The priest may have had needs.
“From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs” (popularised by Karl Marx in his 1875 Critique of the Gotha Programme. The principle refers to free access to and distribution of goods, capital and services.)
I asked a Catholic woman I used to work with “aren’t priests sworn to total poverty?” “No, that’s the nuns. You see priests being driven in luxury cars all the time.”
Jesuit site: We hold no property or monetary accounts in our personal name: in this way we avoid accumulating unnecessary wealth that could distract us from our mission.
Diocesan priests don’t take a vow of poverty, according to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, but they are expected to “lead a life of simplicity consonant with the people they serve.”
Diocesan priests do make vows, and must remain celibate and adhere to Canon law, but they do not promise poverty, so they may own their own property, such as cars, and handle their own financial affairs.
For services in the exercise of the ministry, members of the clergy receive a Form W-2 but do not have social security or Medicare taxes withheld. They must pay social security and Medicare by filing Schedule SE (Form 1040), Self-Employment Tax.
In the Augustinian vow of poverty they embrace communal poverty, where all share all things in common. As described in Acts 4:32-37, they share everything in common and no individual calls anything their own.
Each Jesuit is called to live the vows of obedience, for the greater good of others; chastity, as unselfish relationships; and poverty, by aiming for the essential.
Pope orders salary cuts for cardinals and clerics to save jobs of employees. MSNBC March 21, 2021.
Quote from the article “St. Peter’s Basilica and the Vatican Museums, the latter a cash cow that received about 6 million paying visitors in 2019, were closed or only partially open for much of 2020 because of the pandemic.”
During Covid lockdowns the Vatican lost money from the “cash cows” of the museum visits