ROME — In an effort to contain costs and save jobs amid a slump
in tourist dollars and donations as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, Pope
Francis has ordered across-the-board pay cuts for the cardinals and other
higher-ranking clerics working in the Vatican.
اضافة اعلان
Cardinals will see their income trimmed by 10 percent, according
to a decree published. The superiors of Vatican departments will have their
salaries reduced by 8 percent, while 3 percent cuts will be applied to
upper-level priests and nuns. A two-year salary freeze has been imposed on
other employees at higher pay grades.
The pandemic has “negatively influenced all sources of income
for the Holy See and Vatican City State,” Francis wrote in an apostolic letter.
“A sustainable economic future requires today, among other decisions, adopting
measures that also concern employee salaries.”
The cuts, which go into effect on April 1, affect only the
employees of the Holy See, Vatican City and associated institutions, including
the Vicariate of Rome. They will not apply to Vatican personnel who can prove
that they cannot sustain the costs of personal medical care or that of close
family members.
Of the roughly 5,000 people employed in the Roman Curia, the
administrative institutions of the Holy See, and in Vatican City State,
cardinals have the highest monthly salaries, varying between 4,000 to 5,000
euros, ($4,700 to $5,900), according to Mimmo Muolo, the author of the 2019
book “The Church’s Money.” The Vatican does not make salaries of officials
public.
The pope will not be affected by the cuts because he does not
receive a salary. “As an absolute monarch he has everything at his disposal and
nothing at his disposal,” Muolo said. “He doesn’t need an income because he has
everything that he needs.”
The economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic has “heavily
impacted” revenues, the Vatican’s Secretariat for the Economy wrote in a note
in February.
The 2021 budget approved by Francis projected a deficit of 49.7
million euros. Personnel expenses account for about half the budget.
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