Ethical investments in faith-based organizations are associated with the exclusion of investments that have to do with child labor or human trafficking, companies that contribute to war or armaments, that threaten health and other similar criteria.
For some time, many sectors of the Church are opening the reflection to deepen their ethical investment parameters and address the urgency of establishing socio-environmental criteria in their investments, therefore, there are proposals related to divestment in fossil fuels and mining.
“In our territories the mercury we have on our bodies, on our lives in our food, is terrible. Children between 8 and 10 years old have between 5 and 10 particles of mercury in their bodies, that is not fair”, denounces the leadership Francia Márquez. The Afro community in Colombia regrets the continuation of economic slavery “to promote this economic and development model and today they continue to do so. Expropriating our dignity, exploiting our human condition in favor of this extractivism that continues to be implemented”.
The voices of the victims of the economic model present in society, strongly challenge us, so that, within the Church, the position for the defense of life, is in the front line for the defense of so many families because of extractivism. The extractivist capitalist model is closely linked to the hoarding of capital, injustice in the distribution of the resources generated, the violation of human rights and the devastation of the earth. And this should also mark the parameters of ethics in investments.
Economy at the service of the mission and the charism
Just as the commandment “do not kill” sets a clear limit to ensure the value of human life, today we must say “no to an economy of exclusion and inequality”. This economy kills. (EG 53). Evangelii Gaudium, is the first apostolic exhortation written by Pope Francis published in 2013. In presenting the challenges of today’s world, faced with a crisis of community commitment, the Bishop of Rome urges the economy and finance to return to an ethic that favors being (EG 58).
The economy from the perspective indicated by Francis indicates the art of achieving an adequate administration of the common home (cf. EG 206). LAUDATO SI has provoked a debate that is inviting us to think about concrete actions of transformation from all areas of pastoral action.
A few days ago, the Ethics Council of Steyler Ethic Bank, which belongs to the Divine Word Congregation, met to reflect on its investment portfolio. The conclusion was very encouraging. Brother Carlos Ferrada, member of the Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation Commission (JPIC) of the Divine Word congregation and of the Ethics Council of Steyler Ethic Bank, relates the experience of the congregation, which is taking encouraging positions on economic issues from an ecological point of view. “Everything that is happening, climate change, natural disasters, droughts, extreme rains, clearly call us to reflection and make us ask ourselves what we can do as a human society to reverse the path of this destruction, we cannot remain indifferent to the situation we are going through as a planet, as humanity”.
This brings us back to concrete reflections, because we are all seeing and feeling it, affirms Brother Carlos. At its last meeting, Stlyer Ethic Bank decided not to include one mining company as a beneficiary of its investments.
“I objected to this mining company entering our portfolio: a subsidiary of Angloamerican, Angloamerica Platinum, with a mine in South Africa” . Among the arguments presented, he contributed a lot with the studies that exist on mining companies and their impacts on communities, in terms of Human Rights, pollution, made by Facing Finance (Germany) on dirty finance.”
These reflections also raise tensions, because there is a tendency that tells us that mining “is what sustains development in contemporary societies, and there are many elements that give them the reason in these arguments, but the problems of unsustainable production and consumption is what generates that these investments are not consistent with the evangelical values that we promote”.
It is recognized that it is not easy to enter into this matter that has to do directly with the sustainability of congregations and that we need to build processes and alternatives capable of dealing in the midst of these tensions.
“Our congregation wants to contribute to make a change, and for this reason we are strongly committed to Laudato Si Action Plan, promoted by the Dicastery for Integral Human Development, so that, in our parishes, communities concrete actions are carried out, and the issue of investments is something very concrete” affirms Carlos Ferrada.
“Where are our investments placed? Our money becomes a threat or causes suffering for others? The question proposed by the missionary, directly recalls the Synod for the Amazon, which took place in Rome in October 2019. In the final document of the meeting of laity, religious and bishops with Pope Francis, he pointed out the need for the Church to support campaigns of and divestment from extractive companies related to socio-ecological damage. “Beginning with the Church’s own institutions and also in alliance with others,” invites or final Synod document. “How we spend our money, how we invest it, in what kind of companies, in this way, we can distinguish between hypocrisy and coherence,” concludes Carlos Ferrada.
The action of not investing in extractive companies confirms the commitment of the St. Arnold Janssen Family to the Divest in Mining Campaign. The initiative encouraged by the Churches and Mining network and 20 other organizations calls to respect the principles of sustainability proposed by the Social Doctrine of the Church that considers the responsibility of social balance in a globalized society, the ecological viability of our Earth, as well as economic performance, act together.
The Divest In Mining Campaign: a Laudato Si action
LAUDATO Si, Pope Francis’ second encyclical, has provoked a debate that invites us to think about concrete actions of transformation from all areas of pastoral actions. The papal document denounces that “financial speculation, whose fundamental objective is easy profit, continues to do harm.” (LS 168) In this sense, it invites to an economy integrated in a political, social, cultural and popular project oriented to the common good can “eliminate the structural causes of the dysfunctions of the world economy and correct the models of growth that seem incapable of guaranteeing respect for the environment”(LS 06).
The Mining Divestment Campaign, starting from the dialogues with the organizations that integrate the initiative, wishes to be a space for exchange on the subject of Socially Responsible Investment and development alternatives. Divestment is an expression of creative resistance of civil society, it is a tool for change in the face of the injustice that permeates many realities. In this sense, the campaign is guided by the desire to make the call for divestment in mining part of a collective effort that proposes ethical coherence in the defense of life, communities and the Common House.
For more information, please contact: iglesiasymineria@gmail.com
