February 8, 2008

We work; we earn a wage; we pay our bills.  What we have left over, we can give to charity or we can invest — planning for our future and that of our children.  Often when we invest, we use the gains that we receive from those investments to make charitable gifts to our church or other causes that we feel are important.      

This brings to mind the question of whether or not it matters where our returns come from if we donate them to the church or other causes promoting human dignity.  In other words, does the end justify the means? 

In an extreme example, let's say that we invest in Rick's Cabaret, a publicly traded company specializing in pornography.  We make a return of 25% on our money and give 20% of our gain to the Catholic Church.  Should we feel good about this? Is it okay to earn a return while supporting activities counter to the teachings of the Catholic Church as long as we tithe some of that money to the Church?

In the past ten years, the way we invest has increasingly been through mutual funds, which hold stocks of many different companies.  This year, 44% of the households in the US own mutual funds.  Assets in mutual funds in our country grew to over $11.9 trillion by the end of September 2007.  Just 10 years ago, assets in mutual funds were only $3.5 trillion.

Sadly, the great majority of these mutual funds are invested in at least some companies that support things that we as Catholics cannot; namely abortion, pornography, embryonic stem cell research, and contraception.  The good news is that there are now alternatives, called religious mutual funds, available for those who wish to match their moral values to their investments.  Religious mutual funds are growing and now have assets in the neighborhood of $17 billion.  Just 10 years ago, there were only $500 million invested in religious mutual funds. 

Now that there are options, why don't we pay attention to where our money is invested?  Let's put our money where our faith is and make sure that our moral values are reflected in our investments.  Then the question of whether the end justifies the mean becomes a moot point.

"Followers of Christ must avoid a tragic separation between faith and everyday life" — Economic Justice for All.

[Trinity Fiduciary Partners (Trinity) is a Registered Investment Advisor with the Securities and Exchange Commission. You can contact Trinity at (866)716-0077.  Some of the information given in this publication has been produced by unaffiliated third parties and, while it is deemed reliable, Trinity does not guarantee its timeliness, sequence, accuracy, adequacy, or completeness and makes no warranties with respect to results to be obtained from its use.]