With the start of the summer holidays in Europe, the number of accidents is triggered. Over the past year nearly two thousand people died in accident in Spain, four were pedestrians without safety vest.

Aware of the serious problem of road safety is in society, the Spanish Episcopal Conference has a service of Ministry of Road not only to raise awareness of the danger, but also to bring the Word of God to those who spend much of their lives upon four wheels.

The priest Father Joseph would is responsible for the Pastoral Care of the Road in Spain: pioneer pastoral service in the world, born more than 50 years ago when a priest was helped by a truck driver on Christmas Eve 1962.

“A priest had to go from one village to another and had no car. A truck driver stopped to help and on the way told about his life, how difficult it was to always work on the road and how that special Christmas day will not come for dinner with his family for a setback on the trip, “says Father would CNA.

This impressed the priest who began this pastoral road, an initiative that in 1968 the EEC endorsed.

This time it joins the Year of Mercy under the slogan “Blessed are the merciful” and calls everyone connected with the road: truckers, truckers, taxi drivers, bus drivers, ambulances, etc.

This message is also aimed “to people who every day spend most of their time behind the wheel for work, need or because they enjoy holiday, also motorists with reflective vest, cyclists and pedestrians who, in one way or another, make use of public roads “.

Proof of this was a recent blessing of trucks Father would made in a village near the city of Albacete.

“It’s a very nice day because at that time his family accompanies the truck driver. They enter the cabin, which is a very special place for them. Truck blessed with holy water and gave them a picture of St. Christopher, prayer driver, “he told CNA the priest.

“The Church has always left as the main date day responsibility in traffic, held in early July that coincides with the feast of San Cristobal and the beginning of massive summer vacation,” says P. would.

This pastoral also deals with those who suffer the pain of the loss of a loved one who died in the accident and also those who suffer the consequences thereof.

So the third Sunday of November celebrates a Mass in memory of those who died on the roads and in May a day to comfort the family and who changed their lives after an accident.

Given the millions of journeys are made each summer throughout the world, P. would recommend to be “too tenderhearted on the road”.

“Everyone has passed us going in a car and insulting other drivers because they do wrong. It is therefore important to know that in the car and on the road also have to give in and be merciful “.”The exercise of spiritual and corporal works of mercy is also beneficial for those who performed and in this case the use of the car with reflective tape also helps us exercise them,” he says.

Also encouraged to take advantage journeys to pray and remember that a few words of Pope Paul VI who said “enjoy life while you’re on your way and raising the spirit to God when you see in a town that stands the belfry.”