VATICAN CITY/GERMANY
Irish Examiner
Thursday, October 24, 2013
Pope Francis has banished a German Catholic prelate known as the “Bling Bishop” from his diocese for spending €31m of Church funds on his residence at a time when the pontiff is stressing austerity.
By Philip Pullella Vatican City
However, the pontiff stopped short of dismissing him outright, a step which many German Catholics and the media had called for.
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, “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. He has told bishops not to live like princes, and has also promised to clean up the murky finances of the Vatican bank.
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