Faith and money

When asked how he chooses companies to invest in for Ave Maria's Catholic investors, fund manager George Schwartz said, "Stocks that are going to go up a lot. Making money for our shareholders is our first mission."

And the Ave Maria Catholic Values fund has done just that, besting the S&P 500 over the past five years, despite screening out about 400 companies. The fund's top holding is commercial label printer maker Zebra Technologies and other big investments include auto parts manufacturers Gentex and Johnson Controls.

Schwartz's advisory panel, which includes lay Catholics and the Archbishop of Detroit, has instructed him to avoid companies that make abortion drugs or support the practice, corporations whose revenues come from pornography, firms that contribute money to Planned Parenthood, and companies that give non-marital partner benefits.

"Most of those aren't ones that we'd want to invest in anyways, but some are and we can't," said Schwartz. "Our shareholders have to be aware of that."



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