life with contempt is a “grave” offense against God!
To quote my friend again: “all my life i thought a mortal sin was an XTRTEMELY serious infraction like nothing short of murder”
Treating those around you as though they were nothing more then a rag to sop up the dirt on your garage floor, is an “extremely serious infraction”!
Here are some other statements from the CCC that may help to clarify God’s teaching.
2269 The fifth commandment forbids doing anything with the intention of indirectly bringing about a person’s death. The moral law prohibits exposing someone to mortal danger without grave reason, as well as refusing assistance to a person in danger.
Unintentional killing is not morally imputable. But one is not exonerated from grave offense if, without proportionate reasons, he has acted in a way that brings about someone’s death, even without the intention to do so.
For more on this subject: Highway to Heaven, DAVID GIBSON
The Light from The Son, hurt’s the eyes of those who wish to remain in Darkness!
Leave a Reply
|
June 20th, 2007 at 7:35 p06
Glad i could inspire you to create. however after reading you full explanation i feel more than ever that i was right, and that we / i suffered a misinterpretation. As you so often tell me, i must know that something is a sin / grave sin, whatever, b4 i can be held accountable for it, religiously speaking. the law statesw something completely different: ignorance (of the law) is no excuse.. having said that i dont consider ALL speeding in the same context as perhaps you do, that being contempt of life. as with most other things there are degrees of speeding. 5, 6, 7 mph over the limit is NOT the same potentially “grave” danger that say 15, 20 30 mph over the limit would be. Just as say an elderly person driving at or below the speed limit, could / would perhaps be a bigger danger than an experienced, much younger driver, simply because the reflexes of the elderly are not nearly as good as their younger counterpart. Heck my refl;exes stink in comparison to what they were when i was in my teen and 20’s. i had to stop pitcjing to my dayghter several years agio wheb she hit a line drive at me that i could not get a glove on in time and barely got out of the way of it. do you know how depressing it was for me @ around age 40, not to be able to field a ball hit by a teenage girl!
Anyway my point remains thats all things must be taken in their proper context and not just in a strict black and white.
similarly while a drunk driver “might” be in mortal sin for his drunkenness, that same “state” would preclude him morally from being in sin if he were speeding, simply because in his / her current state their judgement is probably impaired.
while were on the subject of mortal sins i must say that an even bigger joke is over eating being a mortal sin; a sin (metaphorically speaking), yeah sure it is, as are the others, BUT, THE MOST SERIOUS infraction one can commit in life, in line with murder, rape and bush’ presidency, HELL NO!
to sum up - intent - as you mentioned in 2269 above, is what separates a sin from not, and thats a BIG requirement. To have you judge me, im a HUGE sinner, but i honestly rarely do anything with the INTENT of harming anyone or upsetting god..
June 27th, 2007 at 7:35 p06
I appreciate your input.
God Bless you and keep you and may His light continue to shine on you.