Re: Religion & Counter-Revolution: "I have to arrest thebishop"

["Charles Brown" <CharlesB@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

JANUARY 02, 09:25 EST

Man Tries to Handcuff Archbishop




NEW YORK (AP) — A man with a history of mental problems tried to handcuff 
himself to
Roman Catholic Archbishop Edward Egan during Mass — but ended up tethered 
by his own
restraints, police said.

``I have to arrest the bishop!'' Timothy Byrne yelled while ushers and police 
tackled
him Monday at St. Patrick's Cathedral, according to authorities. Egan, 68, was 
unhurt.

Byrne, with one end of the cuffs fastened to his own wrist, waited in the 
Communion
line until he was face to face with Egan, police said. Then he snatched Egan's 
arm and
tried to fasten the other end of the cuffs on him, but Egan pulled free, police 
said.

Two ushers, police Officer Thomas Regel and off-duty police Sgt. Daniel 
DiPrenda, who
had just received the Eucharist, quickly subdued Byrne, police said.

Byrne, an unemployed architect from Hoboken, N.J., was charged with attempted 
unlawful
imprisonment, resisting arrest, disrupting a religious service and criminal 
possession
of a weapon — pepper spray, which was found in his knapsack, police said.

Byrne has been suing the Catholic Church unsuccessfully for more than a year, 
claiming
it fraudulently collects money from parishioners and has duped the public.

He was arrested and sent to a mental hospital after threatening to cut off 
President
Clinton's head in 1999, authorities told the Daily News in Tuesday's editions. 
``He's
just got problems,'' Byrne's father, Patrick Byrne, told the paper.

Egan, spiritual leader of New York's 2.4 million Catholics, was unfazed by the 
attack,
concluded the Mass normally and continued with his regular schedule throughout 
the
day, a church spokesman said.