Los Angeles, USA - A man was arrested Sunday after he handcuffed himself to Cardinal Roger Mahony's chair during a service to protest the church's handling of allegedly abusive priests.
Several thousand people were attending Mass at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels when James Robertson walked toward the altar and handcuffed himself to the chair, police said.
Mahony, who was delivering the homily about 15 feet away, continued with the service. Robertson did not speak with Mahony.
Robertson, 58, was arrested without incident for misdemeanor investigation of disturbing a religious ceremony. He was released.
Robertson said he disturbed the church service because he wanted "the people in the pews to listen to the victims' stories from the victims themselves, not from the people who put them in this position."
About 200 members of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, a support group for victims of clergy abuse, were protesting outside the cathedral, but spokeswoman Mary Grant said Robertson handcuffed himself to the chair without the knowledge of the organization.
Robertson said he is not a member of SNAP, but of a smaller group called Survivors of Silence.
Critics of Mahony, who heads the nation's largest archdiocese, claim he has been stonewalling a county probe into abusive priests by failing to turn over personnel files. More than 500 sexual abuse claims have been filed against the archdiocese and settlement negotiations have been ongoing.
Robertson's attorney, Katherine Freberg, said her client has a civil lawsuit pending in state court against the archdiocese that alleges he was abused by a priest when he was a minor.
"Jim was a silent protester. He wanted the parishioners to understand that Catholic boys were abused, as children, by Catholic priests," Freberg said.
Tod Tamberg, a spokesman for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, said a church security guard watched over Robertson until police arrived. "We were very concerned for the Cardinal's safety and for all the people attending Mass, many of them children. It was very tense," he said.