Pope orders salary cuts for cardinals, clerics
As the Holy See’s revenue has been hit by the coronavirus pandemic, Pope Francis has ordered cardinals to take a 10% pay cut and lowered the salaries of other clerics working in the Vatican in order to save jobs.
On Wednesday, the Vatican announced that Pope Francis had issued a decree that would begin proportional cuts on April 1. Lower-level lay contractors, according to a spokesman, will not be affected by the layoffs. Francis has stated numerous times that he does not want to fire anyone.
Cardinals who work at the Vatican and live there or in Rome are believed to get salaries of about 4,000-5,000 euros a month, many in large apartments at well below market rents.
Other department heads, mostly clerics, will see their salaries reduced by between 3% and 8%. Programmed pay rises will be suspended until March 2023. The provisions will also apply to senior staff of other papal basilicas besides St. Peter’s in the Vatican.
The Holy See, the central administrative body of the worldwide Catholic Church, may have to use 40 million euros in reserves for the second straight year as the COVID-19 pandemic burns through its finances, the Vatican’s top economic official said earlier this month.
It expects a deficit of about 50 million euros ($59.77 million) this year. The pandemic has forced the Vatican Museums, a traditional cash cow, to close for much of the last 15 months.
