Pope Leo XIV Marks 71st Birthday by Scrapping Predecessor's Salary Cuts

Pope Leo XIV marked his 71st birthday on Monday by issuing a papal decree that rolls back the salary reductions imposed on many Vatican employees in 2021, when the Holy See was cutting costs during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The earlier measures had included a 10% reduction in pay for cardinals, smaller percentage cuts for office heads and lower-ranking priests and nuns, and a freeze on biennial raises for senior lay employees. Lower-ranking lay staff continued to receive raises. Pope Francis had argued at the time that the cuts were needed to protect jobs, pointing to a structural deficit then estimated at around 70 million euros and a pension fund shortfall of about 1 billion euros ($1.14 billion).

In the new decree, Leo said the salary-containing measures "can now be overcome, in the certainty that the institutions of the Holy See and the Vatican City State will continue, through various means, their commitment to ensuring economic sustainability."

The pandemic had shut the Vatican Museums for months, cutting off a major source of revenue, while investment and currency fluctuations added to the Holy See's financial strain.

Leo, a mathematics graduate and former superior general of his Augustinian order, is known for his ease with financial matters and balance sheets. His brother, John Prevost, recently told Italian broadcaster Mediaset that the pope had helped him with a tax-filing question. Soon after his election, Leo said the Vatican's finances were not as dire as he had expected and credited Francis with important reforms, though he has spent much of his early pontificate amending or reversing some of his predecessor's financial decisions.

A second decree published on Monday cancelled Francis' plan to relocate part of the Vatican's secret archives and library holdings from the city state to the grounds of a pontifical university elsewhere in Rome. Francis had ordered the move because the material had outgrown its existing storage, which includes a vast underground bunker. Leo said "unprecedented opportunities have arisen to create new spaces" inside Vatican City itself, and ordered a new building on a current parking lot to house ancient manuscripts and entire archival collections from past popes, religious congregations and benefactors.

Earlier in the day, the pope visited the Vatican Apostolic Library, where he inaugurated an exhibition about water — the first instalment of a new five-year cycle titled "Catastrophe and Marvel." It features a giant wave design by French artist JR, attached with scaffolding to the library's facade.

Leo noted that it was fitting to spend his birthday with library staff because his mother had been a librarian. "I'd just like to say that God, in His providence — and sometimes with a touch of humor — always reminds us that he is with us," he told them. "Many of you may not know that my mother was a librarian, and today I'm here on my birthday specifically to say hello to all of you."

The library and archive are open to scholars and researchers, and a small exhibition space in the library is open weekly to the general public with reservations and pre-purchased tickets.