“Making economic activity sustainable is something that changes the world and ensures us of a future”, declared Bishop Alois Schwarz of Gurk in Carinthia, during a meeting on the ethics of investments held at St. Georgen am Längsee in recent days. “To keep alive the community of faith”, said the bishop, we need not only “the community of immaterial values of the Catholic Church, but also material values to ensure the daily running of the Church”. In this context, Bishop Schwarz referred to the taxation policy applied by the diocese to the pension funds of priests, subject to a strict ethical and ecological rating. That demonstrates, said the bishop, “that investments made in conformity with ethical and sustainable criteria do not necessarily lead to having to renounce profits”. Schwarz explained that the diocese subjects its own investments to quarterly controls to ascertain whether they respond to ethical criteria and emphasized the importance of “employing the resources of our world without causing waste. In today’s society of superfluity”, he added, we need to save if we are to leave to future generation existential conditions worthy of being lived”. On the other hand, he warned, “saving is irresponsible if it happens at people’s expense, as for example in the healthcare sector”. According to the financial director of the diocese, Franz Lamprecht, the diocese has already achieved many objectives set by “Sozialwort”, the ecumenical initiative of Austrian churches in the social field. He also noted the membership of the diocese of Gurk of the Alliance for the Climate, the development of a “Balanced Scorecard” (instrument of support for strategic business management) in the areas of economic activity of the diocese and its collaboration in the project “Corporate Social Responsibility”.
