Santiago, Chile, Dec 13, 2007 / 10:00 am
A judge in southern Chile sentenced a Catholic priest to recite seven psalms daily for three months as a punishment for illegal parking.
Judge Manuel Perez said he issued the sentence after Father Jose Cornejo said he could not pay the usual $100 fine for illegal parking. Father Cornejo said he had parked in front of the school where he works because he lacked the money for public parking, according to the Associated Press.
Judge Perez told a Chilean newspaper that his sentencing decision was a tribute to Galileo Galilei, the Renaissance scientist who received a similar three-year sentence for saying the Earth rotates around the sun.
The judge ordered a court official who lives near the priest to check daily that the sentence is being fulfilled.