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Corporations, Taxes and Responsible Investors January 23rd, 2012

Read the latest from Fr. Seamus Finn, OMI on Huffington Post.

He highlights the responsibility of corporations that “…rely on numerous public resources and services to operate their businesses and maintain their profitability…[to] contribute their fare share to the public coffers that enable governments to develop the foundation and provide the services that corporations and all citizens count on to survive.”

He ends with a clear call: “Shareholders, and especially faith based and socially responsible investors, will need to consider how to engage companies that are identified as the most aggressive in developing legal strategies to either avoid or evade the payment of approved taxes. The use of such tools and action that are clearly designed to profit by avoiding responsibility to contribute appropriately to the revenue streams, that are essential to the fulfillment of the government’s mandate to safeguard the public welfare and protect the common good, deserves much closer evaluation and scrutiny.”

2012 promises to be an interesting year as societies across the globe struggle with financial and environmental sustainability in the context of justice.

Oblate Parish in Roma, Texas Celebrates National Immigration Week January 18th, 2012

Parishioners at Our Lady of Refuge Parish in Roma, Texas commemorated National Immigration Week (Jan 8-14) with a homily on immigration and prayers for refugees and immigrants. The parish staff also used the bulletin insert provided by the USCCB and encouraged everyone to take it home and use it in prayer all week. The issue of immigration is a story close to home for many of the parishioners at Our Lady of Refuge. The parish is very close the Rio Grande River and members include large landowners, local government officials and immigrant families whose relatives may have faced detention and deportation issues before. Thanks to Fr. Bob Wright OMI for leading the parish into celebrating National Immigration Week.

Responsible Purchasing and Investing: A Catholic Priority January 12th, 2012

From buying toothpaste to managing a portfolio – Catholics across the country are taking action to avoid buying from or investing in companies that fail to respect human dignity.

In the 2009 encyclical Caritas in Veritate, Pope Benedict XVI wrote that the economy should be at the service of people, and not the other way around.

“Profit is useful if it serves as a means towards an end that provides a sense both of how to produce it and how to make good use of it,” the pope wrote. “Once profit becomes the exclusive goal, if it is produced by improper means and without the common good as its ultimate end, it risks destroying wealth and creating poverty.”

Going further, Fr. Seamus Finn, OMI has argued that faith-based investors should demand accountability from the companies they invested with or they should divest stock in companies engaged in morally objectionable practices. ”With ownership comes responsibility and rights.”

Read more in the article, Companies called to be Responsible by Amy Kotlarz, which appeared in the Catholic Courier on January 3rd, 2012.

Reflections on Business and Human Rights January 1st, 2012

Read Fr. Seamus Finn’s latest Huffington Post blog on the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights recently endorsed by the UN Human Rights Council. The principles were developed to offer guidance for the implementation of the “Protect, Respect and Remedy” framework, first introduced by Special Representative John Ruggie in 2008. They provide very practical and concrete recommendations on how to operationalize the framework, which was built around the following three central pillars:

• States have a responsibility to protect against human rights abuses by third parties, including corporations;
• Companies have a responsibility to respect human rights;
• Victims of human rights abuses must be free to access effective remedies.

Learn more…

Investors Urge Senate Leadership to Allow Implementation of Clean Air Act Rules December 19th, 2011

The Missionary Oblates joined thirty-two faith-based and socially responsible investors in a letter to the Senate leadership urging timely implementation of Clean Air Act rules proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), most notably, the Cross State Air Pollution rule (CSAPR) and Mercury and Air Toxics rule (Utility MACT). Arguing that the proposed rules would create jobs and save lives, the investors added that, based on their discussions with electric utilities, the proposed rules would not threaten the reliability of the electric system.

Read the letter (Download PDF)…

 

Faith-based Shareholders Explain their Work on CBS’s The Early Show December 12th, 2011

Rebecca Jarvis, of CBS’s The Early Show, talks with the Rev. Seamus Finn and Sister Pat Daly, from the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, about how they help major corporations realize their social duties to make them better.

Watch the video…

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