The National Catholic Register portal reports on the growing trend of “faith-based investing,” where financial advisors help clients align their portfolios with Catholic moral principles. The article highlights how corporations have adopted “woke” and “radically anti-Catholic” stances, supporting causes like abortion and transgenderism. It promotes the use of “faith-based funds” and “shareholder pressure” to influence corporate behavior, suggesting that Catholics can now “make a difference” and “defund” companies engaging in immoral activities. While the article acknowledges some improvements in 2025, it emphasizes the need for continued vigilance and active engagement in the financial world to uphold Catholic values. This seemingly prudent approach, however, subtly reinforces the very modernist errors it seeks to combat, offering a naturalistic solution to a spiritual crisis and failing to address the root causes of societal decay.
The Illusion of Moral Capitalism: A Naturalistic Panacea
The article presents “faith-based investing” as a novel and effective tool for Catholics to combat the “problematic political agendas” of corporations. It champions the idea that through “shareholder pressure” and “defunding” immoral companies, individuals and small institutional investors can “make a difference in how businesses operate.” This perspective, while seemingly practical, fundamentally misapprehends the nature of the Church’s mission and the true source of societal ills. It reduces the spiritual battle against sin and error to a mere financial transaction, a market-based solution to a profoundly theological problem.
The Church, as established by Our Lord Jesus Christ, is a supernatural society, ordained for the salvation of souls and the glorification of God. Her primary weapons are prayer, the sacraments, preaching the Gospel, and the authoritative teaching of the Magisterium. To suggest that “shareholder pressure” and “defunding” are now the primary means for Catholics to “make an impression on the market” is to implicitly deny the efficacy of these divine instruments and to embrace a naturalistic, secularized view of Christian action in the world. It is to believe that the Kingdom of Christ can be advanced, or at least defended, through the machinations of Wall Street, rather than through the grace of God and the fidelity of His Church.
The Heresy of “Neutrality” and the Myth of the “Neutral Moral Outlook”
Chris McMahon, president and CEO of MFA Wealth and Aquinas Wealth Advisors, is quoted as saying that “U.S. corporations typically had a neutral moral outlook 15 years ago, but since then many have opted to go ‘woke’ with ‘radically anti-Catholic’ boards of directors.” This statement, while reflecting a common conservative narrative, contains a dangerous theological error: the myth of moral neutrality. From an integral Catholic perspective, there is no such thing as a “neutral moral outlook” for a corporation, an individual, or any aspect of human society. Every action, every policy, every institution either aligns itself with the law of God or deviates from it. The very concept of “neutrality” in moral matters is a hallmark of Modernism and indifferentism, condemned by Pope St. Pius X in *Pascendi Dominici Gregis* and in the *Syllabus of Errors*.
The idea that corporations were once “neutral” and only recently became “woke” ignores the long history of secularism, liberalism, and anti-clericalism that has progressively eroded Christian influence in public life since the French Revolution and, more acutely, since the advent of Modernism within the Church itself. The “neutrality” was always a façade, a gradual slide away from Catholic truth, often masked by a superficial philanthropy or a focus on purely material progress. To yearn for a return to this supposed “neutrality” is to yearn for a time when the enemies of Christ were simply less overt, not less active. The true Catholic position is not neutrality, but the explicit and public acknowledgment of Christ the King over all aspects of society, including the economy.
The Silence on the Root Cause: Modernist Apostasy
The article meticulously details the “radically anti-Catholic” actions of corporations: supporting Planned Parenthood, funding employee abortions, promoting transgender causes. It rightly identifies these as “at odds with Catholic belief.” However, it completely omits the primary reason why such abominations are now openly promoted and even celebrated in the public square: the pervasive Modernist apostasy within the institutional Church since the Second Vatican Council.
The “conciliar sect,” under the direction of its usurping antipopes, has systematically dismantled the Church’s public witness, diluted her doctrine, and fostered an atmosphere of religious indifferentism and false ecumenism. The “hermeneutics of continuity” is a lie; the “reform of the reform” is a chimera. The very structures that should be the bulwark against such moral decay have been infiltrated and subverted. The “bishops” and “priests” of the neo-church, by their silence, their active promotion of dissident theology, and their failure to condemn error, have created a vacuum of moral authority that secular forces have eagerly filled. The “woke” corporation is merely a symptom; the disease is the Modernist cancer that has eaten away at the heart of the Church.
As Pope Pius IX warned in the *Syllabus of Errors*, “The Church is not a true and perfect society, entirely free- nor is she endowed with proper and perpetual rights of her own, conferred upon her by her Divine Founder; but it appertains to the civil power to define what are the rights of the Church, and the limits within which she may exercise those rights” (Proposition 19). This error, once condemned, is now implicitly accepted by many who seek to “engage” with the world on its own terms, rather than demanding the world submit to Christ the King. The article’s focus on “corporate engagement” and “shareholder pressure” is a tacit admission that the Church no longer exercises her divinely ordained authority to teach, govern, and sanctify nations, but must instead rely on the very secular mechanisms that have contributed to her decline.
The Dangers of “Corporate Engagement” and “Shareholder Pressure”
The article advocates for “corporate engagement” and “shareholder pressure” as effective tools to change company policies. Sam Saladino, CEO of IWP Capital, gives the example of a corporation that changed its policy on matching funds for Christian charities after a $25,000 investor’s financial adviser approached the board. While this might seem like a small victory, it highlights the inherent danger of such an approach: it implicitly accepts the legitimacy of the secular corporate structure as the primary arena for moral action, rather than the Church.
The Catholic Church has always taught that the state, and by extension, all human societies, must submit to the law of God. Pope Pius XI, in his encyclical *Quas Primas*, unequivocally declared: “The Kingdom of our Redeemer encompasses all men… He is indeed the source of salvation for individuals and for the whole… The state is happy not by one means, and man by another; for the state is nothing else than a harmonious association of men.” He further stated that “rulers of states therefore not refuse public veneration and obedience to the reigning Christ, but let them fulfill this duty themselves and with their people, if they wish to maintain their authority inviolate and contribute to the increase of their homeland’s happiness.”
The article’s call for “Christians on corporate boards to live their faith when making business decisions” is a pale shadow of the Church’s true demand: that Christ the King reign supreme over all aspects of public and private life, including the economy. To merely “live one’s faith” within a secular corporate structure is to accept the premise that the corporation is a morally neutral entity, rather than an institution that must be explicitly ordered towards the common good as defined by Catholic morality. The goal is not to make corporations “friendlier” to Christianity, but to bring all of society under the sweet yoke of Christ.
The Myth of “No Sacrifice in Returns”
Jessica Chominski, a financial advisor, claims that “we’re not seeing the sacrifices in returns that we once did” with faith-based investing. This statement, while intended to encourage Catholics, subtly reinforces the materialistic mindset that often underpins secular capitalism. It suggests that the primary concern for a Catholic investor is still financial profitability, and that moral alignment is merely a welcome bonus that no longer entails a significant financial cost.
The true Catholic approach to wealth and investment is not merely about maximizing returns, even “morally sound” returns. It is about stewardship, detachment from worldly goods, and the ultimate purpose of all things: the glory of God and the salvation of souls. Our Lord Himself warned: “For what does it profit a man, if he gains the whole world, but loses or forfeits himself?” (Luke 9:25). The pursuit of wealth, even through “faith-based” means, can become a snare if it distracts from the primary duties of prayer, penance, and the reception of the sacraments. The article’s focus on financial performance, even when morally screened, risks reducing Catholic action in the world to a sophisticated form of ethical consumerism, rather than a radical conversion of life ordered towards the supernatural end.
The Omission of the Most Holy Sacrifice and the Sacraments
Perhaps the most glaring omission in this article, and indeed in most discussions of “faith-based” initiatives, is the complete silence on the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and the sacraments as the true source of grace and the primary means of sanctification for individuals and society. The article speaks of “financial tools,” “scorecards,” and “shareholder pressure,” but not once does it mention the Holy Eucharist, Confession, or the necessity of being in a state of grace to effectively combat evil.
The “conciliar sect” has tragically reduced the Mass to a mere “table of assembly,” obscuring its propitiatory nature and diminishing its centrality in the life of the faithful. The article’s focus on external, naturalistic solutions to moral problems, without any reference to the supernatural means of grace, is a direct consequence of this modernist impoverishment. True Catholic action in the world flows from a life deeply rooted in the sacraments, nourished by the Most Precious Blood of Christ, and guided by the infallible teaching of the pre-conciliar Magisterium. Without this supernatural foundation, all attempts at “faith-based” investing, or any other form of social engagement, are ultimately futile, building sandcastles against the rising tide of secularism.
The False Hope of “Influence” and the Call to Separation
The article concludes with an optimistic tone, suggesting that with “$22 trillion invested,” Christians “can have a great influence on companies.” This is a dangerous illusion. The world, in its current state of apostasy, is fundamentally hostile to Christ and His Church. The “synagogue of Satan” (Apoc. 2:9, 3:9) is not reformed by financial pressure; it is converted by grace and subdued by the authority of the true Church.
The call to “make an impression on the market” is a call to engage with a system that, at its core, is often built on principles of greed, materialism, and a rejection of God’s law. While individual acts of charity and justice are always required, the idea that Catholics can significantly “influence” or “reform” the global capitalist system through “faith-based investing” is a form of Modernist optimism that ignores the fallen nature of man and the reality of original sin. The true Catholic response to a corrupt world is not to seek to “fix” it through financial instruments, but to separate oneself from its errors, to build up the true Church, and to pray for the conversion of sinners and the triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, which will come through supernatural means, not through shareholder resolutions.
As Pope St. Pius X warned in *Lamentabili Sane Exitu*, “The Church is an enemy of the progress of natural and theological sciences” (Proposition 57) and “Truth changes with man, because it develops with him, in him, and through him” (Proposition 58). These Modernist errors, which deny the immutability of Catholic truth and the Church’s divinely appointed role, are precisely the intellectual currents that lead to such naturalistic solutions as “faith-based investing.” The article, by embracing these errors, however subtly, contributes to the very spiritual bankruptcy it purports to address. The only truly “morally sound investment” is one that prioritizes the salvation of souls and the glory of God above all earthly gains, recognizing that the true “return” is eternal life, and the true “portfolio” is one’s soul, adorned with grace and good works, prepared for the final judgment.
Source:
Faith-Based Funds Offer a Morally Sound Investment Strategy (ncregister.com)
Date: 15.04.2026