Archbishop eludes handcuffs during St. Patrick's Mass

Tuesday, January 2nd 2001, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

NEW YORK (AP) _ A man with a history of mental problems tried to handcuff himself to Roman Catholic Archbishop Edward Egan _ only to be tackled and tethered by his own restraints, police said.

``I have to arrest the bishop!'' Timothy Byrne yelled while church ushers and police tackled him to the ground Monday during a Mass 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 church ushers, police Officer Thomas Regel and off-duty police Sgt. Daniel DiPrenda, who had just received the Eucharist, quickly smothered 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.