Priests Fear Drunk Driving Arrests After Communion - Demand Chauffeurs

[matcom]

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PRIESTS in strongly Catholic Croatia are demanding funds to employ chauffeurs for communion ceremonies because a tough new drink-driving law will prevent them from driving themselves, reports said.

"It is a purely legal issue. We just want to observe the law, which means that we will not drive even after having a drop of alcohol, and that is impossible since we have to drink small quantities of wine as part of communion," a group of priests said in a statement quoted by the Jutarnji List daily.

The priests said they were asking for $US12m ($17.2m) a year to provide each of the country's some 2000 priests with a driver for five hours a day.

Croatia dropped its blood-alcohol limit to 0.05 percent in August, introducing one of the toughest drink-driving laws in Europe despite protests from both the Catholic Church and the tourist industry.

http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,10761731%255E13762,00.html