Video games, other issues focus of corporate responsibility movement

Published: 2005-01-27

NEW YORK (CNS) -- The sale of violent video games to children is getting special attention this year from church agencies in the corporate responsibility movement. Mercy Sister Patricia Wolf, director of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility in New York, said in a Jan. 25 interview with Catholic News Service that research conducted earlier about the issue will now be followed by direct challenges to companies at stockholder meetings. Members of the center have filed resolutions with five major retailers -- Best Buy, Circuit City, Target, Toys 'R' Us and Wal-Mart. Support for a particular resolution by members depends on which company's stock they hold. For example, the Toys 'R' Us resolution is backed by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the Dominicans of Sinsinawa, Wis., and Trinity Health, formed by a merger of health care facilities of Holy Cross and Mercy nuns and based in Novi, Mich. In the resolution, each of the five retailers has been asked simply to "report on the implementation of the company's policies" regarding sale of "mature-rated" video games.

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