By Julie A. Miller
Catholic Herald
Christians taking stock in faith-based investing
SUPERIOR -- Investing based on religious and moral values is becoming increasingly popular. A dozen new faith-based mutual funds have been introduced already this year. Some of the new funds, as well as some older funds, are based specifically on Catholic teachings. There are funds for Mennonites, Muslims and conservative Christians, as well as secular social responsibility funds.Investing in accordance with one's faith is not necessarily a new concept. Ancient Jewish laws addressed ethical investment, and Quakers followed their faith in investing back in the 1500s.
The social responsibility mutual fund dates back to 1971 when the Pax World Fund was launched. Another pioneer in the field is the Calvert group which has been offering socially responsible mutual funds for 20 years. These funds strive for social as well as financial returns on their investments.
Church's stand on investing
Pope John Paul II also included the subject in his 1991 social encyclical, Centesimum Annus. He said, "Profit is a regulator of the life of a business, but it is not the only one; other human and moral factors must also be considered, which in the long term are at least equally important for the life of a business."
In 1991 the U. S. bishops adopted their "Socially Responsible Investment Guidelines." The document was developed to guide the the National Conference of Catholic Bishops/U.S. Catholic Conference in their financial investments. It also serves as a guide for Catholic institutions and individuals in their investing.
The document directs the bishops to exercise not only responsible financial stewardship over their resources, but also ethical and social stewardship. There are three ways to accomplish those ends.
Areas of concern
The original areas of concern in the U.S. bishops' investment policies were abortion, contraception, military spending and nuclear armaments. (Investment in South Africa was included in the original statement by the bishops, but the restriction on investments was lifted in 1993.)
The document also addresses the lending practices of banks and savings and loans as they relate to the availability of affordable housing. Issues of racism, sexism and women's participation in economic life are also included.
There are several mutual funds, available to both individual small investors and to institutions, that screen their investments to assure that the companies do not violate core Catholic values. Many of the funds specifically use the U.S. bishop's guidelines.
Catholic investment funds
A Wisconsin corporation owned mainly by the Catholic Knights, offers a family of Catholic mutual funds. According to Michael W. Dougherty, a registered representative at Catholic Financial Services Corporation, The Catholic Funds are available to both individuals and institutions. Dougherty said people are used to investing through savings plans at work. "Now they see they can do two things -- have the program they believe in as well as having a good investment."
The Aquinas Funds, is another group that invests based on Catholic teachings, as is the Catholic Values Investment Trust Equity Fund, distributed by Wright Investors' Service Distributors. Schwartz Investment Counsel, Inc., began offering its Ave Maria Catholic Values Fund in May of this year.
A new group of funds that has just started up is Carlisle Social Investments The Carlisle funds are for institutional investors or individuals making very large investments.
Todd Larson, media director of the Social Investment Forum, said that when the forum began tracking them in 1995 socially responsible investments totaled $695 billion. By 1999 the total was $2.16 trillion. "People really want to do socially responsible investing. They have also found that socially responsible investing yields good returns," he said.
Even with declines in the stock market this year, Larson said, socially screened mutual funds are still competitive. "They have weathered the storm as well as any others." The Forum is a national nonprofit association of investment practitioners and institutions that promotes socially responsible investing.
Investment guides on Internet
An Internet search for "socially responsible investments" nets a list of over 200,000 Web sites. Here are just a few that provide useful information about the subject:
www.nccbuscc.org. -- the Web site of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops/U.S. Catholic Conference. The full text of the Bishops' Socially Responsible Investment Guidelines is available on this site.
www.socialinvest.org. -- the site maintained by Social Investment Forum, a nonprofit organization of investment professionals
www.socialfunds.org. -- a personal investment site for social investors
www.goodmoney.com. -- has information about socially and environmentally responsible investing, consuming and business practices. There are also links to other social responsibility Web sites.
www.cbis-fsc.com. -- the site maintained by Christian Brothers Investment Services. Although their services are for institutional investors only, the Web site has information about faith-based and socially responsible investing.
The following are Web sites for mutual funds based on Catholic values.
Catholic Values Investment Trust: www.catholicinvestment.com.
Aquinas Funds: www.aquinasfunds.com.
Carlisle Social Investments: www.carlislesri.com.
(Note: This group of funds is for institutional investors or large individual investors, but the Web site is another good source for information on the subject of Catholic values-based investing.)
© Superior Catholic Herald, 2001