An independent analysis of ETFs, mutual funds, SMAs, and alternatives for U.S. Catholic investors, published by the Catholic Financial Planners Network. March 2026.

The Catholic Financial Planners Network has no revenue-sharing agreements, distribution obligations, or marketing relationships with any of the products reviewed in this report.

I. Executive Summary

The Catholic investing landscape in 2026 is larger, more competitive, and more theologically nuanced than most investors and advisors realize. This report, the first of its kind from an independent advisor network, finds that Catholic investors now have access to a substantial and growing set of explicitly Catholic and faith-aligned investment products; but that every product involves trade-offs, and no single product fully resolves the tension between excluding problematic companies and engaging them to change.

That tension, exclusion versus engagement, is the central question in Catholic investing today. Some investors want to avoid owning companies whose corporate policies conflict with Catholic teaching on life, family, and human dignity. Others accept ownership of those companies in order to vote against those policies as shareholders. Both approaches have legitimate roots in Catholic moral theology. Neither is complete on its own.

Five Key Findings

1. Every broad Catholic equity product holds companies with problematic corporate policies. This includes the CATH ETF, the IOR Index, CBIS’s CRI Equity Index Fund, and the Knights of Columbus funds. Any fund tracking a broad market index, even with Catholic screens, will include mega-cap companies like NVIDIA, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, and JPMorgan Chase. These companies trigger concerns across multiple USCCB policy areas: IVF benefits (Policy I.3), abortion travel reimbursement (I.1), gender transition coverage (II.8-9), corporate advocacy inconsistent with Church teaching on marriage and sexuality (II.10), and the hosting or distribution of content that undermines human dignity (III.5, directly applicable to Meta and Alphabet). The only products that substantially avoid these companies are those with concentrated, actively managed portfolios like Ave Maria, or faith-based products like Inspire that use more aggressive exclusionary screens.
2. The real differentiator is what happens after you own the stock. CBIS votes over 3,000 proxy ballots annually and files or co-files shareholder resolutions, with a documented agenda concentrated on human trafficking, online child safety, human dignity in technology, and corporate governance. Knights of Columbus applies full USCCB screening with moral theologian oversight of those screens; CFPN found no public documentation of a shareholder engagement program. Inspire reports engagement with over 1,100 companies on biblical values and files shareholder proposals. Ave Maria, CATH, CHRI, and the IOR Index do none of this. The new CUA Consortium proxy voting policy now makes Catholic engagement available to any investor using ISS or Glass Lewis.
3. Ave Maria’s concentrated, exclusion-first approach has a distinct advantage for investors who prioritize avoiding ownership of companies that conflict with Catholic teaching. By running concentrated portfolios of 30 to 40 stocks and screening for abortion involvement, anti-family corporate policies, embryonic stem cell research, and contraception manufacturing, Ave Maria avoids most of the mega-cap names that trigger USCCB concerns, though not all of them. The trade-off is the absence of any shareholder engagement and narrower diversification. But for investors whose primary concern is “I don’t want to own companies whose policies violate Catholic teaching on life and the family,” Ave Maria’s approach is the most direct answer among explicitly Catholic products.
4. The cost barrier has effectively disappeared. Both the CBIS CRI Equity Index Fund (CRQSX) and the Inspire 500 ETF (PTL) now offer screened equity exposure at just 0.09%, a ‘faith premium’ of only 6 basis points, or approximately $60 per year per $100,000 invested, above Vanguard’s S&P 500 index fund.
5. The available evidence suggests the IOR Index inverts the Catholic moral hierarchy. The Vatican Bank’s new Morningstar IOR US Catholic Principles Index excludes all fossil fuels and nuclear energy, which are prudential matters, while, based on our analysis of its reported top holdings, permitting companies that offer IVF benefits, reimburse abortion travel, cover gender transition procedures, and advocate on marriage and sexuality in ways inconsistent with Church teaching. This same tension applies to CATH, CHRI, and to a significant degree CBIS’s equity index fund and the Knights of Columbus funds. The difference is that CBIS maintains an active engagement program, though not one documented to reach these particular corporate policies; Knights of Columbus engagement activity is not publicly documented; and the IOR Index, as a passive benchmark, has no engagement mechanism at all.

II. The Central Question: Exclusion vs. Engagement

Before reviewing individual products, readers should understand the fundamental trade-off that defines every Catholic investing choice in 2026.

The Exclusion Approach

Sell the stock. Don’t own companies whose corporate policies conflict with Catholic teaching. This is the approach most retail investors assume “Catholic investing” means, and it has strong intuitive appeal.

The challenge is scale. The 2021 USCCB guidelines identify concerns across a broad range of corporate behaviors: direct participation in abortion (I.1), utilization of IVF (I.3), provision of gender transition surgeries or hormone treatments (II.8-9), advocacy inconsistent with Church teaching on marriage and sexuality (II.10), contraception manufacturing or significant revenue from contraceptive sales (II.11), and failure to steward technology platforms responsibly with respect to human dignity (III.5). Virtually every large-cap U.S. company triggers at least one of these screens. A strict exclusion at the corporate policy level across all USCCB categories would eliminate most of the S&P 500, making broad market exposure impossible and concentrating portfolios in smaller companies that may simply have less-documented policies.

Ave Maria takes this approach deliberately, running concentrated portfolios of 30 to 40 stocks. Inspire takes a similar approach at larger scale, excluding all seven Magnificent 7 companies and screening 500 stocks with its proprietary Inspire Impact Score.

The Engagement Approach

Own the stock, then use your ownership rights to push for change. This is USCCB Strategy 2 (“Actively Work for Change”) and the approach Mensuram Bonam lists first. Vote against shareholder resolutions that expand abortion or gender transition benefits. File resolutions urging companies to disclose and reconsider IVF policies. Engage tech and media companies on their responsibility to uphold human dignity in their products and platforms. Push for corporate advocacy consistent with Church teaching on marriage and the family.

CBIS takes this approach, holding broad market portfolios while actively voting and engaging on a defined set of priorities. Knights of Columbus describes its approach in similar terms, though CFPN found no public documentation of its engagement activity. The argument for engagement is that selling a stock removes your voice entirely, since someone else buys the shares and votes them without any Catholic moral framework.

Neither Approach Is Complete

Exclusion without engagement means you’ve cleaned your own portfolio but lost any influence over the companies that millions of other Catholics still own through index funds, 401(k)s, and target-date funds. Engagement without exclusion means you own (and profit from) companies whose policies conflict with Catholic teaching, even as you vote against those policies.

The most complete Catholic investing strategy combines elements of both: concentrated exclusion where feasible, active engagement where exclusion isn’t practical, community development investing to promote the common good (USCCB Strategy 3, Policies IV.6-8), and the CUA Consortium proxy voting policy as a baseline for every Catholic investor regardless of product choice.

III. The State of Catholic Investing in 2026

Market Size and Growth

Faith-based investing is experiencing its strongest growth period in history. Per the Brightlight Listed Markets Research Paper (2024), as reported by GuideStone Funds and others, assets in listed faith-based funds were estimated at over $130 billion and described as approximately 14% higher than roughly 15 months prior, with the category first crossing $100 billion in 2024. Faith-based ETF assets within that survey scope grew 27% year-over-year.

Note: measurement bases differ across providers. These figures should not be summed into a single total without standardizing definitions.

Yet significant untapped demand remains. Per GuideStone’s analysis, assets invested in faith-based vehicles represent less than 0.5% of Christians’ total investment assets, and nine out of ten financial advisors do not discuss faith-based investing with their clients.

IV. Catholic Moral Frameworks

USCCB Socially Responsible Investment Guidelines (2021)

The most authoritative Catholic investing standard in the United States. Organized around three strategies: Strategy 1 (Avoid Doing Harm) establishes exclusionary screens, Strategy 2 (Actively Work for Change) calls for shareholder engagement, and Strategy 3 (Promote the Common Good) directs impact investing toward community development, affordable housing, and payday lending alternatives (Policies IV.6-8).

Key policies advisors should know from the 2021 update: exclude direct participation in abortion (I.1); exclude companies utilizing IVF for conception or research (I.3, new in 2021); exclude companies performing gender transition surgeries or hormone treatments (II.8-9, new in 2021); encourage companies to advocate for marriage and sexuality consistent with Church teaching (II.10); exclude contraceptive manufacturers or companies deriving more than 10% of revenue from contraceptive sales (II.11); and engage tech and media companies on human dignity content (III.5). A product implementing only exclusionary screens is implementing only one-third of the framework; a product implementing only engagement without exclusion is also incomplete.

Vatican Mensuram Bonam (2022)

The Vatican’s investing framework lists Engage first, followed by Enhance, then Exclude. This ordering suggests, though reasonable interpreters may differ, that engagement is the primary strategy and exclusion a last resort. The IOR acknowledged this tension by describing its index as a “reference point” rather than a standalone solution.

IHE Concentric Rings Model (2024)

Published by the Institute for Human Ecology at Catholic University of America. Ring 1 (Core Purpose): what the company exists to do. Ring 2 (Methods of Production): how it operates. Ring 3 (Corporate Culture): the policies, benefits, and advocacy it funds. Ring 3 is where most Catholic conflicts arise in practice, and the critical question for investors is whether a product addresses Ring 3 through exclusion, engagement, or both.

CUA Consortium of Catholic Investors Proxy Voting Policy (2026)

The first proxy voting framework fully aligned with the 2021 USCCB guidelines. The Consortium policy is available through both ISS and Glass Lewis. Other proxy advisers and platforms, including Egan-Jones and Broadridge, offer or administer Catholic voting options based on the USCCB guidelines; these are distinct from the Consortium policy itself.

If a shareholder resolution urges a company to reimburse abortion travel expenses, the proxy advisers will recommend voting no. If a proposal encourages covering gender transition treatments, they will recommend rejection. For issues involving corporate advocacy on marriage, sexuality, or human dignity content where the Church offers guidance, the policy directs votes accordingly. For prudential matters without definitive Church guidance, they defer to management or abstain.

V. Catholic Equity Products

Engagement-First Products (Broad Market + Active Proxy Voting)

These products hold broad, diversified portfolios, including many mega-cap companies with problematic corporate policies, and address Catholic concerns primarily through shareholder engagement rather than exclusion.

Christian Brothers Investment Services (CBIS)

CBIS manages approximately $12.8 billion across its Catholic Responsible Investments mutual fund platform (per the 2025 CEO message). The CRI Equity Index Fund (CRQSX) holds $4.6 billion with an expense ratio of 0.09% and returned 21.59% for the fiscal year ended October 31, 2025 (per audited Financial Highlights, CRI Prospectus March 1, 2026). Investor shares are available with $5,000 minimums on most funds.

CBIS implements all three USCCB strategies: exclusionary screening at the product level, active shareholder engagement, and community development investing aligned with USCCB Policies IV.6-8. It is a UN PRI signatory.

On engagement specifically, CBIS reports voting over 3,000 proxy ballots annually and conducting roughly 70 corporate engagements in 2025. Its publicly documented resolutions and dialogues concentrate on human trafficking, online child safety and child sexual exploitation material, human dignity in technology, private prison human rights, climate, and corporate governance. CFPN did not identify CBIS resolutions or dialogues specifically addressing IVF benefits, abortion travel reimbursement, gender transition coverage, or corporate advocacy on marriage and sexuality.

An important caveat for retail investors: as an equity index fund tracking a broad Catholic-screened universe, the CRI Equity Index Fund almost certainly holds many of the same mega-cap companies, NVIDIA, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, JPMorgan Chase, that appear in CATH and the IOR Index’s top holdings. These companies trigger concerns across multiple USCCB policy areas: IVF benefits (I.3), abortion travel (I.1), gender transition coverage (II.8-9), and in the case of Meta and Alphabet, responsibility for human dignity content on their platforms (III.5). The distinction is that CBIS votes its proxies under a Catholic framework and maintains an active engagement program, though that program’s documented agenda does not currently extend to these specific corporate policies. For investors whose primary concern is not owning these companies, CBIS’s index fund does not solve that problem. For investors who accept ownership and want to use their shareholder voice, CBIS offers the most extensive engagement program in the Catholic space, with the qualification above about its issue coverage.

The four CRI Magnus funds operate as funds-of-funds investing solely in the other underlying CRI funds. Their assets are already reflected in the underlying fund totals and should not be added separately to avoid double-counting.

Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors

Knights of Columbus reports total firm assets of approximately $29 billion or more (depending on source and date; includes parent company insurance general account). Eight mutual funds including a Long/Short Equity Fund (~$150 million per SEC N-PORT filing). Full USCCB five-category screening with moral theologian oversight of those screens; Professor John Grabowski of The Catholic University of America serves as consulting moral theologian, advising on the application of Catholic teaching to the firm’s screening decisions.

On engagement, CFPN found no public documentation of a shareholder engagement program: no filed resolutions, no published corporate dialogues, and no stewardship or engagement report. Fund proxy voting is delegated to a third-party provider. This is an absence of public disclosure rather than proof that no such activity occurs, and CFPN welcomes documentation from the firm.

KoC’s 13F filing (December 31, 2025) lists NVIDIA, Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, and Broadcom among top holdings. KoC does not exclude these companies, and CFPN found no public record of how, or whether, it addresses Ring 3 concerns such as IVF, gender ideology, and corporate advocacy on marriage and sexuality at the ownership level.

Exclusion-Led Products (Concentrated or Aggressively Screened Portfolios)

Ave Maria Mutual Funds

Ave Maria manages approximately $3.8 billion across seven funds (as of September 30, 2025). The four-screen approach focuses exclusively on intrinsic evils: abortion, anti-family corporate policies (which captures IVF, domestic partner benefits, and corporate advocacy contrary to the natural family), embryonic stem cell research, and contraception manufacturing.

For investors whose primary concern is avoiding ownership of companies whose policies conflict with Catholic teaching on life and the family, Ave Maria offers the most direct answer among explicitly Catholic products. By running concentrated portfolios of 30 to 40 stocks, Ave Maria avoids most of the mega-cap names that trigger USCCB concerns across Policies I.1, I.3, II.8-9, and II.10. The Growth Fund (AVEGX, ~$1.14 billion) has heavy tech exposure (42%) but in mid-cap and smaller companies that tend to have less extensive benefits programs. The Value Fund (AVEMX, ~$700 million) is concentrated in energy, industrials, and natural resources, sectors where these corporate policy conflicts are less prevalent.

The word most is doing real work in that sentence. NVIDIA is among the largest positions in the Growth Fund, and NVIDIA’s published benefits documentation includes IVF coverage, surrogacy reimbursement, and gender affirmation support. Ave Maria’s four screens target direct corporate involvement in intrinsic evils rather than the employee benefit policies that generate most Ring 3 conflicts. A concentrated Catholic portfolio therefore reduces exposure to companies whose benefits programs conflict with USCCB Policies I.3 and II.8-9 without eliminating it.

The trade-off is real: Ave Maria offers no shareholder engagement, no mechanism to push companies on tech/media responsibility (III.5), and no community development investing (IV.6-8). When a portfolio company does adopt a problematic policy, the only recourse is to sell.

Inspire Investing

Inspire surpassed $4.275 billion in total AUM as of January 18, 2026. The Inspire 500 ETF (PTL) excludes all seven Magnificent 7 companies, offers 500-stock diversification at 0.09%, and posted a 17.92% total return in 2025. Inspire also actively engages with over 1,100 companies and files shareholder proposals, combining exclusion and engagement more effectively than any other product. By excluding the Mag 7, Inspire avoids the heaviest concentrations of IVF benefits, abortion travel reimbursement, gender transition coverage, and human dignity content concerns.

Inspire is the one product in this review that does not sit cleanly in a single category. It screens more aggressively than any explicitly Catholic product and simultaneously runs an active engagement and shareholder proposal program. It is grouped here for its screening posture, not because it lacks engagement. Note that the exclusion and the engagement operate through different vehicles: the funds exclude the largest companies, while engagement and shareholder advocacy run through the firm’s advisory and advocacy activity.

Catholic investors should note that Inspire operates from an evangelical Biblically Responsible Investing framework, not a Catholic one. The theological basis differs, but the practical screening outcomes on life issues, family policy, and corporate culture are more rigorous than any passively managed Catholic product.

Timothy Plan

Timothy Plan is the longest-established Biblically Responsible Investing fund family in the United States, with a lineup spanning US large, mid, and small cap, international, and fixed income strategies, including a growing ETF suite. Like Inspire, it operates from an evangelical rather than a Catholic framework. Timothy Plan was omitted from CFPN’s March 2026 scan; it is noted here for completeness and will be reviewed in full in the 2027 edition.

Eventide Funds

Eventide managed $6.4 billion as of June 2025. The flagship Gilead Fund delivered 10.3% annualized over ten years versus 9.1% for the mid-cap growth category (as of October 2023). Broad Christian framework. Active management and stakeholder analysis provide implicit avoidance of the most problematic companies, plus active engagement including supply chain ethics advocacy.

Broad Market Passive Products (Exclusion Only, No Engagement)

CATH ETF (Global X)

The CATH ETF tracks the S&P 500 Catholic Values Index with a 0.29% expense ratio and $1.11 billion in net assets. Screens ten product-level activity categories per USCCB guidelines: abortion, contraceptives, human embryonic stem cells, adult entertainment, controversial weapons, military contracting, gambling, tobacco, cannabis, and child labor. Returned 17.21% (NAV) for 2025.

The limitation: CATH’s top 10 holdings include NVIDIA, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, Tesla, and JPMorgan Chase. These companies trigger concerns across USCCB Policies I.1 (abortion), I.3 (IVF), II.8-9 (gender transition), II.10 (marriage/sexuality advocacy), and III.5 (human dignity content, especially Meta and Alphabet). Based on our research, NVIDIA’s current benefits pages (accessed March 2026) document IVF coverage, surrogacy reimbursement, and gender affirmation support. Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, and JPMorgan were reported in 2022 to offer abortion travel reimbursement. CATH does not engage these companies on any of these issues.

Caution: Corporate benefits policies were researched via company websites and news sources primarily from 2022 to 2025. Benefits policies are subject to change. Where current first-party documentation was available (e.g., NVIDIA), those sources are noted. Where claims rely on 2022-era announcements, they should be re-verified.

CHRI ETF (Global X)

Launched September 2025. Evangelical framework. 0.29% expense ratio. Over 90% overlap with S&P 500. Same corporate policy screening gap as CATH.

IOR/Morningstar Catholic Principles Index

The Vatican Bank’s benchmark index, launched February 10, 2026. Fifty stocks. No retail product. No engagement mechanism. The available evidence suggests the IOR applies stricter screens on prudential matters (fossil fuels, nuclear energy) than on intrinsic evils at the corporate policy level, not only IVF and abortion, but also gender transition benefits, corporate advocacy on marriage and sexuality, and the human dignity responsibilities of its tech and media holdings like Meta and Alphabet (USCCB Policy III.5). This same tension applies to CATH, CHRI, and to a significant degree CBIS and KoC. The difference is that CBIS addresses it through an active engagement program, though not one documented to reach these specific policies; Knights of Columbus engagement is not publicly documented; and the IOR Index has no engagement mechanism at all and did not acknowledge the corporate policy issue at launch.

VI. Catholic Fixed Income and Allocation Products

CBIS dominates Catholic fixed income with approximately $3.85 billion across four stand-alone bond funds. The CRI Bond Fund ($2.48 billion combined share classes) is the largest Catholic fixed income product. CBIS applies full USCCB screening to bond issuers, a dimension often overlooked, since fixed income investors rarely consider whether the companies they lend to are aligned with Catholic teaching.

The CBIS Magnus fund-of-funds provide Catholic allocation solutions from conservative (45/55) to aggressive (75/25). Because they are funds-of-funds, their assets are already reflected in the underlying fund totals.

No explicitly Catholic bond ETF was identified in CFPN’s scan as of March 2026. Screened faith-based corporate bond ETFs do exist, including the Inspire Corporate Bond ETF (IBD) and the Timothy Plan Fixed Income ETF (TPFI); both apply Biblically Responsible Investing screens rather than a Catholic framework. No Catholic target-date fund series was identified, though the CBIS Magnus lineup approximates this function.

VII. Multi-Asset and Alternative Options

In most alternative asset classes, no Catholic-specific product exists. The screening question shifts from the underlying asset (often morally neutral) to the corporate policies of the fund wrapper provider.

Digital assets and precious metals are morally neutral. Major Bitcoin ETF providers were reported as of 2022 to 2025 to offer IVF and abortion travel benefits, creating a potential Ring 3 conflict under strict interpretation. Direct custody avoids this issue.

CDFI community development notes are the most directly aligned non-equity Catholic investment, implementing USCCB Strategy 3 (Policies IV.6-8): affordable housing, payday lending alternatives, and community economic development. These are illiquid and lower-yielding, but they represent the kind of positive allocation toward the common good that the USCCB framework explicitly calls for and that no passive equity product provides.

VIII. The Screening Gap: What It Really Means

The most important contribution of this report is not a product ranking but a clarification: the screening gap is universal.

Every broad Catholic equity product holds companies whose corporate policies conflict with Catholic teaching across multiple dimensions, not just IVF and abortion, but gender transition coverage (II.8-9), corporate advocacy on marriage and sexuality (II.10), contraception revenue (II.11), and the stewardship of technology platforms that shape how billions of people encounter content related to human dignity, sexuality, and the sanctity of life (III.5). The question is not whether this exposure exists but how each product addresses it: through documented engagement (CBIS), through exclusion (Ave Maria, Inspire), or not at all (CATH, CHRI, IOR). Knights of Columbus holds these companies and describes its approach as engagement, but CFPN found no public documentation of that program.

The Hierarchy of Moral Priorities

Catholic moral theology distinguishes intrinsic evils (categorical prohibitions: abortion, IVF, gender transition, euthanasia) from prudential matters (legitimate disagreement allowed: environmental policy, labor standards, weapons systems). The IOR Index is the clearest case of hierarchy inversion, excluding all fossil fuels while not addressing corporate policies on intrinsic evils, but the broader point is that no broad market Catholic product has fully resolved the corporate policy question at the exclusion level across the full range of USCCB concerns.

This is not a criticism of any single product. It reflects the structural reality that large U.S. companies now routinely offer benefits and adopt advocacy positions that conflict with Catholic teaching on life, family, marriage, sexuality, and human dignity. A Catholic investor who wants broad market exposure must accept this reality and decide whether to address it through engagement (CBIS), avoid it through concentration (Ave Maria, Inspire), or accept the exposure passively (CATH, CHRI, IOR).

IX. The Engagement Gap and the CUA Consortium

The CUA Consortium is the most important development of 2026 because it addresses the engagement gap across the full range of USCCB priorities, not just life issues, but gender ideology, marriage, human dignity content, and corporate governance, for every investor whose proxies are directed through ISS or Glass Lewis. For Ave Maria investors, it adds the engagement dimension their product lacks. For CATH investors, it is the single most impactful step they can take.

X. Recommendations by Client Profile

The CUA Consortium proxy voting policy appears as a universal recommendation because it addresses the full breadth of USCCB concerns, life, family, marriage, sexuality, human dignity, and corporate governance, through the only mechanism available to shareholders of broadly held companies.

XI. Looking Ahead: 2026–2027

The IOR Index may be licensed for retail ETF products. The CUA Consortium will complete its first full shareholder season in spring 2026. Glass Lewis is restructuring its policy offerings around thematic and benchmark choices, with further changes expected in 2027.

Product gaps remain significant: no Catholic target-date funds, no explicitly Catholic bond ETFs, no Catholic REIT or emerging markets products were identified in our March 2026 scan. Community development investing (USCCB Strategy 3) remains almost entirely absent from retail Catholic product offerings despite being an explicit USCCB priority.

The most important question for the 2027 edition is whether engagement is working. That question is narrower than it first appears, because before asking whether engagement changes corporate behavior, the field needs a reliable account of what each manager actually files and how each manager actually votes. Manager self-description and the documentary record do not always match. The 2027 edition will therefore be built on a systematic review of N-PX proxy voting filings and shareholder resolution records for every manager claiming an engagement program. If companies maintain these policies despite Catholic shareholder pressure, the case for exclusion strengthens. If engagement produces measurable changes, the case for broad-market ownership with active voting strengthens. CFPN will track this data for next year’s report.

Disclaimers and Methodology

This report is published by the Catholic Financial Planners Network (CFPN), an independent network of financial advisors with no revenue-sharing agreements, distribution obligations, or marketing relationships with any of the products reviewed.

Screening determinations reflect publicly available information as of March 2026. Corporate policy research relied on company benefits websites (where current first-party documentation was available), Glassdoor (treated as anecdotal), SEC filings, and news sources. Where claims rely on 2022-era post-Dobbs announcements, they are labeled accordingly and should be re-verified.

Statements that CFPN found no public documentation of a manager’s engagement program describe the absence of publicly available disclosure. They are not a finding that no such activity occurs. CFPN will publish documentation provided by any manager and correct the record accordingly.

Performance data is sourced from fund company websites and official fund documents (preferred), supplemented by secondary aggregators. CBIS and Knights of Columbus funds use October 31 fiscal years. AUM figures use varying measurement bases; definitions and as-of dates are noted. CBIS’s $12.8 billion figure correctly excludes the double-count from Magnus fund-of-funds assets.

The characterization of CBIS and KoC equity funds as holding companies with problematic corporate policies is based on the structural reality of broad market indexing, confirmed by KoC’s 13F filing. Both exclusion and engagement have legitimate grounding in Catholic moral theology. This report presents both approaches honestly and does not elevate one above the other as a doctrinal matter.

This analysis is prepared for educational and values-alignment purposes. It does not constitute legal, tax, or investment advice. Past performance does not guarantee future results.

Corrections and Updates

This report was revised in August 2026. The following corrections have been made to the first edition published in March 2026. Figures, AUM data, and performance information reflect the original March 2026 research date and have not been refreshed.

1. Knights of Columbus engagement. The first edition described Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors as maintaining an active engagement program with moral theologian oversight. Moral theologian oversight applies to the firm’s screening process. CFPN found no public documentation of a shareholder engagement program: no filed resolutions, published corporate dialogues, or stewardship report. The relevant passages in Sections I, II, V, VIII, IX, and X have been corrected.
2. CBIS engagement scope. The first edition described CBIS as filing shareholder resolutions addressing life issues, family policy, and corporate governance. CBIS’s publicly documented resolutions and dialogues concentrate on human trafficking, online child safety, human dignity in technology, private prison human rights, climate, and corporate governance. CFPN did not identify resolutions or dialogues specifically addressing IVF benefits, abortion travel reimbursement, gender transition coverage, or corporate advocacy on marriage and sexuality. Sections I, V, VIII, and IX have been corrected.
3. CBIS and the CUA Consortium. The engagement table in Section IX described CBIS as having a direct partnership with the CUA Consortium. CFPN found no documentation of such a relationship. CBIS publicly endorsed the 2021 USCCB guidelines in November 2021, which is a separate matter. The table has been corrected.
4. Availability of the CUA Consortium policy. The first edition stated the policy was adopted by ISS and Glass Lewis, which remains accurate. Section IV now also notes that other proxy advisers and platforms, including Egan-Jones and Broadridge, offer or administer USCCB-based Catholic voting options that are distinct from the Consortium policy.
5. Glass Lewis policy structure. The first edition stated that Glass Lewis would transition to exclusively thematic policies beginning in 2027. Section XI now describes the restructuring in less definitive terms pending further confirmation.
6. Ave Maria holdings. Section V now notes that Ave Maria’s concentrated approach reduces but does not eliminate exposure to companies whose employee benefit policies conflict with USCCB Policies I.3 and II.8-9, and identifies NVIDIA as an example among the Growth Fund’s largest positions. Section I has been qualified accordingly.
7. Inspire categorization. Inspire was grouped under a heading reading “Exclusion-First Products” while the body text credited its engagement program, an internal inconsistency. The heading has been revised and the Inspire entry now states explicitly that the product spans both categories, and that its exclusion and engagement operate through different vehicles.
8. Faith-based bond ETFs. Sections VI and XI stated that no Catholic bond ETF was identified. That statement was accurate as written but incomplete. Both sections now note that screened faith-based corporate bond ETFs exist, including the Inspire Corporate Bond ETF (IBD) and the Timothy Plan Fixed Income ETF (TPFI), and that neither applies a Catholic framework.
9. Timothy Plan. Timothy Plan was omitted from the March 2026 product scan. Section V now notes the omission. Full coverage will appear in the 2027 edition.

CFPN welcomes corrections from any manager or reader. All claims are verified against primary sources before publication, and corrections are logged here rather than made silently.

Published by the Catholic Financial Planners Network  |  catholicfinancialplanners.com  |  info@catholicfinancialplanners.com

First Edition March 2026  |  Revised August 2026