VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider
After hitting Vatican employees, pope Francis’ “spending review” strikes the five commissioners who oversee the Vatican bank and whose work costs 25 thousand euro per year
GIACOMO GALEAZZI
Vatican City
No more bonuses for the Cardinals who watch over the Vatican bank. Each Cardinal already has a “salary” of five thousand euro per month. This money used to be called “piatto cardinalizio” now the name has been modernized to ” Cardinals’ cheque.” All the cardinals of the Curia receive the same amount. The other cardinals take their pay from the dioceses of which they are bishops. But there is an exception. The five IOR commissioners have so far benefited of an additional allowance of up to 2100€ per month.
The “spending review” of Pope Bergoglio extends also to the College of Cardinals. After cutting the 4,000 Vatican employees’ allowances for the papal election, Francis’ decision to “break with tradition” in the field economic resources’ management has once again been made in the name of austerity. The Pope has decided to cancel the fee that is usually paid to the five cardinals who make up the Board of Supervisors of the IOR. The decision was made to coincide with the meeting of the Committee to approve the 2012 budget. The “cuts” amount to 25,000 euro per annum, per cardinal. Because of the economic crisis, The Holy See is implementing a strategy of “spending reviews” and thrifty resources’ management, in order to prevent the precipitation of budgets further into the red. Speaking of the 2012 accounts, the president of APSA, Calcagno, admitted: “Last year we survived, it could have been much worse.”
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