NEW YORK – About $2,500, believed to be part of a church collection, was stolen from the rooms of two priests at the parish house at St. Patricks Cathedral Sunday.
It was reported to the police that shortly after 7:30 a.m. Sunday an unidentified man walked into the unlocked residence on East 51st Street while the priests were attending an early morning Mass. Apparently the money was part of the church collection.
This was the second incident to occur on the cathedral grounds this year. During New Year’s Day Mass, a man attempted to handcuff himself to Archbishop Edward Egan. Church ushers and a police detective who were attending the service quickly tackled the man and he was arrested.
An unemployed architect, of Hoboken, N.J., was ordered by a judge to undergo a psychiatric exam. The arrested man, says in a written statement given to police and prosecutors that he has filed five lawsuits against the church and “all have been thrown out of court by Christian judges.”
“So I decided to arrest the archbishop, one of my defendants, for his criminal activities of fraud and racketeering, and enter a criminal case into court,” he said in his statement. The man was arraigned on three misdemeanor charges — disruption of a religious service, resisting arrest, and unlawful imprisonment.
