Pope Boots out "Bishop of Bling" over ?26m Luxury Home

The Telegraph
October 24, 2013

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/the-pope/10399664/Pope-boots-out-bishop-of-bling-over-26m-luxury-home.html

[with video]

The Vatican on Wednesday suspended indefinitely a German Catholic cleric dubbed the "bling bishop" for his luxury lifestyle, despite multiple calls in Germany for the prelate to be dismissed.

The bishop flew to Rome last week with low-cost airline Ryanair to explain himself to Pope Francis - following accusations he took an expensive ticket on a trip to India and squandered money.

His private quarters in a new diocesan building are reported to have cost up a ˆ31 million (?26.4 million), and included a 63-square-metre dining room and a ?12,000 bathtub - using the revenue from a religious tax in Germany.

The reports have caused a scandal in Germany and sparked calls for greater transparency in Catholic Church finances - a reform aim of the new pope who has called for a "poor Church for the poor".