Religion and Investing

Kedrosky today on risk-aversion between Catholics and Protestants:

We examine the relations between mutual fund risk-taking behaviors and local religious beliefs. We find that funds located in regions with lower Protestant population or higher Catholic population tend to have higher volatilities of fund returns, consistent with Protestants (Catholics) being more (less) risk-averse compared to general population.

More here.

“Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless handheld”

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Medjugorje Crackdown, Marian Apparitions, and the Miracle Business

In 1981, the town of Medjugorje gained worldwide notoriety when news spread about the appearance of the Virgin Mary to 6 Bosnian children. Since that time, Medjugorje has become one of the largest and most popular pilgrimage sites for Catholic Christians and tourists worldwide.

Local clergy remain tentative however, on confirming the supernatural nature of the events in Medjugorje and have urged the visionaries to refrain from further public manifestations ahead of the official confirmation of the Church. But lately, the Vatican has taken a more definite stance on the Catholic shrine:

The Pope has begun a crackdown on the world’s largest illicit Catholic shrine – by suspending the priest at the centre of claims that the Virgin Mary has appeared more than 40,000 times.

Benedict XVI has authorised ‘severe cautionary and disciplinary measures’ against Father Tomislav Vlasic, the former ‘spiritual director’ to six children who said Our Lady was appearing to them at Medjugorje in Bosnia.

The Franciscan priest has been suspended after he refused to cooperate into claims of scandalous sexual immorality ‘aggravated by mystical motivations’.

In 1985 Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger – now Pope Benedict – banned pilgrimages to the site, but this has been widely ignored.

Despite this, pilgrimages continue on the site and one of the visionaries, Mirjana Solo, claims visions from Mary continue to the present day. Here is a recent video interview and message from Mirjana Solo:

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Would You Lie for Your Religion?

Sounds, bad doesn’t it. Isn’t lying a sin. But tell me, would you in order to prevent scandal? Is lying for a supposedly good cause considered a sin? And is this really a good cause?

http://articles.latimes.com/2007/mar/26/local/me-priest26

Catholic doctrine is cited in priest sex abuse cases

By John Spano
March 26, 2007 in print edition B-4

Note This article includes corrections to the original version.

An elderly nun, under questioning by a lawyer, recently said she could remember almost nothing about his client, a child who had been sexually molested by a Roman Catholic priest.

Lawyer Irwin Zalkin was puzzled because church records showed she had heard several complaints about the San Diego priest, and the file noted that she had reported them to higher authority.

Finally, Zalkin asked whether she was familiar with “mental reservation” – a 700-year-old doctrine by which clerics may avoid telling the truth to protect the Catholic Church.

“She explained in her own way that it is ‘to protect the church from scandal.’ She said she subscribed to the doctrine,” Zalkin said. “What are you going to do?”

Mental reservation is not sanctioned in canon law, experts say, and is infrequently invoked. But in litigation arising from clergy sex abuse cases in the Los Angeles Archdiocese, at least half a dozen lawyers representing victims report having encountered it.

When is a lie a lie? Some say, as long as someone does not speak the truth, then it is a lie. Others assume, that when a lie is told, there is always bad intentions involved, hence if a person lies with good intentions, it is no longer a lie. The problem is, some people always convince themselves to have good intentions. Some people live in a world of delusion and manage to rationalize that they are good when in actuality they are selfish and deceitful. In a world where the biggest religion preaches on love and puts little emphasis on truth, people will inevitably try to justify their actions by saying that they did it out of love. In the above case, lying may be justified by the person for the love of his religion and his God.

As said in the quoted article, ” Mental reservation is not sanctioned in canon law”. But exactly what is sanctioned by canon law and what is absolutely true? Some Catholics have stated “dogmas” are absolute, and others “doctrines”. And what are exactly the list of dogmas and doctrines? The status of mental reservation is thus in limbo, and yet its vague status has allowed a person to actually lie under oath as seen by the above quote. How many others have possibly lied and how many others will. Actually, if you believe in mental reservation, what can prevent you from lying when asked “do you follow the doctrine of mental reservation”. You could always lie again and say that you don’t.

To put a stop to all this nonsense, if the Catholics are indeed against this usage in a court of law, they should make an official appeal to all Catholics that lying under oath is a sin. Why don’t they?

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