Mensuram Bonam (A Good Measure) is a landmark Vatican document that provides Catholic investors with a framework for aligning financial stewardship with the Gospel and Catholic Social Teaching. First issued under the guidance of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences and introduced with a foreword by Cardinal Peter K.A. Turkson, it responds to the urgent need for investment practices that go beyond profit to foster human dignity, justice, solidarity, and care for our common home. In clear and practical terms, it calls Catholic institutions and individuals alike to integrate faith into their financial decisions, offering guiding principles, exclusion criteria, and pathways for responsible engagement in today's complex markets.
Cardinal Turkson situates Mensuram Bonam within the Church's mission of dialogue with the modern world, extending the vision of Vatican II into the realm of economics and finance. Drawing on Scripture, tradition, and papal teaching--from Populorum Progressio to Caritas in Veritate and Laudato Si'--this document challenges investors to see their vocation as a form of discipleship. It highlights the role of investment not merely as a technical exercise but as a moral act that can advance integral human development, address social and ecological crises, and witness to the hope of the Gospel.
The Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, founded by Pope Saint John Paul II in 1994, brings together scholars from across disciplines to deepen the Church's engagement with social, economic, legal, and political questions in light of faith. By publishing Mensuram Bonam, the Academy continues its mission of offering rigorous, faith-grounded insight into global challenges, equipping Catholic investors--and all people of goodwill--to measure their financial choices by the standard of human dignity and the common good.
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