When one puts your savings (many or few) in investment funds what you want are good returns. May your money generate more money. The question is… When pursuing this objective, can any criteria be applied beyond the strictly economic one? Is the search for profitability compatible with a moral approach? There are people who believe that the answer is ‘yes’ and that the financial sector must grow with an eye on environmental ethics or social, what happens, for example, by not supporting polluting companies.
In that line, more and more people He decides to put his money in another type of investment funds: those that combine the search for profits with the morality of the Catholic Church.
Investments and ethics? Exact. Although investment funds and exchange traded funds (ETF) are tools created to generate money, part of the financial sector has been trying to manage them with an ethical approach.
Their idea is very simple: they offer returns, but with the guarantee that their analysts will be as attentive to the stock market as they are to the ESG criteria (Environmental, social and governance). That is, the idea is to bet on companies that in theory apply good practices and are respectful of the environment.
What about religion? Among these ‘ethical’ funds, not all of them focus on respect for nature or human rights. There are those who emphasize the spiritual. His idea is that money generates profitability thanks to companies that conform to the precepts of a religion.
Said this way, it may sound very abstract, but in practice it is very simple: investors avoid companies that make money through pornography, contraceptives, gambling, drugs, child exploitation, weapons, stem cell research… A clear example is the ‘Islamic EFT’funds that operate with sharia on the one hand, betting on companies that comply with the laws of the Koran.
Does it happen with Christianity? Yes, too. In fact, just a few months ago, in februarythe Vatican Bank launched two stock indices that aim to make it easier for those who want to invest their money with a Catholic mentality. To be more precise, the Institute for the Opera of Religion (IOR) presented the Morningstar IOE Eurozone Catholic Principles and Morningstar IOR US Catholic Principles, a sort of S&P 500 and Euro Stoxx 50 ‘Vatican version’.
“Both benchmarks are developed following best market practices and in accordance with Catholic ethical criteria. They are designed to serve as a reference for Catholic investments around the world,” explains the IOR. In the case of the European index are included for example, the banks Santander and BBVA, the technology company ASML or the luxury firm Hermes, while other multinationals with defense subsidiaries or presence in the alcohol market are relegated. In the case of the USA, Meta or Amazon appear.
But… Do these funds move money? Yes. We know it thanks to a recent analysis of Five Days which confirms that Christian funds are strengthening their footprint globally. And clearly, too.
The latest report from the consulting firm Brightlight shows that in the last five years alone they have doubled their assets, going from just over 58.5 billion dollars in the summer of 2020 to more than 115,700 million at the end of September 2025. If we look further back, funds based on Christian principles barely accumulated an asset of 16.5 billion in 2009 or 1,500 in 1990.
What do they invest in? The increase in variable income assets stands out above all, followed by fixed income assets. In total Brightlight has identified 166 funds Christians, which is also double the number recorded in 2010.
Such an increase is not explained only by the launch of the two indices of the IOR in February. Much earlier, in 2022, the Church already published Mensuram Bonama document with “a set of principles and criteria” aimed at the financial sector. “Investors are increasingly looking for benchmarks that reflect specific value- or policy-based criteria,” defend Morningstar.
And how are they doing? Not bad. Although in general investment funds that are guided by ESG criteria have not gone through his best moment (last year they saw capital outflows worth more than $80 billion), the S&P 500 Catholic Values Index has located above of the S&P 500 in recent years. Nothing surprising, moreover, if we see the list of companies on which it focuses.
The growth of funds with a Christian focus can be explained, beyond the drift of the stock market, by their own characteristics. Some, for example, donate a part of their commissions to entities linked to the Church.
Images | Virgil Cayasa (Unsplash)
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