The pope spoke out as he welcomed Britain's new ambassador to the Vatican, Nigel Baker, on what was his 43rd birthday.

Mr Baker presented his letters of credential to the Pontiff in a colourful ceremony at his summer lakeside residence.

What many people do not know is that the late University of Toronto professor and Roman Catholic convert also referred to the electronic media as "an unholy imposter" and "a blatant manifestation of the anti-Christ."

Did Apple and Research In Motion executives, when they released their innovative iPhones and BlackBerrys several decades later, have similar thoughts or a glimpse inside the Pandora's box that their own brave new gadgets might unleash?

The internet and these wonderful digital devices that have helped connect and educate millions across the globe. They have shed light on and hastened the collapse of repressive regimes and accelerated humanitarian disaster relief efforts.

And they have, unfortunately, also enabled the darker side of human nature. The proliferation of pornographic images via the internet, mobile phone "sexting" and recent "flash mob and rob" phenomena remind us of McLuhan's insight that as we shape our tools, our tools indeed shape us.

This is no less true when applied to the crudely-fashioned sticks and stones our ancestors crafted to carve letters and images into sand, wood and limestone or to the ubiquitous 21st-century communication devices that instantaneously broadcast our every word and deed for mass consumption on any number of popular social networking sites.

Continue reading about the need youth have for education in technology ethics

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• Image: Michael Zimmer

• "They do not watch royal weddings or notice test matches",
• "How many [of the looters] come from homes without a father"
• "All we hear about is these scumbags on the street..."Shoot them. I would be in favour of shooting them."

Symon Hill takes some of them to task in his blog. He says they do not know anything about the people they are passing judgement on.

During last year's general election campaign, Nick Clegg, the Liberal Party leader said that the Tories' economic policies could lead to riots in the streets.

When Hill mentioned this on Twitter, he was accused of making excuses for the rioters by blaming the Tories.

"I wonder how anyone manages to tackle a problem without considering the causes", says Hill and asks if such "people invite a plumber round when the sink is blocked and then take offence when he starts talking about the cause of the blockage. "The cause of the blocked sink?! I want to defeat the blocked sink, not make excuses for it! Whose side are you on?!".

Read Symon Hill's blog

Symon Hill is associate director of Ekklesia and author of The No-Nonsense Guide to Religion.

At one of the workshops during the 'Let's Pray - Kia inoi Tatou' symposium hosted by the Catholic Diocese of Palmerston North, participants were asked to pray the news in five minutes on one post-it-note after reflecting on a photo depicting the riots in London, while listening to Mahler's symphony number 5.

Click here to read 15 prayers from that workshop
Click here to read more prayers from the Symposium

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Spirited Crone
Image: Brimming Over

She said the riots that have attracted the world's eye to London were inevitable, and the social problems that sparked the violence have been simmering in New Zealand for some time.

"It feels as though I have been watching a slow train wreck for three years,"

"I'm not surprised it's come to this, but I am really sad. So many social commentators warned the British Government it would end in this. They were told it would be a summer of violence, but they were in denial and no-one listened."

She says the same issues are present in New Zealand but they are expressed differently. "In New Zealand, we won't see the concentration of youth city rioting, but we do see and will see more youth suffering."

Young people's suffering was not expressed on New Zealand streets but in the fact that New Zealand consistently had the world's highest rate of youth suicide, she said.

Hayward is a senior lecturer in political science at Canterbury University. She has been awarded a $1 million international research grant

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Stuff.co.nz
Image: Rugbynews.co.nz

Haringey Citizens, is an alliance of civil-society institutions including St Ignatius Church and St Ignatius College. They are are part of Citizens UK, a national broad-based alliance of schools, colleges, universities, churches, mosques, synagogues, trade unions, social enterprises and community groups, which has been doing community organising in Britain for 22 years.

• Around 200 people from all faiths prayed together at St Mary's Church for two hours and then walked to a public Vigil of Hope in Tottenham, north London. Alvin Carpio from St Igantius and a Haringey Citizens community organiser said "We wanted to show the world that the majority of people here want peace and are not involved in this violence." Alvin said that while he could not condone the violence, he felt the fact that the government has cut 75 per cent of youth clubs in Tottenham as well as other social services, had contributed to the crisis.
• Sister Eugenia from St Ignatius Church, Co-Chair of Haringey Citizens said, "We acknowledge the social problems we face as a community, but do not condone the burning of homes, the looting of local businesses, nor the destruction of the heart of our neighbourhood. In the short term, we call for an end to the violence and looting. Tonight, we will stand shoulder to shoulder with other community leaders at the Vigil of Hope at High Cross in Tottenham.In the long term, we aim to continue our work in building accountable relationships with people, local institutions, the police, politicians and local businesses."
• Archbishop Nichols asks Catholics to pray
• Message from the Anglican Bishop of London
• Statement fro Evangelical Alliance
• Methodist Church Statement
• The Muslim Council of Britain expresses its condemnation of the violence
• Pray for London on Twitter

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• ICN
• Image: The Guardian