Pope Leo XIV has canceled one of the most sensitive cost-cutting measures introduced during the pandemic: the 10% salary reduction for cardinals of the Roman Curia. The decision reverses Pope Francis’ 2021 intervention, which was justified at the time by the financial blow of Covid-19.
What changes under the new decision
According to the decision taken by Pope Leo XIV, the “salary containment measures” approved on March 23, 2021, are removed. In practice, this means that cardinals of the Roman Curia will get back the 10% of their salary that was cut at the height of the pandemic.
The decision marks a clear shift from the austerity line adopted four years ago, when the Holy See argued that the pandemic had created an extraordinary financial situation.
The Vatican’s official reasoning
According to Pope Leo XIV’s official version, these measures can now be removed because the institutions of the Holy See and Vatican City State will continue to guarantee economic sustainability by other means.
This wording suggests that the financial pressure used as the basis for the 2021 cuts is now considered manageable in another way, although no further details on the specific mechanisms were made public in this announcement.
How other categories had been affected
The measure approved by Pope Francis did not affect only cardinals. According to reporting by Vatican News at the time, department heads and secretaries of the Dicasteries, as well as employees classified at levels C and C1, had their salaries reduced by 8%.
For clerical and religious employees, a 3% cut had been applied, while for lay staff, the freezing of two-year seniority-based pay increases applied only from the fourth pay grade and above. The lowest-income categories were reportedly left outside this scheme.
The logic of freezing pay is also being repealed
The 2021 package had also included a freeze on periodic salary increases based on years of service, as part of the effort to curb the costs of the Vatican administration during the pandemic crisis.
The removal of the measures from that period signals not only the restoration of salary levels for cardinals, but also the end of an austerity policy that was presented at the time as necessary for the Holy See’s balance sheets.
Pope Leo XIV’s decision comes as a direct correction of the line set by his predecessor at a moment of global crisis.
Beyond restoring the 10% of salary for cardinals, the move also raises questions about how the Vatican is now reassessing the need for restrictive measures that only a few years ago it presented as unavoidable.