Readers respond to letter to Jacob Rees-Mogg

Jacob Rees-Mogg - Official Portrait

The open letter to Jacob Rees-Mogg, Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy from Laudato si Animators, See: www.indcatholicnews.com/news/45562 - has attracted quite a few readers, and the following responses so far:

Brian Crangle writes:

Your recent letter to Mr Rees Mogg misses a critical point. In the short term, this country and many others will experience serious shortages of various forms of power, especially at affordable prices.

Would you prefer that people suffered significantly because of this? Older, poorer people could suffer significantly, even fatally from not being able to keep themselves warm.

Mr Rees Mogg is not suggesting abandoning the green targets, merely delaying them slightly. Surely this is a laudable, pragmatic approach?

Brian Crangle

Virginia Bell, Laudato Si' Animator responds

Dear ICN,

In response to the criticism of our letter to Mr Rees-Mogg, the writer is certainly putting the best possible interpretation on the Secretary of State's words and actions.

Our letter invites Mr Rees-Mogg to explain his actions in the light of Catholic Social Teaching. We await his explanation with interest.

Mopping up instead of turning off the tap, providing for present wants or needs regardless of future consequences, these are the models that have resulted in our present environmental crises. They have to change, and immediately.

That is a main message of the Laudato Si' Encyclical which we are promoting.

Resources which are being put into oil and gas extraction could be put into green energy and into converting houses into being ecologically sustainable and energy efficient.

Yours sincerely, Virginia Bell, Laudato Si' Animator

See also: BBC report today - Bishop of Salford calls for rethink on lifting fracking ban - www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-63062304