Cardinals to earn full pay again as Pope Leo XIV ends COVID austerity measure

Salaries for cardinals and top Vatican officials will return to pre-pandemic levels after Pope Leo XIV scrapped the pay reductions imposed during COVID-19.
The reversal was announced in a decree made public on Monday — the American pontiff’s 71st birthday — with effect from September 1, 2026.
The cuts were first introduced in 2021 by Pope Francis as part of emergency savings when the Holy See faced mounting financial strain from the health crisis and a long-running budget shortfall. Under that policy, cardinals in Rome saw their pay reduced by 10%, while senior heads of Vatican departments took an 8% cut.
In the new decree, Pope Leo said the salary reductions had been “necessary to face the exceptional challenge of the pandemic” but could now be lifted.
He added that Vatican institutions would continue efforts to ensure their “economic sustainability.”

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The decree specified that the decision would not be applied retroactively, meaning no back pay for the years when the lower rates were in effect.
Cardinals serving in the Roman Curia, which runs the central administration of the Catholic Church, are reported to receive around 4,500 to 5,000 euros monthly, equivalent to about $5,200 to $5,800.
The decision comes amid improving Vatican accounts. In May, the Institute for the Works of Religion, commonly known as the Vatican bank, announced a net profit of 51 million euros in its annual report.
In a separate decree also issued on Monday, Leo overturned a proposal from his predecessor to relocate part of the Vatican’s archival collection beyond the walls of the city-state, directing instead that a new building be erected inside the Vatican to house the materials.

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