What does the Pope get paid?
I have a friend who is part of a Catholic religious community and I’ve asked him how they do money: Basically, they all take the money from they make and hand it over to the community. From that: Their room and board is covered. Communities also have cars, usually. The community also covers big expenses like tuition. They each have a credit card billed to the community, but that is essentially for emergencies. They get cash to spend on personal expenses: clothes, toiletries, meals out or what have you. How this works is basically you get $40, and when you’re all out you say you’re all out and get another $40. If you need more than $40 at one time (like you have plans that will cost you more than $40 in an evening) you can say so and it’s not a big thing. For more major expenses like laptops you basically put in that you want it and they prioritize somehow the various things people want and provided it’s reasonable, you’ll get it though not necessarily right away. Now that said…the po
The pope is an absolute monarch. The Vatican is his purse. Yet it would seem likely that anything he would want would, by tradition, be the property of the office, in as much as that is practical (his mp3 player, if he had one, would be left for the next ‘rouge to warm the throne’). There is a tradition (so I was taught), that royalty does not handle money. They have people for such lowly tasks. As for heirs: priests come from families, they frequently have nieces and nephews. In days of old it is certainly well known that clergy were helping their families through contacts and influence (Medici family, to name one).
From shm.com.au: In 2001, the Catholic World News reported that Cardinal Sergio Sebastiani, when presenting the Holy See’s (the papal court’s) accounts for the 2000 fiscal year, was taken off guard when asked this. The cardinal said that he assumed the Pontiff received a salary, like every other cleric. In a subsequent briefing, the Vatican’s spokesman, Joaquin Navarro-Valls, announced: “John Paul II is not aware of – and he has never been aware of – any salary.” The “relevant agencies of the Holy See” provided all the daily needs of the Pope. Heheh.
duck: careful! That is for the order segment of Priests. Technically speaking, order Priests (Jesuits, all nuns, etc) own no property- it all belongs to the community, or their order. diocesan Priests, on the other hand (the category most Popes and I believe these two fall into) do own their stuff and make a salary- in Atlanta it’s typically around 15k/year, though a lot of what they need is furnished (car, housing, etc) and it’s not unusual for the Priest to donate their money. Additionally, all Priests take a vow of Chastity and Obedience (order Priests to their Abbot (head of their Order), diocesan to their Bishop), but contrary to popular belief, only Order Priests take a vow of Poverty. For example, if Bill Gates decided to become a Diocesan Priest, he’de still be rich mofo. However, if he became an Order Priest, all his assets would be turned over to the Order. My aunt is actually a nun and I’ve talked a lot with her about how all this works. Fell free to e-mail me for more info.
duck: careful! That is for the order segment of Priests…. That’s what I said… See. I said: Now that said…the pope isn’t part of a relgious community, he’s just a non-affiliated priest as far as I know, so it probably works differently for him. My friend isn’t a priest, just a religious (but the role of all religious (priests or not) is the same within the community).
