Limburg Bishop Who Spent Too Much Is Given New Assignment in the Vatican
By Andrea Tornielli
The Secretariat of State informed him of his new post last 5 December. The 55-year-old former Bishop of Limburg, Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst, has been given a new appointment following the scandal surrounding his excessive spending on a restructuring project for his residence and the local curia. The situation the scandal created and the enormous media attention the case attracted worldwide meant it was difficult for the prelate to be placed in another German diocese. The solution was therefore to create a brand new position within the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelisation led by Archbishop Rino Fisichella. Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst will be a “delegate for the catechesis”, which basically means he will be studying the catechesis and its link to the new evangelisation. He is expected to arrive in the Vatican next month. The Limburg affair came to an end just under a year ago, on 26 March 2014, when Pope Francis “accepted” the bishop’s resignation following months of controversy and an enquiry carried out by the German Episcopal Conference, whose findings were submitted to the Vatican Congregation for Bishops. A statement read out by Vatican spokesman, Fr. Federico Lombardi, reads: “With regards to the administration of the diocese of Limburg in Germany, the Congregation for Bishops has carefully examined the report of the commission set up by the Bishop and the Limburg cathedral chapter to look into who was responsible for the construction of the St. Nicholas Diocesan Centre. Given that the situation verified in the diocese of Limburg is such as to prevent His Eminence Mgr. Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst from a fruitful continuation of his ministry, the Holy See has accepted the prelate’s resignation, presented on 20 October 2013, and has nominated His Eminence Mgr. Manfred Grothe as Apostolic Administrator of the vacant see. The outgoing bishop, His Eminence Mgr. Tebartz-van Elst, will be assigned a different position at an opportune time. The Holy Father asks the clergy and faithful of the diocese of Limburg to obediently accept the Holy See’s decisions and to make an effort to revive a spirit of charity and reconciliation.” The new diocesan centre was inaugurated in June 2013. The total cost – which apparently included the bishop’s private apartments – was said to have reached almost 10m euros, double the initial estimated cost. The diocese apparently announced that in the end the total cost had ballooned to 31m euros. The “different position” that Tebartz-van Elst was to be assigned at an “opportune time” has finally been found, or rather created ad hoc.
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