Filed under: Sports/GTs, Etc., Hatchbacks, Ford
Portuguese priest gets chastised for indulging in sporty car
Oh God, can it get any worse than this? You've managed to arrange the purchase of one of your dream cars. The only one in the country as a matter of fact. You get it and find that it is everything you ever hoped for in a car. This Ford Fiesta 2000 ST has the 150 hp mill that will get you up to 130 mph and beyond when given enough space and time. This being Portugal, those times might not be as frequent as you'd hope, but you love to open it up whenever possible. You haven't kept it a secret that hitting 130 is an easily-achieved thrill that you've thanked God for helping you survive without fines. In fact, you also love to share the thrill with anybody who wants to tag along.
Now along comes a Portuguese group campaigning for safe roads and they've made you their poster boy. They have even asked the Vatican to encourage you to "resist the temptations of speed." Why get the Vatican involved? Because you are a priest, that's why. This is the story of one Father Antonio Rodrigues, Portugal's only Fiesta 2000 ST owner. He says he is "no speed freak," but he likes to be able to "arrive on time to the three parish churches." The association's website quotes part of their letter to the Pope: "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," As if that vow of chastity wasn't enough, now you've got to deal with this!
Thanks for the tip, AlienPharaoh!
[Source: Reuters]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Nick 8:16AM (3/27/2007)
How can this be the ONLY Ford Fiesta ST in Portugal when they are available in all Ford Showrooms?!
http://www.ford.pt/ie/Fiesta05/-/-/fie_pt_carroc_st/-/-/-/
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James 8:22AM (3/27/2007)
Let the guy have some fun and shut the hell up.
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geo.stewart 8:33AM (3/27/2007)
if he is going to lust after something, better a car than many other options....
You Go Father!
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Howard Kerr 8:36AM (3/27/2007)
As a Catholic, I am appalled....at how STUPID this is. I was expecting to read about a priest who had bought himself a Ferrari or a Mercedes, but a Ford Fiesta? (No offense, Ford.) As a former Fiesta owner, I find this to be a bit overblown. When I was a kid, my parish priest had a new high level Buick every 2 or 3 years and a yacht...supposedly because his family was quite well off. Now THAT is/was a bit scandalous.
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Hamud 8:41AM (3/27/2007)
People with too much time to spare, they usually come up with insanities and stupid things like that.
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jlkinsel 8:55AM (3/27/2007)
I went to a Jesuit high school in Sacramento, CA where one of the priests had saved the marriage of a local car dealership owner. Every two years he got whatever car he wanted. This was the early 90s, Fr. Bill had a cherry red 300zx twin turbo, the lust of every guy on campus (I finally got my own a few years later).
Nobody gave him a hard time (that I knew of), so how 'bout they lay off with the papal letter crap?
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GOKARTN 9:32AM (3/27/2007)
First, he is prohibited from nookie, now this!
Damn, give the guy a break!
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Scott 9:33AM (3/27/2007)
this is another example why religion is for the retarded with no common sense.
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Mason 10:18AM (3/27/2007)
Scott:
Religion isn't all the same. Theres just a few nutty people out there that make the news. I've met just as many ignorant atheists as religious people, so lay it to rest.
As far as indulging in a sports car, please. Its a freaking fiesta, seems to me the priest acutally made a good choice with a sporty economy car.
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Jeff 10:29AM (3/27/2007)
#8 - This story has nothing to do with religion. It's some road safety activist group griping about someone who they believe drives too fast. They are trying to leverage his employer to pressure him to slow down. It just so happens his employer is the church. The chruch is not asking him to slow down (yet as far as the story seems) it is some bunch of clowns pressuring the church to try to make him slow down.
So, the "retarted with no common sense" in this story is not the church, but the clowns in the activist group.
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Brian Hague 10:29AM (3/27/2007)
Judge not lest ye be judged...
Technically, since he's a priest... can't he just forgive himself?
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retsel 12:31PM (3/27/2007)
he gets no sex... and not he cant even get a car...
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Aki 1:02PM (3/27/2007)
"he gets no sex... and not he cant even get a car..."
Lol. I mean it's a 150hp car for crying out loud. Does that mean he'd be committing an unforgivable sin if he drives a 240hp Camry? Some naysayers need to get off their legalistic highhorse.
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MikeW 1:29PM (3/27/2007)
Don't they have bishops bless crankshafts?
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TSW 1:48PM (3/27/2007)
@ MikeW, #14,
...only in Boston.
Just kiddding. :)
Seriously though, well done to the priest for his choice of transportation, and shame on the special interest group for their tactics.
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Yago Bal 2:00PM (3/27/2007)
That Association (ACA-M) is an anti-auto association... They are so fundamentalist as any association in the US (like those who ban comercials because of a sugestion of underware of something like that).
What I don't understand is all that misinformation about Portugal... Of course it's not the only ST in Portugal: that misconception started with Reuters and the mistake has been spreading.
But I'm quite sure Autoblog thinks Portugal is a retarded place somewhere in South-America.
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Eduardo 2:20PM (3/27/2007)
#16, in fact Portugal created a retarded place somewhere in South American, hasn't it?
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Yago Bal 3:15PM (3/27/2007)
And the problem isn't that he is a priest who likes speed.
He's a priest who ilegaly races the car on public roads at night (in a road with a high death rate), that takes children with him for some fast rides, and that publically praises it's own behavior on a large nacional newspaper.
So, has you see, not only suicidal and highly irresponsible, but a very immodest and loud wrong role model to the children.
I, personaly, couldn't care the less and I'd prefer the story to go away: the fuss around it makes it worse.
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ron 4:41PM (3/27/2007)
Many, many years ago I attended a Catholic school in a small town. We had a large parish with several priests - all drove conservative, black sedans. One day a new priest transfered to our parish and he had a pink, black, and white mid-50's Ford 2-door. It was scandalous. Yers later he quit the priesthood and married a Catholic nun that had also given up the vocation. Everyone blamed 'their downfall' on that multi-colored car he had!
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Don 4:57PM (3/27/2007)
Can we find anything else to protest over? Washing our hands? Closing the door? Kicking a ball? Jogging?
The Catholics are whacky.
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