Investments will be made through APSA, the Holy See’s treasury and sovereign wealth manager, and overseen by an ethics committee of four financial professionals headed by Cardinal Kevin Farrell.
According to the policy, the Vatican and related entities may not invest in products and technologies related to “pornography and prostitution; gambling; weapons and defence industry; pro-abortion health centers; and laboratories or pharmaceutical companies that manufacture contraceptive products and/or work with embryonic stem cells.”
Industries which the policy says should be avoided for investment, but are not prohibited, include oil and mining, nuclear energy, and alcoholic beverages.
There will be a one year grace period for Vatican entities to divest of existing investments not in conformity with the new policies.
In April 2021, an Italian investigative news program accused the Vatican’s treasury of investing 20 million euros (then around $24 million) in several pharmaceutical companies involved in making the “morning-after pill.”
Investments, the policy says, should be evaluated to ensure they comply with the principles of the Catholic Church’s social doctrine on human dignity, the common good — including the universal destination of goods — subsidiarity, and solidarity.
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