Riots & Archbishops

• August 9, 2011

Damien Thompson, The Telegraph’s Religion correspondant writes:

Maybe I’ve missed something, but I can find no reference anywhere to the Archbishops of Canterbury and Westminster, respective leaders of the Anglican and Catholic Churches in England, condemning the wicked looting and violence of the past few days. There is nothing on Dr Rowan Williams’s website. And nothing on Archbishop Vincent Nichols’s, either. Have these two prelates really no thoughts to offer us? And, if so, why the hell not? After all, they can’t get to the microphones fast enough when there’s a chance to bash bankers or pontificate about climate change.

Interesting though their views might be, it’s the final sentence that gets me. “they can’t get to the microphones fast enough” eh? He seems to be suggesting that the two Archbishops ‘bashed bankers’ sooner than they commented on the ongoing riots. But the riots only started 4 days ago. Did the two Archbishops give their views on climate change less than a week after the theory was suggested? Were they commenting on the financial crisis long before the fall of Lehman Brothers? Because to me, that sounds rather fanciful.