VATICAN CITY: Pope Francis yesterday banished a German Roman Catholic prelate known as the “luxury bishop” for spending ¤31m of Church funds on his residence at a time when the pontiff is stressing austerity.
In a highly unusual move, Bishop Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst of Limburg was ordered to leave his diocese while an investigation and audit into cost over-runs is held.
A Vatican statement said the bishop, who met the Pope on Monday to discuss the scandal in the German Church, “was currently not in a position to carry out his episcopal ministry”. It said he should stay outside his diocese “for a period,” and that it would be administered in his absence by a vicar-general. The issue has proven a major embarrassment for the Pope, who has called for a more austere Church that sides with the poor and has told bishops not to live “like princes”.
Francis has also promised to clean up the murky finances of the Vatican’s own bank and has set up a commission to advise him on whether it should be restructured or even closed.
The German media has dubbed Tebartz-van Elst “the luxury bishop” after an initial audit of his spending, ordered after a Vatican monitor visited Limburg last month, revealed the project cost at least ¤31m — six times more than planned.
Tebartz-van Elst, whose baroque style has appeared more in line with the conservative model of Roman Catholicism projected by retired German-born Pope Benedict, has also been accused by German magistrates of lying under oath about a first-class flight to visit poverty programmes in India.
German media, citing official documents, said the residence had been fitted with a free-standing bath that cost ¤15,000, a conference table that cost ¤25,000 and a private chapel for ¤2.9m.
The Pope’s decision on the fate of Tebartz-van Elst was unusual because it appeared to leave him in limbo, falling somewhere between a suspension and outright dismissal.
REUTERS
