I look at recent coverage from The Pillar, which had gotten a report from 2015 on the parlous state of Vatican pensions for lay employees, and updated reporting in 2025 on the current state of pensions. I discuss the problem of unfunded pensions from a Catholic perspective, given these are pensions sponsored by the Vatican sovereign.
Episode Links
The Pillar Coverage
7 April 2025: Vatican pension deficit estimated at 1.4 billion euros — 10 years ago
Vatican officials warned the fund would be 'unmanagable' in a decade, ten years before Pope Francis warned of 'difficult decisions' to come.
The Holy See pension fund had an unfunded liability of almost 1.5 billion euros a decade ago, according to internal Vatican financial reports obtained by The Pillar.
The same documents show that Vatican financial authorities proposed measures to address the pension problem in 2015, while sources say that “virtually nothing” was done to implement those measures in the intervening years.
Meanwhile, the fund has continued into the red, in line with the Holy See’s broad financial crisis, raising serious doubts about the Vatican’s ability to pay the pensions of lay and clerical employees.
The Vatican has not confirmed the size of the current unfunded liability, but Vatican financial officials warn that the situation has only deteriorated in recent years.
The magnitude of unfunded liability — dating back years sheds — new light on Pope Francis’ decision in November last year to appoint Cardinal Kevin Farrell to oversee the fund as sole director, and to warn that the pension fund would be unable to meet its obligations “in the medium term.”
22 Nov 2024: Vatican union wary of pension fund ‘maneuver’
Vatican City’s trade union expressed concern Thursday at Pope Francis’ announcement of sweeping changes to the Vatican’s pension fund.
The Association of Vatican Lay Workers, known by its Italian initials ADLV, complained Nov. 21 that Vatican’s management of the pension fund has long been opaque, and said employees were “exhausted by cuts.”
The ADLV was responding to Pope Francis’ declaration that the Vatican needed to introduce “urgent structural measures” to ensure the sustainability of its pension fund.
In a Nov. 21 letter to cardinals and heads of curial departments, the pope said independent experts had highlighted “a serious prospective imbalance in the fund,” which meant “the current system is not able to guarantee in the medium term the fulfillment of the pension obligation for future generations.”
21 Nov 2024: Francis names Cardinal Farrell as Vatican ‘pension czar’
Pope Francis announced Thursday that he has appointed Cardinal Kevin Farrell as the sole director of the pension fund for the Holy See, covering former employees of both the Roman curia and the Vatican city state.
Francis took the decision, he said in a letter to the College of Cardinals and officials of curia, in the light of “a serious prospective imbalance of the fund” leaving it unable to meet its obligations.
“Unfortunately,” said the pope, “at the end of the latest in-depth analyses carried out by independent experts, indicates a serious prospective imbalance of the fund, whose dimension tends to widen over time in the absence of interventions.”
“In concrete terms, this means that the current system is not able to guarantee in the medium term the fulfillment of the pension obligation for future generations.”
Pillar coverage categories
Prior STUMP pieces
Vatican coverage in November 2024 in here:
On church plans not covered by ERISA:
Oh wait, what isn’t covered by ERISA?
Public pensions.
(also “church plans” which also controversial…. but I will drop that for now)
Catholic content
Catechism for the Catholic Church: Article 7, The Seventh Commandment
Article 7 The Seventh Commandment
THE SEVENTH COMMANDMENT
You shall not steal.
2401 The seventh commandment forbids unjustly taking or keeping the goods of one's neighbor and wronging him in any way with respect to his goods. It commands justice and charity in the care of earthly goods and the fruits of men's labor. For the sake of the common good, it requires respect for the universal destination of goods and respect for the right to private property. Christian life strives to order this world's goods to God and to fraternal charity.
Other paragraphs:
2410 Promises must be kept and contracts strictly observed to the extent that the commitments made in them are morally just. A significant part of economic and social life depends on the honoring of contracts between physical or moral persons - commercial contracts of purchase or sale, rental or labor contracts. All contracts must be agreed to and executed in good faith.
2411 Contracts are subject to commutative justice which regulates exchanges between persons in accordance with a strict respect for their rights. Commutative justice obliges strictly; it requires safeguarding property rights, paying debts, and fulfilling obligations freely contracted. Without commutative justice, no other form of justice is possible.
One distinguishes commutative justice from legal justice which concerns what the citizen owes in fairness to the community, and from distributive justice which regulates what the community owes its citizens in proportion to their contributions and needs.
2412 In virtue of commutative justice, reparation for injustice committed requires the restitution of stolen goods to their owner:
Jesus blesses Zacchaeus for his pledge: "If I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold." Those who, directly or indirectly, have taken possession of the goods of another, are obliged to make restitution of them, or to return the equivalent in kind or in money, if the goods have disappeared, as well as the profit or advantages their owner would have legitimately obtained from them. Likewise, all who in some manner have taken part in a theft or who have knowingly benefited from it - for example, those who ordered it, assisted in it, or received the stolen goods - are obliged to make restitution in proportion to their responsibility and to their share of what was stolen.
2434 A just wage is the legitimate fruit of work. To refuse or withhold it can be a grave injustice. In determining fair pay both the needs and the contributions of each person must be taken into account. "Remuneration for work should guarantee man the opportunity to provide a dignified livelihood for himself and his family on the material, social, cultural and spiritual level, taking into account the role and the productivity of each, the state of the business, and the common good." Agreement between the parties is not sufficient to justify morally the amount to be received in wages.
The Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins
25 Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom.
2 And five of them were wise, and five were foolish.
3 They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them:
4 But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps.
5 While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept.
6 And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him.
7 Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps.
8 And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out.
9 But the wise answered, saying, Not so; lest there be not enough for us and you: but go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves.
10 And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut.
11 Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us.
12 But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not.
13 Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh.
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