Vatican Bank Teams With Morningstar to Launch Catholic‑Principles Stock Indexes

Overview

• IOR and Morningstar unveiled the Morningstar IOR US Catholic Principles and Morningstar IOR Eurozone Catholic Principles indexes as new faith‑aligned equity benchmarks.
• Each index comprises 50 mid‑ and large‑cap companies screened for consistency with Catholic teachings on life issues, social responsibility, and environmental protection.
• Morningstar materials identify Meta and Amazon as the largest weights in the U.S. index, with ASML and Deutsche Telekom leading the Eurozone basket, and SAP also among key holdings.
• The IOR describes the indexes as reference points for Catholic investing worldwide, with finance director Giovanni Boscia saying the standards will make performance evaluation more rigorous and transparent.
• The launch enters a market where ESG funds saw $84 billion in net outflows last year and follows governance reforms at the IOR after earlier financial scandals.