The Pope Cuts Curia Cardinals' Salaries Again

According to the Swissinfo.ch website, from November, “the Vatican will suspend payment of the secretarial bonuses and office allowances that cardinals used to receive as part of their monthly salary.” Caballero “also told the cardinals that ‘other measures’ will be taken, and that they will require ‘everyone's contribution,’” the same media outlet quotes.

The cut represents “a few hundred euros,” according to the letter from the Prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy. It should be remembered that in 2021, in a context marked by the global pandemic crisis, the Pope had “already cut the remuneration of cardinals by around 10%, as well as that of other Curia employees,” the cath.ch website recalls.

This letter realizes the announcement Francis made on September 20, when he wrote to the cardinals asking them to help him in his fight to restore the Holy See's financial equilibrium. He reminded them that he had received a “mandate” from the College of Cardinals on this issue in 2013, to achieve zero deficit.

The new measure comes after “the one adopted on February 13, when Pope Francis decided to abolish the free and preferential rates for accommodation granted to cardinals and officials of the Roman Curia at the Vatican,” as the cath.ch website also recalls.

A Chronic Deficit

The 2023 balance sheet shows an operating deficit of 83 million euros, five million more than the previous year. And forecasts are hardly encouraging: the deficit could grow even larger in the years to come, due to the drop in donations from the faithful, again according to the 2023 balance sheet, noted by La Repubblica.

The Swissinfo website points out that, apart from “the Vatican's real estate and museums, the Holy See's only income comes from donations: those sent to Rome each year by the richest churches (USA, Italy, Germany, Spain, and South Korea) and those offered to the Pope by the faithful around the world through what is known as Peter's Pence.”

In 2023, income from Peter's Pence amounted to 48.4 million euros (43.5 in 2022), but the Curia's expenses totalled 90 million euros, which had to be found elsewhere. This difference of around 50 million is linked “to the payroll of the 5,000 employees of the Vatican State, but also to the drop in donations from the faithful in recent years”, cath.ch notes.

The Pope's letter in September recalled that “the financial resources at the service of the Church are limited and must be managed with rigor and seriousness, so that the efforts of those who have contributed to the patrimony of the Holy See are not wasted.” It called for “a greater effort on everyone's part” to truly achieve “zero deficit.”

According to Caballero's letter, “other measures, which are being studied by the competent bodies, will require the contribution of everyone, both in terms of commitment and readiness to give up ways of working established in practice over the years,” reports I.MEDIA, quoted by cath.ch.

Does this mean that Vatican employees are worried about their future? That is very possible. Already, the 2021 reform temporarily froze seniority for all Vatican employees, but lay people were not hit by a pay cut, while clerics and religious saw theirs cut by 3%.

At the Vatican, Maximino Caballero “is seen as the architect of an austerity policy that many of the 5,000 employees are finding increasingly difficult to implement, due to a lack of genuine social dialogue,” cath.ch comments.