The Vatican, under the direction of Pope Francis, has hired Big Four firm PricewaterhouseCoopers to perform the first ever external audit of its finances following a series of devastating scandals that made increased transparency a priority for the church leadership, according to the BBC. The firm will be responsible for auditing not only the Vatican bank, but all the church's holdings as well, including real estate, according to the Financial Times. Cardinal George Pell, who had been appointed to a new ministry that oversaw church finances, said there was an appalling lack of internal controls within the Vatican, according to the BBC. They were so bad, according to the Financial Times, that the Holy See had become effectively blacklisted from the international financial markets around 2013. It is hoped that this new commitment to a full financial audit will restore credibility to the church: according to the BBC, Pope Francis asked the church how it can expect to look after souls if it can't even look after its own finances.