Catholic nuns have made themselves a force in the worldly realm of shareholder activism. In recent years, they have sponsored resolutions at a number of companies, including Citigroup and Goldman Sachs. Now, four order of nuns--The Sisters of Saint Joseph of Boston, Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, the Sisters of St Francis of Philadelphia and the Benedictine Sisters of Mt Angel, who are all investors in Goldman Sachs--are outraged that the bank's board has decided to pay the top executives so well, reports The Guardian.

Until recently, nun activists were primarily interested in social issues, to make companies more conscious of the environment and the conditions of the average worker. But some of them have been galvanized by the pay abuse that they still discern. Recall that Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein was one of five executives that raked in $5.4 million in cash, $12.6 million in a restricted stock award, a $600,000 salary and $464,000.

The nuns are sponsoring some resolutions for the annual meeting, aiming to piggyback recently passed federal rules to press for an evaluation of whether the pay was excessive, an analysis of executive pay in relation to average workers' pay, and an analysis of how pay relates to revenue for various employee groups. They will have to pray for great patience, as their protests will likely amount to nil. But it's nice that they are taking a stand.

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