Divine Investment

A pope-inspired, Vatican-supported ethical fund flames out

- By Will Louch and Nicolas Parasie, with Gina Turner

The brief speech doesn’t rank among Danny DeVito’s most memorable performances. Addressing the packed auditorium of Rome’s Pontifical Urban University in an untucked navy shirt, the actor delivered a bumbling introduction from a sheet before handing the microphone to Cardinal Peter Turkson, a leading figure in the Catholic Church and once a possible contender to be pope.

Towering over DeVito in the front row was a smiling Eric Harr. A well-connected Silicon Valley entrepreneur, Harr had organized the gathering near the Vatican on Dec. 4, 2017, to celebrate the work of a little-known but innovative impact investment fund called Laudato sì Challenge.

Set up about a year earlier, Laudato sì—Italian for “praise be to you”—promised to join celebrities and investment firms with religious and academic institutions to tackle some of the world’s most pressing issues, from climate change and poverty to refugee crises, all under the spiritual guidance of the Vatican.

The fund’s messianic message was perfectly in sync with the nascent trend for purposeful investments that’s since ballooned into the environmental, social, and governance industry. But five years on, the fund’s lack of success serves as a stark warning to those flocking to ESG investments of the perils of mixing profit-focused and charity-minded interests—even those with divine inspiration.