Britain's riots: society weakness is damaging our youth

What lies behind the violent outbreak of looting and rioting by young people that first flared in London and then quickly spread to other areas of Britain? How are the local Catholic Church and other faith-based groups responding to try to dampen down the tensions and what does this violence say about the current state of British society?

Monsignor Andrew Armitage is the Vicar General of the diocese of Brentwood and a parish priest in East London. He told Susy Hodges that the unfortunate reality is that violence "has become an everyday occurrence" for a small proportion of young people in Britain and adds that he personally "was not surprised about this outbreak of violence." Monsignor Armitage also agrees with those who says that "much of the organisation of this criminal activity (the looting etc.) was connected by the social media, by Twitter and by Facebook."

Asked about the reaction of the general public, Monsignor Armitage says "people are very scared" and says "there's been a general sense of unease about the problems of our society... that all is not well." He says "we need to reflect on what this violence is saying to us as a society" and about its moral values, and goes on to say that in his view the message of these riots is that "the weakness of British society is actually having a profound and damaging effect on our young people."

Listen to the full interview by Susy Hodges: