GERMANY
Whispers in the Loggia
Saying Bishop Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst “cannot, at the present moment, continue to exercise his episcopal ministry” after months of embarrassing revelations on the prelate’s lavish spending for a new diocesan compound, while it was anything but surprising that Rome moved yesterday to depressurize the fraught situation in Limburg, the solution reached was a remarkable departure from the standard course of action.
Instead of accepting the 53 year-old prelate’s resignation or announcing his forced removal from office, the Vatican instead relayed that Tebartz-van Elst was being “authorized” to spend “a period outside the diocese,” pending the outcome of an investigation by the German bishops’ conference. In addition, “by decision of the Holy See,” a new vicar-general previously named by the embattled prelate and scheduled to take office in January was placed in post immediately to oversee the diocese in the absence of the so-called “luxury bishop.”
With some 700,000 Catholics, the Limburg church encompasses the far larger city of Frankfurt and much of its sprawling metro area.
After disclosures that Tebartz-van Elst spent $475,000 on walk-in closets and $20,000 on a bathtub among other big-ticket items for his residence in the new facility adjacent to his cathedral, the Vatican’s handling of the fallout is extraordinary on several fronts. First, because it precisely isn’t the “suspension” that has been widely misreported – nor, indeed, is the move a formal canonical act of any kind – but likewise as it’s a substantive instance of the anticipated fresh push for collegiality by Pope Francis. In other words, far from derailing a locally-called probe to impose a definitive, permanent resolution from on high, the Holy See has indicated that, in essence, the final verdict on Tebartz-van Elst’s future lies with his confreres at home.
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