Solothurn to cut cathedral canons’ salaries under old church pact

Solothurn’s government will reduce the salaries it pays to cathedral canons, but the savings will not affect the cantonal budget until their successors take office. The decision comes as the government says it cannot end the agreement requiring payments to the Diocese of Basel, SRF reported.

The canton paid about 560,000 Swiss francs to the Vatican in 2025 under the arrangement. The money comes from cantonal taxes, not church taxes. Solothurn’s parliament had called for the payments to end, but a government-commissioned report found that terminating the pact would be almost impossible.

The agreement between the Vatican and the cantons of the Diocese of Basel dates to 1824 and contains no termination clause. According to the report, it could be ended only if all parties agreed, including the Vatican and all 10 cantons. Parliaments in Zug and Lucerne have recently opposed ending it.

The report identified a possible termination ground if the Vatican breached the agreement, but the cantonal state chancellery said there had been no breach and no indication of future violations. It also said society had not changed fundamentally and that the Catholic population in Solothurn had not fallen to an insignificant level.

The government’s salary cuts take effect on December 1. It estimates they could save about 40,000 francs a year, but existing canons are protected by a contractual guarantee that prevents their pay from being reduced. The cuts will therefore apply only when their successors take office.

The pact also gives Solothurn rights within the Catholic Church. The bishop proposes candidates for cathedral canon, but their appointment becomes legally effective only after a government decision. In the Diocese of Basel, six resident canons manage the diocese’s affairs in Solothurn; three represent the canton.

The Diocese of Basel is a concordat comprising 10 cantons, with about one million Catholic faithful across 476 parishes. Solothurn’s government also plans to examine whether the rights and obligations under the agreement, including the payments, could gradually be transferred to the church synod.

Green cantonal parliamentarian Marlene Fischer, who backed ending the agreement, called it “absurd” that a pact more than 200 years old and costing the canton over half a million francs annually should be unbreakable. She said she would monitor the government and could press it to begin negotiations on the transfer sooner.