ROME — The Vatican has centralized and overhauled its investment strategy after a botched deal lost tens of millions of euros, imposing a policy that prohibits investments in commodities such as pornography and weapons and prioritizes investments cautious in industries that promote the common good.

The new policy announced Tuesday by the Secretariat of the Economy prohibits speculative investments, short sales and investments in highly leveraged or complex financial products or in countries vulnerable to money laundering and terrorist financing .

Vatican offices have one year to come up with a divestment strategy if any of their investments fall into the prohibited categories.

The policy follows a decade of efforts, first by Pope Benedict and then Pope Francis, to try to clean up the Vatican’s troubled finances and reputation as an offshore tax haven with little to no expertise, oversight or accountability guiding investment decisions.

The Vatican’s less-than-professional financial practices drew wider attention when Vatican prosecutors in 2019 launched an investigation into the Secretary of State’s 350 million euro investment in a London property, which led to the loss of to the Holy See tens of millions in fees and commissions to brokers and other losses.

Ten people, including a cardinal, Italian brokers and former Vatican officials, have been on trial for a year for a series of alleged financial crimes.

Evidence presented at trial showed that the Secretary of State’s 600 million euro sovereign wealth fund was essentially managed by a priest. Monsignor Alberto Perlasca recommended investments to his superior, who in turn trusted the advice, even though Perlasca had little or no outside expertise, oversight, or criteria guiding his decisions.

He was originally one of the main suspects in the investigation, but he flipped and became the prosecution’s star witness.

At one point, according to court documents and testimonies, the Vatican considered investing 200 million euros in an oil extraction deal in Angola. A decision was made against it and the money was instead spent on converting a former luxury department store Harrod’s warehouse into a luxury residential property. At another point, the Vatican invested in a fund behind Elton John’s “Rocketman” biopic.

Even before the new policy was announced, Francis had stripped the Secretariat of State of its ability to manage its own money and ordered the transfer of assets to the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See. The APSA manages the real estate and other patrimonies of the Vatican and is now responsible for overseeing the investment strategy for the whole of the Holy See.