On Wednesday, Pope Francis accepted the resignation of a longtime German cleric who today is known as the “Bishop of Bling.” Francis’s rationale: Bishop Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst, who looks like the pastoral theorist he is, had spent a mind-boggling $43 million on home renovations at his palatial pad in Limburg, Germany. The revelation, delivered in a 108-page report, created a big time optics problem for Pope Francis who has tried to infuse the Catholic Church with humility. Francis — who met with President Barack Obama on Thursday to discuss “the poor, the marginalized…and growing inequality” — drives a Ford Focus. He also resides in a Vatican guesthouse, and likes to be called the Bishop of Rome, the most modest of his many titles. In the time since this revelation, a lot of questions have surfaced. The diocese has announced the cleric will get a new job at the “opportune time,” but what will that job entail? And also the simplest question of all: How did he spend all that money? The long list of expenditures begins with a fish tank, but not just any old fish tank. According to the 108-page report, his two-meter deep fish tank, filled with Koi carp, cost of $300,000. And then, the list gets crazier: Item: garden. Bill: $917,000. Fun Fact: it was called the “Garden of Silence.” Item: hanging an advent wreath. Bill: $25,000. Fun Fact: Workers had to open up the chapel roof — with a crane — to install it. Item: heated stones. Bill: $26,000. Fun Fact: They were used to line outdoor paths for more comfortable walking. Item: Bronze window frames. Bill: $2.38 million. Fun fact: The cost was supposed to be half that. But Tebartz-van Elst, the report shows, really wanted his window frames to be bronze. Item: light switches. Bill: $27,000. Fun Fact: Really, they’re just light switches. Item: doors. Bill: $673,000. Fun Fact: They were of the “highest quality.” Item: art. Bill: $1.6 million. Item: LED lights. Bill: $894,000. Fun Fact: They were built into floors, the walls, underneath steps, inside handrails and window frames — which were of course bronze.
Posted on: Wed, 02 Apr 2014 03:46:30 +0000
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