Dean calls for calm and restraint

Prior to his usual Sunday Sermon at St Columb’s Cathedral, Dean Morton read a carefully-worded statement in which he appealed for people to think before taking action of any kind and he appealed for calm. His words came after four nights of disorder in the city, the worst of which had occurred on Friday and Saturday in the interface area around Bishop Street and the Lecky Flyover.

He began by noting that there had been what he called “enormous media coverage” of the death of the former Prime Minister Baroness Thatcher, which was to be expected.

“Reaction to her death as has been reported in the traditional strands of the media, as well as on social networking sites has been very wide ranging, from those wishing to pay tribute to her and express sympathy to her family, to those have launched very vitriolic attacks on the person of the deceased from political and other perspectives,” he told the congregation.

Speaking on Monday he said: “Regardless of who we respond to the late Margaret Thatcher politically, I consider it wrong for people to speak in such a vitriolic way and in ways which contravene the expected laws of public decency. There are some things that just should not be put in a paper or should not be shown on a television. Some of the remarks that have been made on some of the social networking sites have been appallingly bad. There is a limit to what should be out there for public consumption.

“You have to remember that she has a family who have lost a very close relative. It is important that from whatever perspective we come or feel that we come, that we bear that in mind.

Referring to Romans 12, Chapter 2, he said: “It is important that for Christian people if in a situation where there is somebody pouring forth invective about her in light of that for Christian people to come apart from the crowd and take a stand. Don’t just run along doing what everyone else is doing and saying what everyone is saying. St Paul tells us: ‘Be ye transformed by the renewal of your mind’,” the Dean said.

“I called on people to take a reasonable and sensible stance on it regardless of whether or not you agreed with Baroness Thatcher or not,” he said.