Bishop Moth commends Vatican document that seeks to help Catholic investors make good decisions

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Bishop Richard Moth, Chair of the Bishops’ Conference’s Department for Social Justice, has praised a recently published Vatican document by the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences called Mensuram Bonam.

The document, released in November 2022, is a 50-page guide that provides Catholic investors with a series of faith-based criteria that can be taken into consideration to ensure investments promote the common good.

“I very much welcome the publication, by the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, of Mensuram Bonam on faith-based investment. Many Catholic investors in England and Wales already have a strong sense of how they should act to promote the common good through their investment policy. This document is designed to help Catholics and others who work in the area of business and finance discern how to navigate this difficult area.

“Pope Benedict commented, in Caritas in Veritate, an encyclical letter published just after the financial crisis, that: ‘Efforts are needed — and it is essential to say this — not only to create ethical sectors or segments of the economy or the world of finance, but to ensure that the whole economy — the whole of finance — is ethical, not merely by virtue of an external label, but by its respect for requirements intrinsic to its very nature. The Church’s social teaching is quite clear on the subject, recalling that the economy, in all its branches, constitutes a sector of human activity.’ This sentiment is repeated in Mensuram Bonam and it is through acting in this way that we can bring about Pope Francis’s wish that business becomes a ‘noble vocation’.

“Mensuram Bonam (‘A Good Measure’) is not intended to instruct Catholic investors to invest in particular ways, although a number of investments – included certain healthcare investments and armaments – are highlighted as requiring caution. The publication provides a framework for reflection to help investors avoid moral evils but, also, actively to do good. The principles laid out in the document should be considered carefully by investors as they develop their statements of investment principles.

“I commend Mensuram Bonam to all Catholics involved in the world of finance, whether they are individual investors working for institutions or they are managing the investments of dioceses, religious orders, other Catholic organisations or Catholic investment funds.”