Catholic Church releases guidelines for ethical investing

In the midst of a criminal trial of 10 church officials accused of financial irregularities, the church presented a long-delayed document that sets out the standards to avoid improper investments.
VATICAN CITY - Earlier this month, the Vatican's former chief auditor accused senior Church officials of stealing and mismanaging funds.
Then this week came evidence in a Vatican lawsuit showing that the church had lost over 100 million euros on a shady property deal in London. This same court on Thursday heard a surreptitiously taped phone conversation between a once-powerful cardinal now accused of embezzlement and Pope Francis, in which the pontiff appeared to agree to secretly pay up to a million euros in ransom. to free a nun taken hostage by militants. .
And on Friday, the Vatican released a guide to financial best practices for ethical investing.
The 46-page document was originally supposed to be released almost a year ago, when Cardinal Turkson spoke about it in an interview. But the Vatican pulled the plug at the last moment, without explaining the delay. Church officials did not explain why the report was released on Friday, and Cardinal Turkson, who has moved to another Vatican department in the meantime, was not immediately available for further comment. /p>
But he and other officials have argued that the Vatican has cleaned up its law and that the new guidelines, which are aimed at Roman Catholic churches and organizations around the world, were another step in the right direction. He argued in the previous interview that the guidelines would help devotees avoid filling financial portfolios with morally high-risk investments that could lead to eternally negative returns. "It's a call to action," he said.
ImageCardinal Peter Turkson at the Vatican last December.Credit...Guglielmo Mangiapane/Reuters
The report is part of the Vatican Spiritual Treatise and Vanguard Fund report, setting out principles to centralize and formalize the management of Catholic assets so that it is consistent with the social doctrine of the Church. “The document simply says that anyone who manages finances must also accept responsibility for what managing finances entails,” Cardinal Turkson said.
The new guidelines, which were already common among Catholic churches in developed countries like the United States and Germany, would push wealthy churches to get up to speed on the pope's priorities, like climate change and helping migrants, and teach small churches dipping their first toes into the market how to avoid hidden dangers.
Jean-Baptiste de Franssu, the president of the Vatican Bank, said dangerous investments include gambling sites, dirty gas polluters, war profiteers and “adult entertainment, as they say.”
When asset management is outsourced without strict guidelines, he said Hey, money can end up in less than sacred places. "It certainly happens," he said.
The document's name, Mensuram Bonam, refers to the biblical passage, "For the measure you use will be measured at y...

World Nov 25, 2022 0 44 Add to Reading List

Catholic Church releases guidelines for ethical investing

In the midst of a criminal trial of 10 church officials accused of financial irregularities, the church presented a long-delayed document that sets out the standards to avoid improper investments.

VATICAN CITY - Earlier this month, the Vatican's former chief auditor accused senior Church officials of stealing and mismanaging funds.

Then this week came evidence in a Vatican lawsuit showing that the church had lost over 100 million euros on a shady property deal in London. This same court on Thursday heard a surreptitiously taped phone conversation between a once-powerful cardinal now accused of embezzlement and Pope Francis, in which the pontiff appeared to agree to secretly pay up to a million euros in ransom. to free a nun taken hostage by militants. .

And on Friday, the Vatican released a guide to financial best practices for ethical investing.

But he and other officials have argued that the Vatican has cleaned up its law and that the new guidelines, which are aimed at Roman Catholic churches and organizations around the world, were another step in the right direction. He argued in the previous interview that the guidelines would help devotees avoid filling financial portfolios with morally high-risk investments that could lead to eternally negative returns. "It's a call to action," he said.

ImageCardinal Peter Turkson at the Vatican last December.Credit...Guglielmo Mangiapane/Reuters

The report is part of the Vatican Spiritual Treatise and Vanguard Fund report, setting out principles to centralize and formalize the management of Catholic assets so that it is consistent with the social doctrine of the Church. “The document simply says that anyone who manages finances must also accept responsibility for what managing finances entails,” Cardinal Turkson said.

The new guidelines, which were already common among Catholic churches in developed countries like the United States and Germany, would push wealthy churches to get up to speed on the pope's priorities, like climate change and helping migrants, and teach small churches dipping their first toes into the market how to avoid hidden dangers.

Jean-Baptiste de Franssu, the president of the Vatican Bank, said dangerous investments include gambling sites, dirty gas polluters, war profiteers and “adult entertainment, as they say.”

When asset management is outsourced without strict guidelines, he said Hey, money can end up in less than sacred places. "It certainly happens," he said.

The document's name, Mensuram Bonam, refers to the biblical passage, "For the measure you use will be measured at y...