Finance · updated 1h ago · 2 min read
Pope Leo XIV Ends COVID-Era Salary Cuts for Vatican Cardinals and Officials
Pope Leo XIV repeals COVID-era salary cuts for cardinals and senior Vatican officials. Decree published September 14 restores salaries to pre-pandemic levels.
Whether the decision is retroactive.
10 of 12 outlets skipped it: leo ended a plan to expand the archive/library outside current Vatican buildings.
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Punch Newspapers
“The decree said the decision would not be applied retroactively.”Read the original ↗
Punch Newspapers (African) says the pay restoration would not be retroactive, while ZENIT says it takes effect retroactively.
Pay cuts reversed
Pope Leo XIV repealed the COVID-era salary cuts Pope Francis introduced in March 2021 for cardinals and senior Vatican officials, with the Vatican publishing the decree on Sept. 14, Pope Leo’s birthday.
“salary-containment measures”
The decree ended a 10% reduction for cardinals and an 8% reduction for employees of the Holy See, the Vatican Governorate and other related institutions classified in salary grades C and C1, while also lifting the suspension of biennial seniority increases that had affected serving personnel.
OSV News said Pope Leo explained that his predecessor’s “salary-containment measures” were necessary to confront “the exceptional challenge of the pandemic,” and that he had consulted “the competent opinion of the Secretariat for the Economy.”
Punch Newspapers reported the measure was abolished from September 1, 2026, and said the decision would not be applied retroactively.P
What changed, and what didn’t
People reported that beginning in April 2021, cardinals’ salaries were reduced by 10%, superiors from various departments saw cuts of 8%, and clergy and nuns saw their pay decreased by 3%, while lower-ranking lay employees were not impacted by the cuts.
People also said the structural deficit for the Holy See at the time was estimated at approximately 70 million euros, and a 1 billion euro ($1.14 billion) pension fund shortfall, per the AP.
ZENIT said Leo’s new decree took effect retroactively from September 1, while also stating that the Vatican would not reimburse sums previously withheld, pay arrears or restore the seniority increases that were frozen between 2021 and 2023.Z
In the decree, Leo said the measures “can now be brought to an end, in the certainty that the institutions of the Holy See and Vatican City State will continue, through different means, their commitment to ensuring economic sustainability,” as quoted by OSV News.
Financial sustainability focus
Alongside the salary reversal, OSV News said Pope Leo issued a decree ordering the construction of a new building in Vatican City State to house the excess holdings of the library and the Vatican Apostolic Archive.
“construction of a new building in Vatican City State”
Punch Newspapers added that in a separate decree released Monday, Leo canceled a plan by the last pope to transfer some of the Vatican archives outside of the tiny city state, saying a new building would be erected in the Vatican.P
The Guardian did not cover the salary decision, but it did frame the broader context of Vatican finances through the Vatican bank’s reported net profit of 51 million euros in an annual report published in May, as cited by Punch Newspapers.P
OSV News reported that Pope Leo’s decree was signed earlier in the month and published on Sept. 14, and that he said he had decided to repeal Francis’s 2021 decree “A Sustainable Future” after “having carefully considered everything.”