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Two Catholic priests were taken into custody at the Federal Courthouse in Tucson this morning after they were sentenced to five months behind bars for trespassing at the military’s Ft. Huachuca last year.

The priests — the Rev. Louis J. Vitale and the Rev. Steve Kelly — had been facing up to 10 months in lockup. The San Francisco Bay-area clerics were arrested last Nov. 19 while protesting military intelligence training at Ft. Huachuca, about 75 miles southeast of Tucson.

They were set to deliver a letter to the post’s top commander, Maj. Gen. Barbara Fast, stating that the facility trains personnel in torture methods, a claim the Army denies.

U.S. Magistrate Héctor C. Estrada said he was reluctantly sending the priests to jail.

He would have preferred that they do community service work and remain under court supervision while living in their communities.

But the priests had previously said they would not comply with any kind of court supervision because it would mean giving up their social justice work.

One of the conditions of probation would be not to associate with groups that have been known to push the envelope of the law in their non-violent protests, such as the School of The Americas Watch and Nevada Desert Experience. Both priests have been locked up previously for acts of civil disobedience.

“That you are not willing to abide to being supervised disturbs me because it seems you could do more good out there than you could incarcerated,” Estrada said. “I think there’s a question of ego...I get the impression it’s somehow or other you are going to be martyrs for your cause.”

Prosecutors say the priests were repeatedly warned they were trespassing before they were arrested.

Vitale, a 74-year-old Franciscan priest, and Kelly, a 58-year-old Jesuit priest, say they are compelled by God to work against any use of nuclear weapons, and also to work against any form of torture, including training military personnel in how to impose torture.

In a statement to the court, Vitale confirmed he would not be able to comply with probation if it would mean disaffiliating himself from protesting nuclear proliferation and torture. “It’s like telling me I can’t associate with Paul or the other apostles.”

Had Vitale and Kelly been delivering pizza rather than a letter questioning torture methods to Ft. Huachuca, they would have never been arrested, stressed renowned human rights lawyer William Quigley of New Orleans, who represented both priests court today.

Quigley acknowledged the priests had committed a crime and said they were at peace about serving the time. “The real crime here has always been the issue of torture,” Quigley said.