Požega (IKA) – Regarding the parliamentary discussions on the proposed Traffic Safety Act, the bishop of Požega and president of the Episcopal Commission of the Croatian Conference of Bishops for Relations with the Government, Dr. Antun Škorčević, sent a letter to the speaker of the Croatian Parliament, Vladimir Šeks, and the Premier of the Republic of Croatia, Dr. Ivo Sanader.
In the letter, the bishop strongly supported attempts to prevent accidents and loss of life on Croatian roads, and in this sense supported the proposed Traffic Safety Act. However, he also expressed reservations regarding the provision that drivers would be completely forbidden to consume alcohol and the stipulated permitted blood alcohol level (BAL) of be 0.00.

“You are aware that priests must use a certain amount of consecrated wine during the celebration of the Eucharist. This means that in the event of the passage of the proposed law, every priest who sat in his car after Mass would be breaking the law and that the police would be justified in prosecuting him, applying the stipulations of the law equally to all citizens,” stated the bishop. He noted that the Traffic Safety Act stipulating a blood alcohol level of 0:1000 would be unjust toward priests, because it was unfeasible and unrealistic. “We are of the opinion that a blood alcohol level of 0.3 or 0.5, as permitted in the majority of European traffic safety laws, would not endanger traffic safety, if the legislature devotes sufficient attention to the other crucial prerequisites for traffic safety and if the law is consistently applied,” concluded Bishop Škvorčević.