What's Happening

By Mary Grace Wagner, Social Responsibility Operations Coordinator
and Mary Minette, Senior Director of Shareholder Advocacy, 
Mercy Investment Services

Faith-based investors gathered in New York City in late March 2026 for the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility’s (ICCR) biannual conference. Panels covered topics impacting shareholder advocacy and the changing federal policy landscape for shareholder proposals. 

A panel on chemical risk management included a discussion of the Portfolio Advisory Board’s (PAB) ongoing engagement with Target Corporation on pesticide use and its impact on biodiversity in Target Corporation’s supply chain.

A panel about engagement with the critical minerals sector included panelists who spoke about engagements with mining companies about the critical minerals needed to build electric vehicles. Panelists also spoke of the plans to engage automakers, including General Motors and Ford, about the human rights implications of their battery supply chains.

Member-led panels included a presentation from Ben Cohen, founder of the Ben and Jerry’s ice cream brand, about his battle to retain the brand’s social activist profile after its former parent company, Unilever, spun its ice cream business off to a new company, Magnum. The session also included an opportunity to enjoy ice cream!

Shareholders also discussed the rapidly growing gap between CEO and worker pay. In recent years, the average CEO of large U.S. companies has made 300 times the wage of their median workers. 

In a panel discussion, the ICCR Advancing Worker Justice Working Group on Excessive Executive Compensation previewed their new executive pay guidelines. The guidelines were released, together with an investor statement signed by the PAB, calling on investors to strengthen their oversight of executive pay by reviewing their proxy voting practices and guidelines on excessive compensation and engaging with companies.

And finally, industry experts gave an overview of the various federal policy changes that have created obstacles for investor proposals and actions. This included changes by the SEC in how shareholder proposal challenges by companies are treated, actions to block small shareholders from accessing the public SEC database to promote their shareholder proposals, and a number of state laws that could impact how investors can vote their proxies when they disagree with management’s recommended vote.  

A panel of experts also discussed how ICCR members and others have responded to these new restrictions, including by filing successful lawsuits against companies to get their proposals on the proxy ballot. Panelists also discussed the potential for further legal restrictions by the SEC to shareholder rights and pledged continued diligence in reporting to ICCR members about opportunities to respond.

May 15, 2026, Adrian, Michigan – Adrian Dominican Sister Janet Schaeffler, OP, a long-time minister in the area of adult faith formation, has written a book as a guide to the spirituality and practice of catechists, religious education teachers.

In A Catechist’s Guide to Vatican II, Sister Janet explores the 16 documents of the Second Vatican Council and the Council’s encouragement of the Catholic laity to read Scripture and to live out their faith actively. 

“Vatican II continues to shape how the Church understands itself and lives its mission,” Sister Janet writes in the opening of her book. “Its invitation to renewal, dialogue, and a deeper return to the sources of faith – Scripture, liturgy, and the lived experience of God’s people – remains woven into the life of the Church today.”

In each section of the book, Sister Janet offers key points of the Council’s documents, as well as an invitation to reflection or a spiritual practice and a brief prayer.

Sister Janet has served as a retreat leader and a consultant for catechists and adult faith formation leaders, as well as the Director of Faith Formation for the Archdiocese of Detroit. She has written numerous books on issues of concern to catechists, parents, and the laity in general.

A Catechist’s Guide to Vatican II is available from Twenty-Third Publications and from the Weber Center Shop at the Adrian Dominican Sisters Motherhouse Campus. The shop is open from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on Wednesdays through Fridays and from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. on Saturdays. It is closed from noon to 12:45 p.m. for lunch. Copies of the book can also be ordered by calling 517-266-4035 or emailing [email protected].