Priest pelted with pasta after shoplifting remarks

He was onto a loser with this. This is one of those cases where no matter how nuanced and careful you are in what you say, the story that people are going to hear via the popular media will have filtered out the nuance and turned it into a grotesque parody of what was actually said and meant. This article illustrates how it happens. Priest pelted with pasta after shoplifting remarks | World news | The Guardian: Contrast how it starts with the final remarks reported: "Jones said society had failed many needy people and it was far better that they shoplift than turn to more degrading or violent options such as prostitution, mugging or burglary."
If the guy that attacked Mr Jones had understood what was actually said and meant he'd not have made the reported remark about criminal records, for the options Jones was conjuring with also carry criminal records and bigger sentences to boot.

For the record I think that Jones is right if I read correctly that he is saying that the bigger sin is the social one: that we might only leave people these options... (it would be better for a millstone to be tied around their necks ....) In a society with our collective wealth it is a sad thing indeed if we cannot organise things so that otherwise okay people can't be offered options to help them resist criminality. The real question may turn out to be how often is this the case? It comes under the 'causes of crime' bit of new Labour's mantra -which they seem not really to have done much with ...