LONDON — 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, professor who chairs the Centre for Catholic Social Thought and Practice at Durham University. The lay theology professor spoke amid fears of further violence nationwide, in the wake of the July 29 killing of three small girls at a dance workshop in the northern town of Southport. A 17-year-old charged with the Southport killings was born in Wales to Rwandan parents. Fake social media reports circulated that the boy had been a recent asylum-seeker. (OSV News)
