LONDON (OSV News) — Prominent Catholics have joined church leaders in condemning a wave of riots across the United Kingdom, while also urging greater understanding of current social grievances.
“The orchestrated violence seen on British and Northern Irish streets is an expression of social rage and hatred — those involved claim to be protecting communities and cultures, but their actions have divided and ruptured already fragile bonds of trust,” said Anna Rowlands, a professor who chairs the Center for Catholic Social Thought and Practice at Durham University.
“This isn’t standard summer riot behavior, but a new and worrying pattern of racial and religious intimidation, an attempt at vigilante border control within neighborhoods. Jewish, Asian, Black and Muslim communities are having to keep their children indoors in what should be a time of summer freedom. The routines of life have been altered, and in that lies an ugly power,” she said.
The lay theology professor spoke amid fears of further violence nationwide in the wake of the brutal July 29 killing of three small girls at a dance workshop in the northern town of Southport. Eight more children and two adults were injured with several remaining in critical condition.
Six-year-old Bebe King, 7-year-old Elsie Dot Stancombe, and 9-year-old Alice da Silva Aguiar were killed in a knife attack at a Taylor Swift-themed dance and yoga event. A 17-year-old charged with the Southport killings was born in Wales to Rwandan parents. Fake social media reports circulated that the perpetrator had been a recent asylum-seeker.
In an OSV News interview, Rowlands said “false narratives” about the stabbings had proved “gruesomely compelling” for “those hungry to feed the social media machine” and legitimize “looting and destruction of property.”
Meanwhile, one of Britain’s best known Catholic theologians also defended tough law enforcement, but told OSV News he feared further trouble if pent-up frustrations were not addressed.
“The government has reacted strongly and immediately, determined to show it won’t tolerate disorder — this is surely right,” said Dominican Father Timothy Radcliffe, a consultor to the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, and former master of the Order of Preachers, best known as Dominicans.
“However, we need to understand why so many young white men have lost hope and feel they’re not respected or valued, in the wake of profound inequalities and the shallow cult of celebrity. Violence will continue unless they find recognition for what they have to give. Each is made in God’s image and likeness and has infinite value,” Father Radcliffe said.
Unrest erupted a day after the Southport knife attack, with protesters vandalizing asylum hostels, mosques and businesses, while clashing with police and counter-demonstrators.
Although sporadic disorder continued Aug. 8, further mass violence was held in check by rival rallies in support of refugees and minorities.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, whose Labour Party won July 4 elections, dismissed the rioters Aug. 4 as “not protesters” but “far-right thugs,” and said Aug. 8 the heavy jail sentences given to rioters at publicized emergency trials was sending “a very powerful message.”
Among church reactions, the lead bishop for migrants and refugees at the the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, Auxiliary Bishop Paul McAleenan of Westminster, said Aug. 5 the “appalling violence” had demonstrated “a complete disregard of the values which underpin the civil life of our country,” and contrasted starkly with “the work of charities, church groups and volunteers who tirelessly extend the hand of welcome to migrants in acts of solidarity.”
Meanwhile, the conference president, Cardinal Vincent Nichols of Westminster, voiced gratitude “for the work of emergency services who put themselves in danger to protect the public,” as well as to local churches offering support to “those directly affected by these life-changing events.”
“We acknowledge the anger felt by many at these senseless killings. We also acknowledge deep and troubling anxiety about immigration,” Cardinal Nichols said in a joint Aug. 6 statement with Anglican, Lutheran, Orthodox, Pentecostal and Free Church leaders.
“Mosques have been attacked, hotels housing people seeking asylum set on fire and individuals set upon simply because of the color of their skin. Racism has no place on our streets … and should not be stirred up in communities or online,” they said.
Media reports said the riots had spread rapidly from Southport to Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester and other cities, including Plymouth, where the Catholic diocese circulated a prayer for peace Aug. 6, and expressed “solidarity with those of different faiths, races and cultures.”
In his OSV News interview, Father Radcliffe said he was “greatly heartened” that crowds had turned out to protect mosques and “protest racism,” indicating “a profound desire for us to thrive together as a multiracial and multi faith nation.”
However, he added that “false rumors and mad conspiracy theories” were also prevalent, and said he feared society could not “hold together” unless it rediscovered “a shared love of the truth.”
Rowlands added that she had witnessed Filipino nurses “intimidated on their way to work,” and an Anglican priest attempting to protect cemetery gravestones from being smashed by masked protesters to have pieces to hurl at police.
“The notion that the riots were about supporting bereaved families or protecting British culture is a mask for mere hatred and violence,” said the Durham-based theologian, who works with Britain’s Catholic Fund for Overseas Development, Christians in Parliament and other groups.
In an Aug. 6 BBC Radio interview, Anglican Archbishop Justin Welby of Canterbury said rioters had claimed to be defending the country’s Christian values, but had defiled “the flag that they wrap themselves in,” adding that the U.K. needed a “moral vision” to prevent a “breakdown of unity.”
Meanwhile, The Tablet, a Catholic weekly, called in an editorial for social media site X, formerly Twitter, to be banned because of “inflammatory content” spread by its American owner, Elon Musk.
Britain’s Jesuit Refugee Service said Muslims and “people seeking sanctuary” had been “deliberately targeted,” and urged citizens to “challenge the disinformation and racist, divisive rhetoric fuelling hostility.”
Meanwhile, the editor of London’s Independent Catholic News, Josephine Siedlecka, told OSV News priority should be given to “stopping violent disorder,” but said she hoped the disorder would “wake people up” and help “create stronger community bonds.”
“This hasn’t come out of nowhere — after 14 years of government cuts to health services, policing and education, people are struggling,” Siedlecka said.
“I sincerely hope the new government will begin tackling the social problems and the disenfranchisement felt by so many, who’ve now been taken advantage of by a small number of political opportunists.”
A memorial Mass for 9-year-old Alice da silva Aguiar, one of the three children stabbed to death Jul. 29, was held Aug. 6 in Southport’s Catholic St. Patrick’s church, where she celebrated her First Communion in May and will have her funeral Aug. 11.
In her OSV News interview, Rowlands said Catholic social teaching had “much to say” about the “root causes” of violence,” including the “social media frenzy that spills from a virtual space into the streets,” and the “digital agitation that creates an anti-community of action, that swarms without evident leaders into a vicious presence.”
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