Man arrested for protest that disrupted Mass in cathedral

Published: 2005-06-27

LOS ANGELES (CNS) -- Los Angeles police arrested a protester against clergy sexual abuse who disrupted Sunday worship in the Los Angeles cathedral June 26 by handcuffing himself to the bishop's chair. The incident at the 10 a.m. Mass in the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels began just after Cardinal Roger M. Mahony of Los Angeles finished his homily, in which he talked about personnel training, background checks and other archdiocesan efforts to protect children from sexual abuse. The protester, James C. Robertson, 58, approached the cathedra, or bishop's chair, and handcuffed himself to the back of the chair. Security guards surrounded him and remained there silently for the rest of Mass. When the service was over, police removed him and arrested him for disrupting a religious service in a place of worship, a misdemeanor punishable under California law by a fine up to $1,000, up to one year in prison, or both. Robertson, who says he was sexually abused by two Catholic priests as a teenager in the 1960s, is a member of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.

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