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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Pope suspends German ‘bling bishop’

Bishop of Limburg Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst, pictured in August, has been suspended from his diocese in Germany. (Associated Press)
Carol J. Williams Los Angeles Times

When Bishop Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst of Germany traveled to India last year to minister to poor slum dwellers, he reportedly flew first class.

This year, renovations of the Roman Catholic bishop’s church-owned residence in the city of Limburg ran massively over budget to cover $620,000 worth of artwork, $1.1 million in landscaping and last-minute design revisions – $42 million in all, billed to the Vatican and German taxpayers, Hamburg’s tabloid daily Bild reported.

Dubbed the “Bishop of Bling” by European media that have been avidly tracking the bespectacled clergyman’s lavish lifestyle, Tebartz-van Elst was suspended from his post by Pope Francis on Wednesday in a clear sign that the new pontiff is serious about diverting resources from the “princes of the church” to the poor in its congregations.

Tebartz-van Elst flew to Rome this month to explain his finances to the pope after a Vatican delegation was dispatched last month to investigate what had become an embarrassing scandal for the church.

The bishop was forced to wait a week before getting his papal audience Monday.

On Wednesday, the Vatican issued a statement saying Tebartz-van Elst was taking an unspecified leave because “a situation has been created in which the bishop can no longer exercise his episcopal duties.”

There was no word on how long the bishop will be suspended or any indication of where he will spend his imposed hiatus.

The spending scandal has rocked the German government as well as the church hierarchy, as German churchgoers are compelled to pay a tax to the state that is used to cover government-administrated religious expenses. Berlin collects more than $6 billion a year for the Catholic Church from those who identify themselves as church members on their tax forms. A significant number have struck their names from the Catholic registry in recent years in protest of the worldwide clergy sexual scandal.

German church leaders welcomed the decision to remove Tebartz-van Elst, some indicating that they didn’t expect him to return to his bishopric in Limburg, about 50 miles northwest of Frankfurt.