Pope FrancisPope FrancisPope: Pandemic shows ‘trickle-down’ economic policies don’t work Pope declined to meet with Pompeo Pompeo calls on Vatican to denounce China for human rights abuses MORE met with around a dozen investigators from the Council of Europe’s agency involved with investigating financial crimes on Thursday and pledged that the Vatican would uphold “clean” finances.

The Associated Press reported that the Pope met with a team from Moneyval at the Vatican, where he praised their efforts aimed at “monitoring movements of money and of intervening in cases where irregular or even criminal activities are detected.”

“The measures that you are evaluating are meant to promote a ‘clean finance’, in which the merchants are prevented from speculating in that sacred temple which, in accordance with the Creator’s plan of love, is humanity,” said the Pope, according to the AP.

His meeting with the investigators comes as the Vatican has