During 2023, Trustees decided that it was no longer acceptable for the Church’s reserves to be invested in shares linked to companies that engage in business that contradict Church teaching.
This reflected the spirit of Pope Francis’s encyclical Laudato sí, as well as the principles for faith consistent investment set out by the Papal Academy for Social Sciences in its document Mensuram bonam.
Following a competitive tendering exercise, the Diocese has appointed as its investment advisors the Churches, Charities and Local Authorities fund (CCLA). This body operates a Catholic Investment Fund that is advised by a committee composed of Church representatives.
It does not invest in shares linked to embryo research, the global arms trade, pornography, exploitative lending, or fossil fuel extraction. The fund nevertheless targets investment returns which meet the demanding objectives set by the Trustees.
Director of Operations and Finance, Deacon Paul Raynes, said: “East Anglia doesn’t have much money to invest. But the little we have should not fund business practices that the Church condemns. This is a project I embraced on day one in this job, so I am very pleased that we have now been able to make our investments consistent with our faith, without jeopardising our ability to preserve their value.”