Vatican Offers Earthly Rewards

Employees get new corporate-style bonus system
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 23, 2007 6:35 AM CST
Vatican Offers Earthly Rewards
Italian Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone attends a Mass in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, in this April 18, 2005 file photo. Pope Benedict XVI on Wednesday, April 4, 2007 named Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone to be the Church's new camerlengo, the prelate who takes care of matters dealing with a papal death...   (Associated Press)

The Vatican is offering corporate-style performance bonuses to its workers for the first time, the Times of London reports. Pope Benedict XVI is offering rewards based on "dedication, professionalism, productivity and politeness." The conditions will apply to the thousands of lay workers who do everything from run Vatican Radio to repairing the Popemobile.

Cardinal Bertone, Vatican City's equivalent of a prime minister, said that employees had been asking for such a system for years. The Pope has asked Bertone to overhaul the Vatican's government, but change there rarely happens fast. When asked how many people worked in the Vatican, Pope John XXII once famously replied: "About half." (More Pope Benedict XVI stories.)

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