The department is a division of the Roman Curia, the administrative body of the Pope through which he heads the Vatican. The Economics Department informed the cardinals concerned earlier this month that the Vatican would pay only their salaries and no further additions for personal secretarial and other costs.
Surrender will reach about 10 percent. According to the Italian news agency ANSA, the cardinal who heads the department now earns about 5,000 euros per month.
In September, Pope Francis wrote a letter to all cardinals asking them to help him reduce the Vatican’s budget deficit. This amounts to just over €83 million in 2023, according to a report in Italian newspaper La Repubblica in July. “Additional efforts from everyone are now needed so that a zero deficit is not only theoretically possible, but also effectively,” the Pope said.
In March 2021, Pope Francis also reduced the salaries of cardinals by 10 percent as part of a package of austerity measures from the Vatican. In February of this year, he abolished the free or cheap housing that cardinals and officials enjoyed in the Roman Curia.
