ST. PAUL, Minn. — Church members are crying foul after police began issuing tickets for cars parked in the "No Parking" zone outside St. Louis Church, according to the Star Tribune.

The newspaper reported that a long-standing, unofficial policy of turning a blind eye to prayerful scofflaws no longer holds true and officers issued dozens of parking tickets during the 6:45 a.m. and noon daily masses.

"One woman got two tickets and had to pay $46. Now she says she can't afford to go to church," said Sister Jane Fischer. "People have been parking there for years. A lot of them are elderly, some are on crutches or in wheelchairs and they need to park close."

The church has a small parking lot that holds only about a dozen cars, but most days, between 75 and 100 people attend the masses.

Joan Wiik said she came out of church one morning to find an officer putting a ticket on her car.

"I said, ‘Hey, I'm in there praying for the police and firefighters. How can you give me a ticket?' He said once he started writing it, he couldn't throw it out," she said.

Police Chief William Finney told the newspaper he recently learned there apparently was a sweetheart deal in the past.

"Unbeknownst to me, some of our retired officers who attend that church talked to the secretary of the parking enforcement division and got her to tell the officers not to tag cars near that church," he said.

"Now that secretary is gone and a new officer working the beat is doing what he's supposed to do. There are, after all, ‘No Parking' signs all over the place," Finney said.

The chief told the newspaper the "no tickets during mass" policy has officially ended.

"Now that I know about it, we can't do it anymore," he said. "It's important that we don't give special treatment to anyone."

A compromise may be in the works, however. Parking officials and city council members are trying to broker a deal that could allow one-hour parking near the church or allow parking until 8 a.m. each day to accommodate worshipers at the early mass.