Polish officials call for drunken drivers' names to be read at church

Published: 2006-08-28

WARSAW, Poland (CNS) -- Polish officials have called for the names of convicted drunken drivers to be read from church pulpits to combat rampant alcohol abuse in the country. "The Justice Ministry has instructed us to publicize cases of drunken driving and publicly censure those involved -- the Catholic Church would be well suited for this," Malgorzata Bednarek, chief prosecutor of the southern city of Bielsko-Biala, told Catholic News Service Aug. 25. "But we'll only make arrangements with local parish priests if church leaders agree. For now, we're studying the legal possibility of making a formal request to diocesan bishops." A spokeswoman for the Polish bishops' conference told CNS August 25 church leaders would consider a written request to have names read during Masses. Newspaper reports said the Bielsko-Zywiec Diocese had agreed to read the names at the end of Mass while parish news is read.

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