The Vatican has announced a papal decree abolishing the salary cuts that affected many employees in 2021. This step was taken by then-Pope Francis when the Holy See implemented cost-saving measures during the COVID-19 period.
In the decree, Pope Leo XIV stated that the salary-reducing measures “can now be revoked, confident that the Holy See and the Vatican State institutions will continue to fulfill their commitment to ensure economic sustainability through various means.”
The unpopular salary cuts included a 10% lower pay for cardinals and somewhat less significant salary reductions for office managers and lower-ranking priests and nuns. The biennial salary increase was frozen for senior lay employees, although lower-ranking lay employees continued to receive higher wages.
At the time, Francis explained that the cuts were necessary to preserve jobs, as the Holy See was also facing a structural deficit, then estimated at about 70 million euros, and a 1 billion euro pension fund deficit.
The pandemic closed the Vatican Museums for several months, depriving the Holy See of one of its main sources of income. The Vatican treasury also suffered from investment and currency fluctuations.
Leo XIV, a mathematics specialist and former superior of his Augustinian monastic order, is known as a person knowledgeable in financial matters. His brother John Prevost recently told the Italian broadcaster Mediaset that the pope recently helped him resolve a tax declaration issue.
Soon after his election, Leo XIV stated that the Vatican’s financial situation was not as bad as he had thought, and that Francis had carried out important reforms. Nevertheless, Leo XIV spent much of the beginning of his pontificate changing or completely revoking some of his predecessor’s financial decisions.
In another decree published on Monday, Leo XIV revoked Francis’s plans to move part of the Vatican’s secret archives and library collections to the papal university campus on the other side of the city. Francis had made this decision because the material no longer fit in the current storage facilities, which include a huge underground bunker.
Leo XIV noted that “unprecedented opportunities have arisen to create new spaces” within the Vatican itself. He ordered the construction of a new building on the site of the current parking lot. It will house documents, including ancient manuscripts and entire archival collections of former popes, religious congregations, and benefactors.
On Monday, Leo XIV visited the Vatican Apostolic Library and noted that celebrating his birthday with its staff was especially symbolic, as his mother was a librarian.
“I just want to say that God, through His providence – and sometimes with a sense of humor – always reminds us that He is with us,” Leo XIV told the staff. “Many of you may not know that my mother was a librarian, and today on my birthday I am here especially to greet all of you.”
The library and archive are open to scholars and researchers. A small exhibition space in the library is also open weekly to the general public, with reservations and pre-purchased tickets.
On Monday, Leo XIV visited the library to open an exhibition about water – the first part of a new five-year cycle “Disaster and Miracle.” It features a huge wave created by French artist JR, scaffolded to the library facade.
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