My least favorite curial loose cannon, Cardinal Renato Martino, has really outdone himself this time. In his capacity as head of the office for the "pastoral care of migrants and itinerant people," he has issued Ten Commandments for Drivers—in Italian of course, apparently hoping to protect his vulnerable charges from the crazy drivers even more prevalent in Rome than in Boston.It should go without saying that the people who are most in need of the good prelate's advice are those least likely to heed it. I live in an area teeming with young drivers, such as the depicted, who break every one of the new "commandments" and then some. The few such drivers in the wider world who might actually know what Cardinal Martino thinks wouldn't care. And most other people who would care probably don't need to hear it begin with.
Why such ecclesiastical fatuity? Beyond a misplaced sense of self-importance, perhaps its larger purpose is to provide material for intentional humorists. You gotta love this explanation of where the idea came from!
