Episode 170 - A Catholic Perspective on Faith Driven Investing with Tony Minopoli and Andrew Abela
Apr 22, 2024
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Tony Minopoli, President of Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors, and Andrew Abela, Professor of Marketing, delve into Faith Driven Investing in the Catholic world. Topics include ethical investing guidelines, shaping corporate cultures with faith values, virtues in business, and aligning business practices with Catholic teachings for sustainable investments.
Faith-driven investing in the Catholic Church involves aligning investment strategies with Catholic doctrine, focusing on faith-based values and principles from the Vatican.
Incorporating virtues like practical wisdom and self-discipline in business culture is vital for promoting human flourishing and creating a faith-aligned environment within organizations.
Deep dives
Faith-Driven Investing in the Catholic Church
Faith-driven investing within the Catholic Church involves aligning investment strategies with Catholic doctrine. Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors, led by Tony Monopoly, focuses on Catholic compliant mutual funds based on bishop teachings on faith-based investing. Andrew Bello highlights the updated 2021 guidelines from the Conference of Bishops, emphasizing engagement with management to promote faith-aligned practices and positive impact within the Catholic investing world.
Mensurum Bonham White Paper and Faith-Based Engagement
The Mensurum Bonham white paper from the Vatican's Decastries assigns a foundation for investing that aligns with Christian principles of environmental care and support for the less fortunate. Collaboration among asset managers like Tony Monopoly and Andrew Bello aims to engage companies to align with faith-driven values. The paper encourages meaningful engagement with companies to promote neutrality or alignment with Christian values, showcasing a new forceful approach from the Vatican in the investing realm.
Virtues and Values in Business Culture
Andrew Bello and Tony Monopoly discuss the distinction between values and virtues in business culture. Virtues, depicted as actions and habits rooted in honesty and self-discipline, are essential for shaping a culture that promotes human flourishing within organizations. By incorporating virtues like practical wisdom, justice, courage, and self-discipline, businesses can enhance their culture and operational effectiveness towards a more faith-aligned and productive environment.
ESG and Catholic Social Teaching in Investing
While ESG factors are considered in investing, Catholic faith-based investing prioritizes adherence to Catholic social teaching above ESG guidelines. Organizations like the Knights of Columbus integrate ESG factors into their investment analyses while emphasizing the importance of Catholic doctrines over ESG rankings. The focus remains on understanding a company's context in relation to ESG factors while upholding the principles of Catholic social teaching for investment decisions.
In this episode, John Coleman is joined by Tony Minopoli and Andrew Abela to explore faith driven investing in the Catholic world and in the Catholic Church.
Tony is the President and Chief Investment Officer of the Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors. In that capacity, Tony oversees all elements of the investment strategy and operations for the Knights, predicated on nearly two decades with that institution and a prior career in investment consulting with the Valuation Associates. Through his role with the Knights, he's also helping the Catholic Church more broadly continue to advance its thinking on faith based investing.
Andrew is a professor of marketing and the founding dean of the Bush School of Business at Catholic University. In addition to a storied academic career, which we may delve into, Andrew has worked with institutions like McKinsey and Company and Procter and Gamble, published broadly, and as a leading thinker on faith based, faith based and principled entrepreneurship and investing alike.
The two join John to share about what it looks like for Catholics to engage in Faith Driven Investing both in the modern day and throughout history.