By Sister Laura Goedken, OP
The Catholic Foundation for the Diocese of Davenport has the following goals for its investments:
• Protect and enhance human life in such areas as health, education, housing, food, leisure, transportation and advertising.
• Promote equal employment opportunities for women and non-whites, comparable worth in wages and salaries and fair labor practices in corporate domestic and foreign operations.
• Convert from military to peaceful products, with support of research and development of nonviolent means for conflict resolution.
• Preserve the planet’s ecological heritage, addressing the rampant poverty in the poorest nations, redirecting development in terms of quality rather than quantity in the industrial world and creating environmentally sensitive technologies.
• Develop alternate renewable and clean energy sources.
To purchase stocks that promote these areas is challenging. Therefore, we depend on Christian Brothers Investment Services (CBIS) to do this for us and we monitor our investments. Our Investment Committee consists of Rob Arth from Morgan Stanley Smith Barney and Stan Reeg from Wells Fargo who meet quarterly with Diocesan Chief Financial Officer Char Maaske and me to monitor investments.
A recent area of focus has been global sex and labor trafficking. According to the International Labor Organization (ILO), more than 20 million people worldwide are trapped in situations of forced, bonded or child labor and sexual servitude.
Large international events, such as the recent London Olympics, can be magnets for the global sex and labor trafficking industry. CBIS contacted 13 hospitality companies and 11 of them indicated they would be training staff in advance of the London Olympics.
Human trafficking is a major world-wide issue that we must get a handle on. CBIS is helping the Catholic Foundation do its part.
(Sr. Goedken is director of development for the Diocese of Davenport.)
