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Earlier this year, the Vatican’s Institute for the Works of Religion announced a partnership with Morningstar to launch a new Morningstar IOR US Catholic Principles Index (or simply “the index”). For those seeking to align their investments with the Church’s teaching, it sounded like welcome news.
At my faith-based registered investment advisory firm, I work with Catholic and Christian clients. I build portfolios that screen out companies whose practices conflict with the Church’s moral teaching. I’m always looking for better screening methods, so when I saw the index announced, I was eager to review it. I expected to find a clear alignment with Catholic teaching. Instead, I discovered something that gave me pause.
Some of the index’s holdings publicly committed to paying for abortion travel after the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision. JPMorgan Chase—the index’s fourth-largest holding—committed in July 2022 to covering travel costs for employees seeking legal abortions out of state. JPMorgan wasn’t alone. Netflix, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo, Walt Disney, Comcast, CVS Health, and AT&T made similar commitments in the same period.
This discovery cut me to the core. As a faithful Catholic, I understand how difficult it can be to apply the Church’s moral teachings to modern financial markets. And yet that’s exactly what I’m called to do. My financial decisions, and those that I recommend to my clients, must reflect what the Church teaches about the dignity of human life.
Here’s the problem I’m wrestling with. How can a Vatican-backed product with good intentions end up holding companies funding abortion? What is that telling faithful Catholic investors? For me, it shows that you can’t outsource moral judgment to a label or an index, even a good one. The current Catholic index is proof of this.
It is easy for Catholic investors to fall into what I call “investment agnosticism”—the habit of caring only about whether an investment is profitable, and ignoring the moral weight of what it actually does in the world. But the Church teaches that conscience is not simply a personal feeling about right and wrong. It’s our reason at work—applying moral truth to the choices in front of us. As the U.S. bishops remind us in Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship, our moral obligation includes how we participate in economic life. That includes investing.
It’s tempting to reduce moral judgment to checklists: Does this investment pass a screen? Has someone else already approved it? Does it carry a label suggesting it aligns with Catholic values? But a formed conscience can’t work that way. You have to actually think.
Before investing in any company, a formed conscience needs real information, not just a label. Ask yourself: What does this company actually produce and support? What are its stated positions on abortion, pornography, and practices that undermine the family? Can I find its screening methodology in writing? Does my advisor know what’s in my portfolio, and can they explain the moral reasoning behind it? These are the kinds of questions to ask before purchasing a fund or shares in a company.
The stakes here are real. As St. John Paul II wrote in Veritatis Splendor, certain acts are intrinsically evil and can never be justified by circumstances or intentions. Abortion is one of those acts. When a corporation publicly commits to funding it—and we knowingly invest in that corporation—we’re not in some abstract moral gray zone. We are choosing, with our own capital, to support a company that supports something the Church calls intrinsically evil. That’s not “well, it’s complicated.” It’s a clear moral question with a clear answer.
Moving beyond investment agnosticism doesn’t mean getting every decision right. It means refusing to stop asking the questions. You don’t have to be perfect, but you do have to be intentional.
Not long ago, I was speaking with a client of mine who is also a Catholic priest. At one point he said, “Consider paying taxes. We all know our tax dollars support actions we don’t agree with.”
He was right. That kind of unavoidable entanglement is part of living in a fallen world. But as we kept talking, a distinction came clear: investing is a choice in a way that paying taxes is not. When I direct capital toward a company, I’m not being compelled—I’m choosing. And where there’s choice, there’s moral responsibility. The priest was right that some entanglement is unavoidable. But that’s exactly why the entanglements I can avoid matter more, not less.
The danger isn’t open rejection of Church teaching. It’s a quiet drift—the habit of trusting the name on the product. Markets aren’t morally neutral. Every dollar you invest is a vote—for what a company is doing, for what it stands for, for what you’re willing to let your capital support. We live in what St. John Paul II called the “culture of death” (Evangelium Vitae). Living faithfully in the world means letting truth shape our choices, even when it costs us.
So what are we actually trying to accomplish with Catholic investing? Not to pass a screen. Not to check a box. The goal is to make sure your money and your life reflect what you profess about the dignity of every human life.
A Catholic index, even one with the Vatican’s blessing, is a helpful guide. But it can never replace a well-formed conscience.
Photo by Anne Nygård on Unsplash
