German Catholic diocese demands money back from ultra-conservative sacked bishop

This German video is called It´s fun to be Tebartz-van Elst – [comedian] Stefan Raab as Bling-Bling Bishop.

Translated from NOS TV in the Netherlands:

German diocese wants its money back from ‘luxury bishop‘

Today, 11:08

The German diocese of Limburg wants 3.9 million euros back from ‘luxury bishop’ Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst. German media report this.

The bishop became at the end of 2013 discredited because he had his official residence reconstructed for more than 30 million euros. There were, among other things, 15,000 euros earmarked for a new bath. Also Tebartz-van Elst bought art for 450,000 euros, and he had an invisible speaker system installed.

A portion of the amount that the diocese are reclaiming is the money that the bishop spent on unused designs for the renovation. For additional planning costs it is said that 2.2 million euros too much were allocated.

A spokesperson for the diocese said that it is now up to the pope to say yes or no to the restitution demand.

Church canonical law trial

It is still not settled whether only the former bishop is responsible for the palace reconstruction losses suffered by the diocese. This must be determined in a canonical trial. The outcome of that is expected in September.

Tebartz-van Elst was sacked because of the affair. Early this year he got a new job at the Vatican.

For his multi million euro episcopal palace, the ‘Right Reverend‘ Tebartz-van Elst used diocese money intended to help poor people.

Talking about Tebartz-van Elst and poor people: when he went to a conference in India about poor people, the bishop traveled in the luxury class of the airline, which cost the diocese over 4500 euros.

Growing income inequality in Germany: here.