Pope Francis holds a consistory at the Vatican July 1, 2024, with cardinals living in Rome. (CNS/Vatican Media)
VATICAN CITY — 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%. 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% 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.
— Cindy Wooden, Catholic News Service