applying catholic social teaching to investment
TRANSCRIPT
Applying Catholic Social Teaching to Investment?
Elizabeth OldfieldDirector, Theos
About Theos
• Christian Think Tank (research organisation with a particular perspective)
• Credible, informed, gracious Christian voice that cultural influences can take seriously, right in mainstream public debate.
• Inter-denominational and non-politically partisan
• Arguing and demonstrating that Christianity in particular and religion in general has a huge amount to offer for a healthy society.
• Events (lectures, seminars, panel debates, conferences)
• Media engagement (appearing in the Economist, The Financial Times, The Guardian, BBC television and radio, Prospect Magazine and many more)
• Research
Session 2
Europe
Conclusions• Catholic Charities are becoming more and more important
to the Church. • Charities also serving as crucial elements in evangelization. • On the six themes of CST with which the report worked (the
option for the poor, solidarity, subsidiarity, personalism, family and evangelization) there were many reasons to be cheerful.
• One specific challenge for Catholic charities is a visibility issue. Many Catholic charities are simply not well enough known outside of Catholic circles.
Just Money• Argues that too much faith in markets, without attention
to the character of the people involved, and the underpinning values, led to crash of 07/08
• Major players like the Governor of the Bank of England Mark Carney acknowledge risks of so called “market fundamentalism”
• More and more people moving beyond “the business of business is business” to a wider view of the potential of business and markets to serve common good.
Session 4
Why are people looking to Catholic Social Teaching (CST?)
• Developed and sustained vision of a more human, relational way of ordering society and economies
• Makes sense to people out side the church looking for alternatives
• Pro-business and pro-human
Key principles of CST
1. Community and the common good
2. Respect for human dignity and the human person.
3. Stewardship of creation
4. Defence of workers rights and the dignity of work.
5. The option for the poor, vulnerable and marginalised.
6. The promotion of peace.
7. Solidarity, subsidiarity, participation, civil society.
What might this mean for you?
• Informed by CST, you can make a difference as people of hope and influence
• Catholic investors have long been trail blazers, bold and persistent enough to enact change
• Economies are just networks of relationships, not blind unstoppable machines
Ways to apply CST to your investments
• Negative investment (screening out of i.e. arms trade, pornography, gambling and shareholder campaigning)
and/or• Positive investment in the good
• Rapidly growing social investment sector• Ask what is the positive social impact of
this investment?• Best of sector investing• Charity bonds and green bonds (sometimes
known as social impact bonds)• Lots of options for different types of assets
with social purpose- property, energy, consumer goods.
Two places to start….
1)The Global Impact Investing Networkwww.giin.org
Impact Base (searchable list of social impact investments)
2)The Church Investors Groupwww.churchinvestorsgroup.org.uk
Tips• If you are very reliant on income from investments, think
about starting with investing a small proportion of your portfolio for social impact and seeing how it does
• This will likely be new to your investment manager- these kind of investments are harder to find so it will take time. Ask them to! The market responds to demand. Be persistent.
• Many of these investments are long term- be patient!• Increasingly possible to get excellent returns • Keep referring back to CST principles. Does this
investment help build a world that looks more like that vision?
Positive approaches
Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever
is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or
praiseworthy—think about such things.
Philippians 4:8
Please keep in touch with us….
Give us your contact details at the back and pick up a report
www.theosthinktank.co.uk@theosthinktank