Vatican Unveils Faith-based Indexes

The Vatican Bank has just made a very modern move for a very old institution: it launched two stock indices designed to help investors align their portfolios with Catholic moral teaching. In partnership with Morningstar, the bank created the Morningstar IOR US Catholic Principles Index and the Morningstar IOR Eurozone Catholic Principles Index, each tracking 50 mid‑ to large‑cap companies. The idea is simple but ambitious: give Catholics, church institutions and other values‑driven investors a benchmark that tries to respect Church doctrine without stepping completely away from mainstream markets.

What actually makes a company “Catholic‑compatible”? The indices apply a series of exclusions based on Vatican guidance, removing firms involved in abortion, pornography, certain weapons, human rights abuses, corruption and other activities deemed incompatible with human dignity and the common good. But after that screen, what remains looks surprisingly familiar. On the US side, top holdings include Meta, Amazon, Nvidia, Tesla and Apple, while the eurozone index features ASML, Deutsche Telekom, SAP and big banks such as Banco Santander and UniCredit. Rather than an alternative mini‑market, the result is a filtered slice of the same global giants many investors already own.

This launch also sits within a bigger story about both ESG and the Vatican itself. ESG‑labelled funds have been under fire in recent years, with outflows and political pushback, yet demand for more tailored “values-based” products – including religious screens – keeps growing among certain investor segments. Catholic mutual funds in the US already manage billions, and Morningstar’s collaboration with the Vatican Bank sets the stage for future ETFs or index funds that could track these new benchmarks. For the IOR, it’s another step in a decade‑long effort to clean up a troubled financial reputation and show greater transparency while promoting an ethical vision of finance from inside the system rather than from the sidelines.

Whether these “Catholic indices” attract significant assets or remain a niche tool, they crystallise a question many investors are asking: can you hold the same tech and financial titans as everyone else, and still claim to invest according to a stricter moral compass?

Sources: 

• Euronews, Vatican Bank launches 'Catholic-based' stock indices 
• Bloomberg, Vatican Bank Launches Stock Indexes Based on Catholic Values 
• CNBC, Vatican Bank makes first foray into equity indexes, setting stage for potential ETF launches
• IPE, Vatican bank unveils Morningstar indices aligned with Catholic ethical rules