The government will double the salary supplements of pastors, priests and rabbis serving in small municipalities, Zoltán Balog, the commissioner for social affairs, said.
The 2.6 billion forints (EUR 7.5m) allocated to supporting small-town religious leaders will be increased by 60% from June 1 and by a further 40% from Jan. 1 next year, Balog said. This year, the government is spending an additional 1.6 billion forints on the salary supplements of religious leaders, while the 2021 budget allocates a total of 5.2 billion forints for this, he added.
Gergely Gulyás, the head of the Prime Minister’s Office, told the same press conference that up until now, not much had been said about the “spiritual aspects” of the novel coronavirus epidemic. The epidemic has been hard on the operation of the various dioceses, especially the smaller ones, Gulyás said.
MTI
