Neil McNicholas: Archbishop is right to condemn this injustice

Not only is there a moral issue involved in profit-making at the expense of the helpless consumer – excessive profits if their past track record is anything to go by – but an additional moral concern is that this is happening precisely as the colder weather approaches. There certainly doesn’t seem to be any other particularly obvious cause and certainly no justification. The Church has every right to speak out on what it deems to be a moral issue.

Archbishop Welby isn’t saying anything that hasn’t been thought or said throughout the country this past week, but the difference is that most people don’t have a pulpit from which to express their views. And another difference is, of course, that if I as a priest were to speak out on this subject it wouldn’t really command too much attention, but if someone in Archbishop Welby’s position happens to express his opinion, whether from his pulpit or in a media interview, he commands considerable attention – and therefore more power to him (God-power, not npower).

Every day we priests pray from our breviaries and, coincidentally, just recently one of the texts for our prayer was from the sixth century pope, St Gregory the Great, who said: “Negligent religious leaders are often afraid to speak freely and say what needs to be said for fear of losing favour with people. If they are afraid to say what is right, what else can their silence mean but that they have taken flight?”

As a Catholic priest, I can speak only for the teaching of my own Church which says: “It is part of the Church’s mission to pass moral judgments even in matters related to politics, whenever the fundamental rights of mankind or the salvation of souls requires it.” To that end it has a very strong commitment to social justice.

There does seem to be an expectation, however, that the Church shouldn’t involve itself – or that Church leaders shouldn’t involve themselves – in what would be generally referred to as “politics”. However the word politics, by definition, means “having to do with citizens or the city” – in other words “people”, and there is nothing that the Church is more about than people – yes primarily their spiritual welfare but they are living in the world, a world which constantly impacts upon their relationship with God.

My ministerial and spiritual responsibilities toward my parishioners don’t end at the church door precisely because being a person of faith isn’t restricted to church. Indeed our faith is lived out in the world. But I can’t help thinking that those who criticise Church leaders for being outspoken in social and political matters perhaps wish we would restrict ourselves to church as if that might somehow contain the voice of social conscience. What is it they are afraid of? What are we saying that they disagree with?

And so, yes, Archbishop Welby is rightly angered at what he sees (if I’m not putting words into his mouth) as blatant exploitation by those energy companies who have announced price increases. Everyone else in the country has had to tighten their belts not only to try to keep their heads above the financial waters, but to also make a contribution to the national effort to get our economy back on its feet. This shouldn’t exclude – indeed it should include all the more – industrial and commercial concerns that have it well within their ability to make a substantial contribution to this effort. But no. British Gas, SSE and now npower have jumped on an opportunist bandwagon simply because they can. And, of course, they didn’t do it in the summer when people were using very little gas and electricity, but have waited until the approach of the colder weather and, a cynic might suggest, before any threat to cap price rises sees the light of day.

What voice do consumers have? Very little. We can’t choose not to use gas or electricity, and simply changing our energy supplier won’t help because they will all no doubt be increasing their charges. And this does seem to be one area in which competition fails to drive prices down. Any one of the suppliers could have elected to maintain prices as they are in the hope that everyone would switch to them, but they won’t because there’s more money to be made by putting prices up. And of course there wouldn’t be any co-operation going on in all of this, would there? Perish the thought.

And that’s where the injustice comes in and so that’s where alternative voices, like those of Church leaders, need to be heard saying what everyone else is thinking but who don’t have a public voice – otherwise the silence is deafening.

• Neil McNicholas is a parish priest in Middlesbrough.