Leo restores salaries to the pre-Covid era: with the emergency overcome for Prevost, it is now possible to also overcome the austerity measures related to that period, decided by Francis. With a Motu proprio, Leo XIV abolishes the regulation established by Bergoglio in March 2021 that cut salaries for the personnel of the Holy See, starting with cardinals and heads of dicasteries of the Roman Curia, and blocked biennial seniority increments. A measure dictated at the time by the consequences of the pandemic which had worsened “the deficit that for several years has characterized the economic management of the Holy See, which negatively affected all sources of revenue of the Holy See and the Vatican City State,” as stated in the Motu proprio A Sustainable Future.
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The cut had been 10% for the cardinals
Francis had in fact reduced the salaries only of the Curia cardinals – their pay is around 5,000 euros per month, but varies quite a bit – who had so far received a 10% reduction. While the salary cut for employees of the Holy See, the Governorate, and other related entities classified in pay levels C and C1, that is, those of the heads and secretaries of the Dicasteries, was 8%. A 3% general reduction also applied to clerical or religious employees. Along the same lines – Vatican News recalls – the blocking of biennial increments (salary increases that occur every two years) affected all personnel in service but in the case of lay personnel, it concerned employees from the fourth level upwards. Therefore, it did not affect the lowest salaries.
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Prevost assures commitment to guarantee the economic sustainability of the Vatican
Leo XIV himself in the document published on September 14 explains that those “salary containment measures” of his predecessor “were also necessary to face the exceptional challenge of the pandemic.” They had already been partially modified in 2025, through the repeal of article 3, with Rescriptum ex Audientia of June 16, 2025. “Now – Leo states – they can be overcome, confident that the Institutions of the Holy See and the Vatican City State will continue, with different tools, in the commitment to guarantee economic sustainability.”
The effects on the accrual of seniority increments remain
For this reason, “having heard the competent opinion of the Secretariat for the Economy” and “after carefully examining everything,” the Pope establishes the definitive repeal of the Motu proprio A Sustainable Future as of September 1, 2026. However, it is stated, the effects produced during its validity period are definitively preserved, “including the effects produced by the suspension of the accrual of biennial seniority increments referred to in art. 5, which remains definitively acquired.” In other words, everything that happened or was applied while that law was in force remains unchanged, including the freezing of the accrual of seniority increments.
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