Pope Francis has forced cardinals to tighten their belts, but has increased the salary of employees who have three or more children. Starting this January, they will receive a monthly bonus of 300 euros on their payrolls. In addition, it has decided to increase the “paternity leaves” that the Vatican grants to its workers.
«From January 1, 2025, families with three or more children will receive a monthly bonus of 300.00 euros. This is what the Pope has decided for the employees of the Vatican City State,” the press office explained in a statement this Thursday. The idea is keep this bonus until the child finishes universitybut it cannot be extended once you have reached the age of 24.
Another of the new measures is that “the Pope has established that the parental leave goes from the current three days to fivealso applicable to the adoptive or foster parent. Francis communicated the decision on December 19 to the governor of Vatican City State, the Spanish cardinal Fernando Vérgez Alzaga, and to his number two, the nun Sister Raffaella Petrini. There he gave them instructions to “immediately” implement these measures.
Francis launched this initiative four days after returning from Corsica, where he said goodbye, inviting the French to “have children” because “they will be your joy and your comfort in the future.”
When on May 10 he participated in a congress in Rome on the birth crisis in Europe, he asked governments to facilitate work-life balance and act against precariousness, so that those who want to have children “can make this legitimate dream come true.” “It’s about putting into practice serious and effective options that benefit the familyhow to make it easier for one not to have to choose between work and taking care of their children; or free many young couples from the burden of job insecurity and the impossibility of buying a house,” he explained then.
The Vatican has not provided data on how many employees the measure benefits. It is estimated that the Vatican City State has about 2,000 employees, among them very few are priests or nuns.
Tighten your belt
The measure contrasts with other initiatives of the Pope that aimed at saving the budget, since the Vatican coffers are not going through their best moment. In October, Francis decided to cut the payrolls of his main collaborators and thus, since last November 1, the 30 cardinals who occupy high positions in the Vatican receive 500 euros less each month since the “extra” related to secretarial expenses and expenses disappears. office. The cut is more symbolic than anything else, as it allows the Vatican to save only 180,000 euros per year.
Then Francis also announced that since expenses continue to be greater than income, they will have to be put into practice «other measures, which are being studied by the competent bodies” and that “will require the contribution of everyone in terms of commitment and willingness to renounce operating models that have been consolidated in practice over the years.”
The confirming sign now is that lay employees will not be affected. The biggest cut in Vatican salaries occurred during the covid19 pandemic, in 2021. Soreduced that of cardinals by 10%, that of senior non-cardinal officials by 8%, and that of priests or religious employees by 3%. The other major announcement of cuts took place in March 2023, when the Vatican eliminated or reduced the contribution it gave to its senior officials to pay for housing.
In none of the cases did the measure affect lay employees who did not have high positions, who are the majority. Now, if they have children, they will receive a bonus.
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