A motorists’ association in Portugal is writing to the Pope to complain about a priest with a souped-up Fiesta. Offhand, I doubt the letter will get much sympathy in Rome. Isn’t driving fast practically mandatory in Italy?
LISBON (Reuters) – A Portuguese group campaigning for safe roads has asked the
Vatican to ensure that a priest who owns a souped-up Ford Fiesta “resist the temptations of speed.”
Father Antonio Rodrigues, Portugal’s only owner of a 150-horse-power Ford Fiesta 2000 ST, has boasted of his car’s rapid acceleration to 130 miles per hour and “thanked God” for never being fined, the Association of Motorist Citizens said in a letter to the Pope.
“I am no speed freak,” daily Correio de Manha quoted Rodrigues as saying Monday. “I have a car that I like but I drive with prudence.”
The association’s letter, which was published on its Web site (www.aca-m.org), cited the priest as saying he uses the car to take youngsters for spins and to zip around to “arrive on time to the three parish churches.”
“We ask Your Holiness to help this unfortunate priest to ponder the gravity of his acts and the immodesty of his words and to resist the temptations of speed and boasting,” the letter to the Pope said.