Another interesting take on religious investing

Revised: From the International Herald Tribune comes another look on religious investing:

According to the Social Investment Forum, a Washington-based group that promotes socially responsible investing, about $1 of every $7 invested in the United States is done so with social objectives. No figures are available to show how much of that is invested along faith-based lines, but it is a small slice of the cake: The average fund has less than $50 million in assets. By comparison, Pax World, one of the oldest and biggest socially responsible funds, has more than $1 billion.

Apparently, distinctly religious value funds are not on the rise in Europe as the US. European scepticism regarding institutional churches may play some role. Modern Americans that lived exclusively in the States never had to live in a state with an official church. That may account for some of the difference in cultural attitudes between Europeans and Americans regarding churches in general and this type of investment in particular.

And the reason it's on the rise?

"The movement is growing," [Frank Rauscher, president of the Aquinas range of mutual funds] added, "not just on the back of shareholder scandals and declining moral values. It tends to be the elderly who go to church more often. As the American population ages, many more individuals will decide to align their investments with their beliefs."

Of course, being the media, they had to get their quota of misapprehensions on Catholics and Catholicism:

The fund's manager, George Schwartz, screens out 400 stocks from his benchmark, the Russell 3000 index. Many are drug companies, as well as insurers who pay for elective abortions. Although this investment approach is in keeping with Catholic teaching, many investors might also want traditional "sin" stocks like armament suppliers and alcoholic beverage companies excluded from their portfolio. Catholic Values has no argument with these sectors. Recent purchases included ExxonMobil, the scourge of many environmental campaigners, and the defense contractor General Dynamics.

Sure. Let's confuse doctrine with prudential application. Again. Some issues involve the moral exhortion to avoid the commision of instrinsically evil acts. This would include abortion. Fools of the orthodox Roman Catholic persuasion don't want their investments earning a profit on companies that provide insurance coverage for elective abortions. There's something about blood money that bothers us. It reaks of 30 silver pieces a little too much, and we all remember what happened to that guy! As for armaments, that does not involve avoidance of intrinsic evil. Why? Aramaments in and of themselves are not immoral. Catholics are not required to be pacifists. There is such a thing as a Just War, and responsible people must prudentially apply the criteria for said just war to conflict scenarios. Armaments sold to a party engaged in a just war would be a noble act, not an evil one.

This close-up of the bulging field of religious investment otherwise provided a good insight for me. Considering I my portfolio has holdings of which I am without a clue, I find the reality of profitable and moral investments compelling.

Does any one have any other ideas of authentic Catholic funds that succeed?