Vatican cuts monthly allowances of Curia cardinals October 24, 2024By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service Filed Under: News, Vatican, World News VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The 18 cardinals who head Vatican offices will find a little less in their pay envelopes starting Nov. 1. Maximino Caballero Ledo, a layman who heads the Dicastery for the Economy, informed the cardinals Oct. 18 that the Vatican would pay only their salaries and no longer provide allowances to help cover personal secretarial expenses and other costs. According to the Italian news agency ANSA, the amount the cardinals will receive each month will be reduced by just over 10 percent. The base pay of a cardinal who heads a Vatican dicastery is just over 5,000 euros a month (about $5,400) and the allowances were just over 500 euros ($540). A cardinal who heads a dicastery told Catholic News Service late Oct. 23 that the ANSA article was accurate. Pope Francis already had reduced the salaries of cardinals by 10 percent in March 2021 as part of a package of Vatican cost-cutting measures. In September, the pope had written to all the world’s cardinals asking them to help reduce the Vatican’s budget deficit. “The economic resources at the service of the mission 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 lost,” the pope wrote in the letter to cardinals dated Sept. 16 and released by the Vatican Sept. 20. “Additional effort is now needed on everyone’s part so that a ‘zero deficit’ may not only be a theoretically, but effectively achievable goal,” the pope said. According to a July report in the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, the approved operating deficit for the Holy See in 2023 was just over 83 million euros ($92.6 million). The Vatican has been using contributions to Peter’s Pence and investment income to cover the deficit. Read More Vatican News Pope: Schools should be centers of formation, not ‘achievement factories’ Pope appoints U.S. cardinal to manage Vatican’s troubled pension fund Pope approves simplified rites for papal funeral, burial Laity, women do not ‘rank’ last in the church, pope says at general audience Pope: Interreligious dialogue key to peace, youth education Pope meets Ukrainian first lady, decries war as ‘shameful tragedy’ Copyright © 2024 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Print
