Cardinal says drunken driving a sin
May 17, 2006
Drunken driving is a sin that ought to be confessed, says India Cardinal Varkey Vithayathil in a recent pastoral letter.
(May 10, 2006, UCA News) Drunken driving is a sin that ought to be confessed, says India Cardinal Varkey Vithayathil in a recent pastoral letter.
Observing that auto accidents claim thousands of lives every year, the major archbishop of the Syro-Malabar Church says those driving under the influence of alcohol commit a "sin against self and others."
The letter was read May 7 in parishes of Ernakulam-Angamaly archdiocese, which the cardinal heads. It blames drunken and careless driving for most road accidents in Kerala, the southern Indian state where the Oriental Catholic rite is based.
Cardinal Vithayathil quoted La Civilta Cattolica, a Rome-based Jesuit magazine that the Vatican's Secretariat of State reviews before it is published, to stress that those driving under the influence of alcohol commit a sin by placing lives at risk.
Road accidents killed 3,060 people in Kerala in 2005, the cardinal said, quoting official statistics. Throughout India 52,000 people were killed and 45,000 were seriously injured in 410,000 reported accidents.
Kerala, with a population of 31.8 million people, about 3 percent of India's population, accounts for 12 percent of road accidents in the country. It ranks third among the 28 Indian states in the number of road deaths, trailing only Maharashtra, in western India, and Tamil Nadu, Kerala's eastern neighbor.
Appealing to his people to cooperate with authorities to ensure road safety, Cardinal Vithayathil analyzed the reasons for the increasing number of road accidents in Kerala. He cited high speed, drunken driving, disregard for road safety rules, unscientific and faulty road construction, and narrow and crowded roads as some reasons for the high number of accidents in the state.
Syro-Malabar Church spokesperson Father Paul Thelakat said the cardinal wants to draw the attention of Catholics and others to road accidents. "Our concern is for human lives. Drunken driving is on the rise in the state. The Church wants to sensitize the faithful about the problem," he told UCA News.
Police officials and Church members welcomed the letter.
P. Vijayan, a police official, said he hopes the Church members would take the letter seriously. Cardinal Vithayathil has addressed "a major social problem of the state," the Hindu officer told UCA News May 9.
Vijayan is the top police official in Kochi, the state's commercial capital, where Cardinal Vithayathil is based. Kochi is 2,595 kilometers south of New Delhi.
The pastoral letter "is timely and socially relevant," Vijayan said. "Our roads have become death traps due to our carelessness. Only through creating better awareness can the problem be minimized." He also expressed the hope that other religious leaders would take similar initiatives.
Ajith Peter, who lost a friend in a road accident in 2005, says he finds the pastoral letter "relevant and rational." The 34-year-old Syro-Malabar Catholic says the police alone can not ensure road safety, because the "basic problem" is the absence of "civic sense" among people.
Peter said the cardinal's letter shows the Church's "concern for social issues" and gives it a human face.
"Despite all warnings, people drive carelessly and kill themselves and pose a threat to others. We need more aggressive campaigns," said Peter, who works in Kochi and has driven a motorcycle for more than 15 years.
The pastoral letter marked the second time since the cardinal became major archbishop in December 1999 that he appealed to Catholics to increase their awareness of how their actions impact society.
In 2003, he wrote a pastoral letter asking his people not to inconvenience other road travelers and neighbors with religious activities such as processions and parish feasts. That letter also urged Catholics to control alcoholism, opulence and degrading entertainment programs in connection with religious festivals, and to avoid commercialization of these events.
The Syro-Malabar Church and the smaller Syro-Malankara Church are Oriental rites based in Kerala that follow Syrian liturgies and customs, and trace their origins to Saint Thomas the Apostle. They and the larger Latin rite, which follow the Roman liturgy introduced by European missioners in the 15th century, make up the Catholic Church in India.
Cardinal says drunken driving a sin