Vatican City, Jun 19, 2007 / 08:30 am
A rather interesting document was issued today on the pastoral care of the road. The guidelines were created for the purpose of bringing care for the human person even to the roadways, since the Gospel should be preached everywhere.
The instructions were issued by a department of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People under the leadership of Cardinal Renato Martino.
The document - published in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian - is divided into four sections: The pastoral care of road users, pastoral ministry for the liberation of street women, the pastoral care of street children, and the pastoral care of the homeless.
Cardinal Martino indicated that the idea of preparing this document arose during the First European Meeting of National Directors of the Pastoral Care of the Road, held in 2003. "Its aim," he said, "is to guide and coordinate all the ecclesial bodies in the world of the pastoral care of the road, and to encourage and stimulate episcopal conferences of countries in which this form of pastoral care does not exist, to organize it."