Catholic-based mutual fund

That will look nice in my portfolio right next to my investment into Hooters.

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Religion as an investment strategy?

Wtf?

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he means this is a mutual fund that doesnt participate stem cell research that uses dead fetuses and things that are against the Catholic teachings.

I think the fund is solid. In all, there are more than 90 "socially responsible" mutual funds including an Islamic (Amana Trust - AMANX; a 5-star that will not own companies that collect interest), and Protestant (Timothy Plan - TLVAX; and Thrivent Diversified - AAHYX). The Protestant funds avoid cigarette companies and casinos.

Yeah I'm not a gold bug either

Or you could invest in this fund, based on the KISS philosophy.

From Investor's Business Daily:

"The Catholic-ethics aspect involves avoiding companies linked to abortion, embryonic stem cell research and pornography. Companies offering nonmarital benefits are avoided if possible, but such benefits aren't considered a deal breaker."

Unless you are dead set against investing in general stocks due to a strong personal conviction that it is unethical, it really doesn't make sense.

The best argument for these types of funds is to say "look, you can do this without sacrificing much at all," rather than "look, here's something that's better than the rest of the market." (By the way, the same general principle would apply with Islamic businessmen in Qatar who want to implement sharia-compliant financing for their startup companies.)

To do that, you would have to make some weird argument about how good corporations that build up solid records of Catholic-supporting ethics will outperform others in the long run, and why you can somehow realize this while other investors can't.

Also, having gold-based investments in this type of fund is a red flag. I haven't looked into the details, but that seems like the sort of thing for which the individual investor would want to make his own diversification decisions.