'Bishop of Bling' need not pay damages

By Christa Pongratz-Lippitt
Tablet (UK)
September 9, 2015

http://www.thetablet.co.uk/news/2518/0/-bishop-of-bling-need-not-pay-damages

The so-called "Bishop of Bling", the former Bishop of Limburg, Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst, will not have to pay the £2.8 claim for damages, which the diocese of Limburg in Germany planned to file against him in a Vatican court.

The Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, Cardinal Marc Ouellet, personally informed Bishop Manfred Grothe, the Apostolic Administrator of Limburg in Rome.

“The decision has now been taken, which makes it clear how to proceed with the reappraisal,” Grothe said. The talks he had had in Rome had been “constructive and purposeful”.

The Vatican’s and the Limburg diocesan leadership’s common aim was “to continue to reappraise the situation in Limburg in such a way that a new bishop would be able to take up his post as Bishop of Limburg without being burdened by the past”.

At the moment it was not clear when a new bishop would be appointed, Grothe said. “We hope that by the summer of 2016 the cathedral chapter in Limburg will have sent in their votes and the Holy Father will have appointed a new bishop”, he said.