MILWAUKEE — One of Milwaukee’s Catholic bishops, who works at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist, has seen for himself how reckless some drivers have become.
Bishop Jeff Haines says he believes stopping reckless driving is a mission of faith.
"My rectory overlooks Jackson and Wells Street," he said.
He says he’s seen drivers running red lights and speeding well beyond what was posted, even tailgating.
"At that point, it just became a real passion of mine," Bishop Haines said.
In 2019, he took it to the pulpit.
"I wanted to raise the bar on it and say this is not just a social thing or a traffic thing. This is about the sacredness of life, and we are putting it at risk, at great risk, and it doesn't have to be."
Bishop Haines says it’s our duty, a religious duty, to drive well and carefully so no lives are lost.
"When I started to hear about Project: Drive Safer, that was an answer to my prayers,” he said. "We all have to do it together or it's not going to get fixed.”
Bishop Haines continued, "This isn't just being a good citizen or being a technically good driver. It's being a good human being or, for us believers, a person of faith. We are called to protect life from the moment of conception to a natural death and one of the ways we do that is by operating our vehicles in a right way so that nobody gets hurt.”
Bishop Haines also wrote about this in the Archdiocese newspaper. He said the response was greater than anything he had written before - a sign the community has had enough.
