Watch: Catholic social thought and impact investing

“Investing through the lens of Catholic Social Teaching and
right relationship are important values for us.” - Sister Sue
 

Sister Sue Ernster joined this panel presentation, "Building an Economy for the Common Good," hosted by Georgetown University, exploring how impact investing can help people use their financial resources to address specific social and environmental challenges while ensuring the longevity and sustainability of their investments.

Catholic social teaching emphasizes that the economy is meant to serve people, not the other way around. Early in his pontificate, Pope Francis warned that an “idolatry of money” threatens to “devour everything which stands in the way of increased profits,” with the environment and vulnerable members of society “defenseless before the interests of a deified market, which becomes the only rule.” Catholic teaching demands the opposite: that we value the dignity of interconnected life more than the accumulation of wealth, and that we use our resources for the advancement of the common good.

Impact investment is informed by these principles and seeks to generate measurable social and environmental benefits alongside financial return. By avoiding a singular focus on profit, this positive vision of finance can help to rehumanize economic activity and refocus financial resources on providing common benefits to all, especially the most vulnerable.

This dialogue explored how impact investing can help people use their financial resources to address specific social and environmental challenges while ensuring the longevity and sustainability of their investments. Participants discussed how profit-driven financial systems can stifle social progress and contribute to ecological destruction, as well as how investments guided by Catholic social teaching can serve as a new way forward to care for the planet and each other.

Visit Georgetown University's event page for more resources from this conversation.

Watch the Conversation 
Tip: press play and move forward to the :22 minute mark 

Panelists, pictured above left to right, Cal Watson, associate vice president for public affairs and business policy at Georgetown University; Sister Sue Ernster, FSPA president; Kimberly Mazyck, associate director of the Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life (moderator); David Harlle, co-founder and CEO of ThirdWay Capital; Elizabeth Garlow, chair of the Catholic Impact Investing Collaborative and co-founder of the Francesco Collaborative