Thousands quit Church as crisis of Limburg's 'luxury bishop' escalates

[SecularMotion]

Growing numbers of Catholics are leaving the Church in protest at the behaviour of the Bishop of Limburg who has spent an estimated €31m on renovations to his palace.

The thousands leaving both locally and nationally has alarmed the German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Moreover, the crisis caused by the behaviour of Bishop Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst has divided the most senior German Catholics.

Besides having spent an estimated €31m on his residence, including €15,000 on his bathtub, Bishop Tebartz has also received two court orders for perjury from a Hamburg court and nine for breach of trust from a court in Limburg.

Under the German system people leave the Church by signing the appropriate documents. They then no longer pay the automatic church tax, but lose church-linked privileges. Dioceses can easily monitor numbers, and register sudden trends.

http://www.thetablet.co.uk/latest-news/5758

[struggle4progress]

1. German bishop facing legal problems

The Associated Press
Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2013 | 12:14 a.m.

A German bishop already facing questions over his new multi-million dollar residence now has legal problems on allegations he lied to a court.

Hamburg prosecutors said Thursday they asked a court to fine Limburg Bishop Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst for providing false testimony.

Tebartz-van Elst had filed a civil court claim against Der Spiegel magazine for a report he took a first-class flight to India on a trip to visit poor children.

He questioned Spiegel's report that he claimed to have flown business class, stating in an affidavit he had never said that. Hamburg prosecutors say the affidavit is false ...

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2013/oct/15/eu-germany-bishops-spending/

[struggle4progress]

2. Bishop in hot water for $4.2m home bill

October 16, 2013
Nick Squires

The head of the Catholic Church in Germany has said there would be ''consequences'' for a bishop who has been accused of squandering millions of euros on a lavish new residential complex, including €14,000 ($20,000) on a bathtub for his personal use.

The head of the German conference of bishops, Robert Zollitsch, will discuss the affair with Pope Francis this week, as the future of Bishop Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst hangs in the balance ...

The €2.9 million cost of his private apartments, which has provoked outrage among ordinary Catholics, included €350,000 for built-in cupboards and carpentry, €780,000 for a garden and €450,000 for works of art.

Archbishop Zollitsch said he was ''mystified'' by the cost of the building project and announced a commission to investigate ...

http://www.smh.com.au/world/bishop-in-hot-water-for-42m-home-bill-20131015-2vkow.html

[struggle4progress]

3. German dioceses open books in wake of Tebartz-van Elst scandal

... German Archbishop Robert Zollitsch (pictured above) is also in Rome and will brief Pope Francis on the situation in the Limburg diocese, where scandal has hit after estimates put the eventual cost of construction for the bishop's new residential complex at 31 million euros ($41.8 million). A week of front-page headlines in Germany prompted the decision for the Bishop of Limburg to accompany Zollitsch on his long-scheduled visit to the Vatican.

Bishop Tebartz-van Elst's private quarters in a complex builty next to the city's historic cathedral are believed to have cost 2.9 million euros alone, reportedly including a free-standing bathtub worth 15,000 euros ...

The budget overrun in Limburg has prompted the dioceses of Cologne, Munich, Essen, Hamburg and Speyer to make their finances public. The former revealed assets as of December 2012 of 166.2 million euros, posting an income of 9.6 million euros in the same year.

The archdiocese of Munich posted total assets of 27.6 million euros, while the diocese of Speyer had a worth of about 46.5 million ...

http://www.dw.de/german-dioceses-open-books-in-wake-of-tebartz-van-elst-scandal/a-17161128

[struggle4progress]

4. German bishops investigating multimillion building project

Catholic News Service

... Archbishop Robert Zollitsch, the bishops' conference president and recently retired archbishop of Freiburg, told reporters Oct. 14 that the conference has formed a commission to investigate the project in the Diocese of Limburg ...

The investigating commission, Archbishop Zollitsch said, includes experts in canon law, finance and construction. The members were to begin their work the week of Oct. 14, he said, and "clarify the costs" of the project, "how it was financed" and "how decisions were made to finance it" ...

In early September, Cardinal Marc Ouellet, prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, sent retired Cardinal Giovanni Lajolo to visit the diocese to promote peace between the bishop and some of the diocese's priests. In the end, the bishop agreed to publish figures about the construction project and to cooperate with the bishops' conference commission.

http://www.catholicsentinel.org/main.asp?SectionID=2&SubSectionID=34&ArticleID=22637

[struggle4progress]

5. Bishop travels to Rome to explain €31m residence

A German bishop under fire for heavy spending is in Rome for talks at the Vatican, placing his future in the hands of a Pope who has espoused a simple lifestyle.
Tuesday, October 15, 2013
By Robert Reid, Berlin

... Martin Wind, a spokes- man for the diocese of Limburg, told the German news agency DPA Tebartz- van Elst was meeting with church officials in Rome but gave no further details. German media said he made the trip aboard a budget airline.

At the centre of the controversy is the €31m price tag for building a bishop’s residence complex and related renovations.

Tebartz-van Elst told the Bild newspaper the bill was actually for 10 projects and there were additional costs because of regulations on buildings under historical protection ...

The head of the German Church, Archbishop Robert Zollitsch, has said the scandal about the cost overruns and allegations of lying were hurting the whole church and he would discuss it with Pope Francis during his visit to Rome. The Pope’s response will be closely watched as a barometer of how far he will go to promote frugality and simplicity in a church plagued for decades by scandals of clerical sexual abuse and opaque financial transactions at the Vatican bank ...

http://www.irishexaminer.com/world/bishop-travels-to-rome-to-explain-31m--246316.html

[struggle4progress]

6. Lavish spending forces German bishop to seek audience with pope

Limburg renovation included a reported €15,000 spent on a bath
Derek Scally
Tue, Oct 15, 2013, 01:23

... On Sunday, rather than wait for news of his fate, Bishop Tebartz-van Elst took matters into his own hands and flew – unannounced – to Rome where he is now reportedly waiting for an audience with the pope ...

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/religion-and-beliefs/lavish-spending-forces-german-bishop-to-seek-audience-with-pope-1.1560618

[cbayer]

7. Well, he certainly has garnered a lot of negative attention.

Looks like he won't be doing much more of this.

[muriel_volestrangler]

8. Vatican suspends 'bishop of bling'

The Vatican has suspended a senior German Church leader dubbed the "bishop of bling" by the media over his alleged lavish spending.

Calls were made for the Bishop of Limburg, Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst, to resign after he was accused of lying under oath about his spending.

The Vatican said it deemed "appropriate... a period of leave from the diocese" for the bishop.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-24638430

[dimbear]

10. Bling Bishop bye-bye.............

Another local bishop has suggested a new position in Africa might offer perspective.

[cleanhippie]

9. The priests rape children? Meh. Use my money to live large? I'm leaving this church!

Selfishness and greed run deep in humans.

[Act_of_Reparation]

11. The Vatican is, at least, consistent

Blow a bunch of money on frivolous home renovations? Get relocated.

Rape a couple kids? Get relocated.