Catholic Investment Guidelines

The USCCB Socially Responsible Investment Guidelines and Mensuram Bonam, published by the Vatican's Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, both provide recommendations for Catholic institutions on aligning investments with faith and morals. Each has its own organizational structure outlining guiding principles and categories, with varying degrees of prescriptive detail on specific issues and policies. There's tremendous overlap between the two documents, especially at the thematic level. Both emphasize protecting human life and dignity—avoiding involvement in abortion, embryonic stem cell research, and environmental destruction. Where they differ is typically in specificity. One document may address topics like in-vitro fertilization, media glorification of violence, or genetic engineering in greater detail than the other. The USCCB guidelines have existed in some form since 1991, with several revisions and the most recent update in 2021. Mensuram Bonam was published in 2022. Some commentators view the Vatican document as an effort to create a more global conversation around incorporating Catholic Social Teaching into the investment world.

Screening is the process of filtering and selecting investments within a portfolio based on specific criteria—generally criteria that seek to align a portfolio with non-financial priorities and ethical principles. In ethical or faith-based investing, screening often means excluding companies involved in activities that contradict one's moral convictions.

For the Christian investor, this typically means avoiding companies that profit from grave evils such as abortion, pornography, embryonic stem cell research, and other practices that contradict or violate human dignity. 

So far, this largely describes what is known as negative screening, the exclusion of problematic companies. There is also positive screening, which is the use of ethical criteria to select specific companies for inclusion in a portfolio. 

At Integrity, we primarily use screening to help investors avoid materially cooperating with grave evils, while maintaining well-constructed, diversified investment portfolios.