The Vatican is not immune from Europe's austerity drive after Pope
Francis decided that the city state's employees will not be given the
bonus that traditionally comes with the election of a new pontiff.
The Pope, who took his name from the famously ascetic St Francis of Assisi, has already established a reputation for parsimony, deciding to live in a modest Vatican accommodation block instead of the palatial apartments inhabited by his predecessor, Benedict XVI.
Having denied himself
privileges and called for "a poor Church for the poor" within days of
his election, he has now extended the spirit of frugality to the 4,000
people who work in the Vatican, from gardeners and gendarmes to clerks
and cleaners.
In the past, they received bonuses on the death of a Pope, and another cash gift with the election of his successor.
In 2005, when John Paul II died and was succeeded by Benedict, Vatican employees, both lay and religious, received 1,500 euros each.
Long-serving officials fondly remember the generous bonuses they received in 1978, an unusual year in which there were two papal deaths and two elections.
"I don't think there will be any bonus," said Father Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman.
"Extra expenses are something that might be normal in a situation of abundance, but that is not the world we find ourselves in now. It didn't seem possible or appropriate to burden the Vatican's budget with a considerable, unforeseen extra expense."
The Pope, who was elected during a conclave of 115 cardinals on March 13, has put a very different stamp on the papacy compared to his predecessor.
He has shunned official Vatican limousines in favour of minibuses, wears plain black shoes instead of the soft red loafers favoured by Benedict, and sits down to meals with priests and other clerics in the Casa Santa Marta, the Vatican 'hotel' where he is living.