VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews) — Pope Leo XIV has enacted a decree repealing a rescript by Pope Francis that had withdrawn a housing subsidy from cardinals.
On February 1, a decree issued by Pope Leo entered into force to formally abrogate the rescript issued by Pope Francis on February 13, 2023, that denied free or reduced-cost Vatican accommodation to cardinals, heads of dicasteries, and other senior officials in active service.
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According to Italian journalist Nico Spuntoni, who broke the story in advance in the Italian daily Il Giornale, the measure was adopted by Pope Leo XIV as part of a broader effort to reverse decisions of the previous pontificate that had generated discontent within the Roman Curia.
Like Francis’s 2023 rescript, the decree was not published in the Holy See’s official bulletin but – just like the act it repeals – was posted in the San Damaso Courtyard.
“Leo XIV gives another signal of his desire to turn the page from the previous pontificate,” Spuntoni wrote, adding that the new Pope had decided to archive “a measure considered by many to be populist.”
The original rescript of 2023 was issued under Pope Francis but was not published through the daily bulletin of the Holy See Press Office. Instead, it appeared only in the official record of papal acts (Acta Apostolicae Sedis) and was physically posted on a notice board in the San Damaso Courtyard within the Apostolic Palace at the Vatican.
The measure stipulated that cardinals, presidents, secretaries and heads of dicasteries in active service would no longer be entitled to free accommodation or to rents set below market rates for Vatican-owned properties. Invoking the Holy See’s “growing commitments to the universal Church and the needy,” Francis urged those affected “to make an exceptional sacrifice.”
The 2023 rescript followed an earlier decision by Francis to reduce the salaries of cardinals by 10 percent.
Several prominent churchmen were directly affected by Francis’ housing rescript. Among them was Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke, who, according to reports, was required to pay a rent approximately three times higher than before for his apartment in Rome. This increase came after Pope Francis had previously withdrawn Burke’s right to the so-called “Cardinal’s plate,” an allowance usually given to those holding the title.
Further details regarding the application of the rescript were highlighted by journalist Diane Montagna. Since Francis’s rescript was not retroactive and applied only to curial officials appointed from that point onward, it also affected Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, whom Francis had appointed prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops on January 30, 2023, and who moved from Peru to Rome on April 12 – two months after the rescript.
During his tenure as prefect, Prevost reportedly paid the full market rent for his residence on Via di Porta Angelica, close to the Vatican, for almost two years.
Montagna also reported that Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández, prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, would also have fallen under the scope of the rescript. Francis appointed him on July 1, 2023.
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However, she noted that Fernández may have been exempted from its effects over comments made in a message the cardinal published on Facebook at the time of his selection for office.
In that post, Fernández recounted a personal conversation with Pope Francis regarding his living arrangements: “Once I said yes, last week Francis asked me to go see a little house he had chosen for me to live in, inside the Vatican, with a small terrace and a view of the gardens. He said to me: ‘Because you come from Río Cuarto, from the countryside, you need a wide view, to see greenery.’” Fernández added that the late pope’s gesture demonstrated “Francis’s sensitivity and exquisite charity.”
Spuntoni further observed that Pope Leo XIV’s decision to revoke the rescript reflects attention to the living conditions of curial officials, especially in view of the Pope’s own planned move to the Apostolic Palace in the coming weeks.
