Pope Leo celebrates his 71st birthday—by giving gifts to the Vatican

As he received good wishes and gifts from across the world, Pope Leo celebrated his 71st birthday in an unusual way today, Sept. 14, by giving two gifts that brought joy to many in the Holy See.

First, he restored—effective from Sept.1—full salaries to cardinals, senior officials, clerics and women and men religious working in the Holy See that had been reduced by Pope Francis amid a budget crisis during the Covid pandemic in March 2021. 

Second, he visited the Vatican Library for the first time as pope to open an exhibition centered on water and, while there, announced his decision to significantly extend the space available to the library and archives. 

The head of the Vatican Library and Archives, the Italian archbishop Giovanni Cesare Pegazzi, did not let the pope’s birthday pass without giving him a gift: In the name of the staff, he arranged for Leo to be presented with a birthday cake with just one candle, which Leo blew out as the staff present sang “Tanti Auguri a te!” (“Happy birthday to you!”).

The Vatican broke the news of the restoration of full salaries to the cardinals, senior officials and other officials of the Holy See by publishing today an apostolic letter, in the form of a “motu proprio,” which Leo had signed on Sept. 1, repealing the decree imposing the reductions introduced by Francis on March 23, 2021. 

With that decree, Pope Francis reduced the salaries of cardinals, senior officials, clerics and men and women religious working in all the institutions of the Holy See—of which the Roman Curia is a central part—as well as in the governorate of the Vatican City State. The decree also applied to all persons working in the Rome Vicariate, in the chapters of the papal basilicas at St. John Lateran and St. Mary Major, and at the institutes responsible for the upkeep and administration of St. Peter’s Basilica and the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls. 

Francis cited growing budget deficits and the significant economic impact of the Covid crisis among reasons for his decision, and said the reductions were necessary to ensure “an economically sustainable future” and to “safeguard the current jobs.” 

The reductions ranged from a 10 percent cut in the salaries of cardinals and an 8 percent reduction for senior officials to a 3 percent reduction for priests and religious personnel. Lay persons at higher levels also were subject to some cuts, but the salaries of lower-level lay staff were not reduced. In addition, automatic raises based on length of service were suspended.

At that time, a cardinal (or prefect of a Vatican dicastery) working in Rome received a salary of around $6,000 per month plus a free apartment. The secretary (the number two official) in a dicastery received around $5,000 per month, while the starting base salary for a nuncio (a Vatican ambassador) was close to $4,000 a month. Pension and health care costs are paid out of those salaries as well. With the exception of cardinals, all senior officials and nuncios pay rent for Vatican-subsidized housing. Furthermore, Vatican employees have access to the city-state’s duty-free supermarket.

Pope Leo, recognizing that the Holy See’s economic situation has improved in these last years, decided to issue his decree repealing his predecessor’s one. He did so, he said, “having sought the expert opinion of the Secretariat for the Economy and after carefully examining all matters.” 

As for his second gift of the day—assigning much needed space within the walls of the Vatican City-State to the Vatican’s Apostolic Library and Apostolic Archives—Pope Leo announced this when, for the first time as pope, he visited the Vatican Library just before midday on his birthday. He issued the decree with a chirograph, or handwritten document, that the Vatican made public after his visit

The Vatican Library and Archives, with their priceless and historic collection of manuscripts and books, traces its origins back to the fourth century of the Christian Era, and began its “modern” phase in the 15th century with Pope Nicholas V, who decided to open the papal collection of books to scholars, as Vatican media recently reported, adding that Pope Sixtus VI gave a more stable structure in 1475.

Leo went there to inaugurate an exhibition cycle centered on water titled “Aqua: Catastrophe and Wonder,” which brings together the works of three contemporary figures: the famous French street artist JR; the American typographer Bill Moran; and the leading Italian chef Fulvio Pierangelini. The most impressive part of the exhibition is the “Diluvium,” or flood, a monumental installation by JR in the form of a giant wave, installed in the Renaissance façade of the building. The exhibition will be open to the public from Sept. 24.

After visiting the exhibition and the library and before reading his prepared speech, Leo, speaking off the cuff, said, “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. Many of you may not know that my mother was a librarian, and today I’m here on this [my] birthday specifically to say hello to all of you.”

He went on to speak about the library and remarked, “When we think of a library, we imagine a calm, quiet space. Indeed, books are silent and call for silence. In reality, while a book can bring peace, it can also stir restlessness, fueling the desire and courage to explore.”

He cited the example of St. Augustine: “Full of life, and tormented by powerful forces struggling within him, for years he ‘gave vent to desperate cries’…until he heard the voice of a child singing: ‘take and read, take and read.’ He immediately took a book from the hands of a friend, the Letter of Saint Paul to the Romans, and read it. Then ‘a light, as it were, of certainty entered my heart and all the darkness of doubt fled away.’”

Leo said Augustine’s “doubt was dispelled, but not his desire—which, in fact, grew stronger, driving him to explore the full breadth and depth of the Holy Scriptures.” He added, “The book of Scripture that came into Augustine’s hands is the very one that opened his spirit wide.”

Addressing the staff of the Library and Archives, Pope Leo added: “Dearest friends, all of you, by preserving, studying, and making the books of Peter’s successor available to scholars, you help the Church and humanity to rise to the depth of that desire. Without it, everything drifts away from the living God, the source of truth and love.”

In his speech, delivered in Italian, the first American pope, who took the name Leo XIV, reminded his audience that they were gathered in the Leonine Hall (Sala Leonina) dedicated to Pope Leo XIII and said, “He was a shepherd capable of grasping the most dramatic issues of his time, such as the changes brought about by the Industrial Revolution. He was also the Pontiff of great cultural milestones, such as the opening of the Vatican Archives to scholars from around the world and the expansion of access to the Library, to the point that he transformed an old armory into this beautiful reading room.”

He added: “The openness and broad-mindedness of this Library have been evident since its humanistic origins: not only works on theology, but also on literature, philosophy, astronomy, physics, mathematics, geography, botany, zoology, medicine, history, law, art, and economics. Not only European and Christian books, but also volumes written within other religious contexts, coming from every corner of the world. And this occurred many centuries before such an approach became a universally shared sensibility.”

In this way, the first Augustinian pope said, “the Apostolic Library bears witness to the church’s age-old and ever-renewed cultural openness,” and “the cycle of exhibitions that began today also confirms this.”  

He said that “a sign of this cultural cordiality is also the gentle diplomacy that finds, among the documents and books of the Vatican Archives and Library, an open path—one of the ‘pathways to reconciliation’ mentioned in the encyclical ‘Magnifica humanitas.’” He concluded: “So let us move forward! Faithful to the past and faithful to the future, and using the languages and means proper to you, find new gateways to reconciliation.”

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