Pope promises auditors 'clean finance' from Vatican

Pope Francis met with dozens of members of the Council of Europe's anti-money laundering outfit Moneyval on Thursday at the Vatican's Apostolic Palace. The Moneyval team has been in Rome since September 30, as part of a routine audit of Vatican financial records.

During the rare visit between auditors and the pope — a head of state — the pontiff once again denounced all forms of financial speculation as well as reassuring auditors that the Vatican was committed to "clean finance." Beyond money laundering, Moneyval also investigates terror financing.

Pope Francis told the Moneyval team, "The measures you are evaluating are meant to promote clean finance, preventing 'merchants' from speculating in the 'sacred temple.'"

'The blood of our brothers and sisters' on banknotes

The head of the Roman Catholic Church went on to say: "Sometimes, in the effort to amass wealth, there is little concern for where it comes from, the more or less legitimate activities that may have produced it and the mechanisms of exploitation behind it. Thus situations can occur where, in touching money, we get blood on our hands. The blood of our brothers and sisters."

The Vatican Bank was notorious for decades as the ideal offshore location for Italians seeking to launder their money. More recently, it's finances came back into sharp focus with a renewed financial scandal, when Pope Francis demanded the resignation of Cardinal Angelo Becciu last month over allegations of embezzlement and nepotism.

Becciu, who was second in command at the Vatican Secretariat of State until 2018, is accused of having sent €100,000 ($117,000) of money from Vatican accounts to a charity organization run by his brother, as well as to another woman, Cecilia Marogna, who claims Becciu gave her half a million euros to help missionaries in conflict areas.

Read more (from 2013):  Coming out of the shadows: can the Vatican bank clean up its act?

Target of investigation

Cardinal Becciu is no stranger to scrutiny over his financial decision making. The circumstances surrounding a luxury property investment in London, for instance, are currently under investigation and are said to have prompted his ouster. In the deal, the Vatican lost huge sums of parishioners' money to shady businessmen who may have been working with individuals within Becciu's team.

Becciu has denied any wrongdoing and says he expects investigations will prove his loyalty to the pope as well as to the Roman-Catholic Church.

Read more:  Vatican charges 78-year-old ex-bank chief with €50 million embezzlement

Amen, but now a bit faster

The fired cardinal had also been an outspoken critic of the Vatican's former head of finance, Cardinal George Pell. Better known for having spent 13 months in prison before being cleared of child sexual abuse charges, Pell has accused Becciu of blocking reforms.

Pell recently returned to the Vatican, but the Holy See said that Pell's return and Becciu's dismissal were not connected.

On Thursday, the pope spoke out against the "idolatry of money" and reviewed a list of actions "aimed at ensuring transparency in the management of money." Particularly, the pontiff pointed to new procurement and spending rules that he approved this June in an effort create transparent competition as well as safeguarding against corruption in the awarding process.

Though Moneyval has praised the Holy See's work, the Council's body has also criticized the slow pace with which the Vatican's justice system carries out investigations and puts suspects on trial.

js/msh (AP, dpa, Reuters)