Pope Leo XIV repeals Pope Francis’ 2021 Motu Proprio “A Sustainable Future,” which reduced the salaries of Cardinals, Dicastery heads and secretaries, and clergy and religious in response to the Covid-19 emergency, leaving unchanged the effects produced while the law was in force, including the suspension of biennial seniority increases.
By Salvatore Cernuzio
With the Covid-19 emergency now over, the austerity measures associated with that period can also be brought to an end.
With a Motu Proprio published on Monday, Pope Leo XIV repealed the provisions introduced by Pope Francis in March 2021 that reduced the salaries of Holy See personnel, beginning with Cardinals and heads of Dicasteries of the Roman Curia, and suspended biennial seniority increases.
The measure was adopted in response to the consequences of the pandemic, which had worsened “the deficit that has characterised the economic management of the Holy See for several years and has negatively affected all sources of revenue for both the Holy See and Vatican City State,” as the Motu Proprio A Sustainable Future stated.
Above all, it represented a spending review by Pope Francis intended to avoid even more drastic measures, such as dismissing employees—particularly lay staff and, especially, mothers and fathers with families.
Pope Francis’ measure
Pope Francis reduced the salaries of Cardinals serving in the Curia by 10 percent. Employees of the Holy See, the Governorate and other related institutions classified in salary grades C and C1—namely, the heads and secretaries of Dicasteries—received an 8-percent reduction.
A general reduction of 3 percent was also applied to employees who were clergy or members of religious institutes.
The accompanying suspension of biennial seniority increases—the pay rises normally awarded every two years—affected all serving personnel.
In the case of lay employees, however, it applied only to those at level four and above, and therefore did not affect the lowest salaries.
Pope Leo’s decision
In the document, Pope Leo XIV explains that his predecessor’s “salary-containment measures” had been necessary in order to confront “the exceptional challenge of the pandemic.”
The provisions had already been partially amended in 2025 through the repeal of Article 3 by a Rescriptum ex Audientia dated 16 June 2025.
“Now,” Pope Leo says, “they can be brought to an end, in the certainty that the institutions of the Holy See and Vatican City State will continue, through different means, their commitment to ensuring economic sustainability.”
Previous effects remain unchanged
For this reason, “having heard the competent opinion of the Secretariat for the Economy” and “having carefully considered everything,” the Pope establishes the definitive repeal of the Motu Proprio A Sustainable Future, effective from 1 September 2026.
The document specifies, however, that the effects produced while the Motu Proprio was in force remain definitively preserved.
These include “the effects produced by the suspension of the accrual of the biennial seniority increases referred to in Article 5, which remain definitively acquired.”
In other words, everything that occurred or was applied while the law was in force remains unchanged, including the freezing of accrued seniority increases.
