[Italy] Pope ends pandemic salary cuts for Cardinals and senior officials

Pope Leo XIV has repealed Pope Francis’ 2021 Motu Proprio “A Sustainable Future,” which reduced the salaries of Cardinals, Dicastery heads and secretaries, and clergy and religious in response to the COVID-19 crisis, Vatican News reports.

With a Motu Proprio published on September 14, Pope Leo XIV repealed the provisions introduced by Pope Francis in March 2021 that reduced the salaries of Holy See personnel, beginning with Cardinals and heads of Dicasteries of the Roman Curia, and suspended biennial seniority increases.

Motu Proprio are documents issued by the Pope without counsel from others 

The original measure was reportedly adopted in response to the consequences of the pandemic, which worsened “the deficit that has characterised the economic management of the Holy See for several years and has negatively affected all sources of revenue for both the Holy See and Vatican City State,” according to the Motu Proprio A Sustainable Future.

Ultimately, it represented a spending review by Pope Francis aimed at avoiding more drastic measures, such as dismissing employees (particularly lay staff) and, especially, mothers and fathers with families.

Pope Francis reduced the salaries of Cardinals serving in the Curia by 10 per cent. Employees of the Holy See, the Governorate and other related institutions classified in salary grades C and C1 - the heads and secretaries of Dicasteries - took an 8 per cent pay cut.

A general 3 per cent reduction was also applied to employees who were clergy or members of religious institutes.

An accompanying suspension of biennial seniority increases - pay rises ordinarily awarded every two years - reportedly impacted all serving personnel.

But for lay employees it applied only to those at level four and above, and therefore did not affect the lowest salaries.

In the new document, Pope Leo XIV states that his predecessor’s “salary-containment measures” had been necessary to confront “the exceptional challenge of the pandemic.”

The provisions had already been partially amended in 2025 through the repeal of Article 3 by a Rescriptum ex Audientia dated 16 June 2025.

“Now,” Pope Leo writes, “they can 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.”

For this reason, “having heard the competent opinion of the Secretariat for the Economy” and “having carefully considered everything,” the Pope has reportedly established the definitive repeal of the Motu Proprio A Sustainable Future, effective from September 1, 2026.

The document specifies that the effects produced while the Motu Proprio was in force remain definitively preserved. These include “the effects produced by the suspension of the accrual of the biennial seniority increases referred to in Article 5, which remain definitively acquired.”

In short, everything that occurred or was applied while the law was in force remains unchanged, including the freezing of accrued seniority increases.

Source: Vatican News

(Quotes via original reporting)

Pope Leo XIV has repealed Pope Francis’ 2021 Motu Proprio “A Sustainable Future,” which reduced the salaries of Cardinals, Dicastery heads and secretaries, and clergy and religious in response to the COVID-19 crisis, Vatican News reports.

With a Motu Proprio published on September 14, Pope Leo XIV repealed the provisions introduced by Pope Francis in March 2021 that reduced the salaries of Holy See personnel, beginning with Cardinals and heads of Dicasteries of the Roman Curia, and suspended biennial seniority increases.

Motu Proprio are documents issued by the Pope without counsel from others 

The original measure was reportedly adopted in response to the consequences of the pandemic, which worsened “the deficit that has characterised the economic management of the Holy See for several years and has negatively affected all sources of revenue for both the Holy See and Vatican City State,” according to the Motu Proprio A Sustainable Future.

Ultimately, it represented a spending review by Pope Francis aimed at avoiding more drastic measures, such as dismissing employees (particularly lay staff) and, especially, mothers and fathers with families.

Pope Francis reduced the salaries of Cardinals serving in the Curia by 10 per cent. Employees of the Holy See, the Governorate and other related institutions classified in salary grades C and C1 - the heads and secretaries of Dicasteries - took an 8 per cent pay cut.

A general 3 per cent reduction was also applied to employees who were clergy or members of religious institutes.

An accompanying suspension of biennial seniority increases - pay rises ordinarily awarded every two years - reportedly impacted all serving personnel.

But for lay employees it applied only to those at level four and above, and therefore did not affect the lowest salaries.

In the new document, Pope Leo XIV states that his predecessor’s “salary-containment measures” had been necessary to confront “the exceptional challenge of the pandemic.”

The provisions had already been partially amended in 2025 through the repeal of Article 3 by a Rescriptum ex Audientia dated 16 June 2025.

“Now,” Pope Leo writes, “they can 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.”

For this reason, “having heard the competent opinion of the Secretariat for the Economy” and “having carefully considered everything,” the Pope has reportedly established the definitive repeal of the Motu Proprio A Sustainable Future, effective from September 1, 2026.

The document specifies that the effects produced while the Motu Proprio was in force remain definitively preserved. These include “the effects produced by the suspension of the accrual of the biennial seniority increases referred to in Article 5, which remain definitively acquired.”

In short, everything that occurred or was applied while the law was in force remains unchanged, including the freezing of accrued seniority increases.

Source: Vatican News

(Quotes via original reporting)