PopeWatch: Bling Bishop Gets Hook

One of the problems within the Church that rarely gets attention is the gross incompetence, and occasional corruption, with which Church funds not infrequently are handled.  Pope Francis has chosen to make an example:

A senior member of the Catholic Church known as the “luxury bishop” has been suspended from his diocese in Germany while the Vatican investigates a house refurbishment that reportedly ran into the millions of dollars.

Bishop Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst of Limburg, who had been under pressure to resign, will leave his diocese for an unspecified period, the Vatican said in a statement on Wednesday. Monsignor Wolfgang Roesch will be in charge of the diocese during the bishop’s absence, the Vatican added.

Tebartz-van Elst “cannot presently exercise his episcopal ministry,” the statement said.

The Vatican also said it would audit spending on renovations to the bishop’s residence, which Germany’s Spiegel magazine reported cost up to 31 million euros ($42.70 million).

PopeWatch applauds the Pope, and trusts that this will cause many Bishops to begin taking a very close look at their stewardship of the funds entrusted to them.  Of course, one of the greatest wasters of money within the Church has traditionally been the Vatican, so if the Pope is serious about this, he will have quite a few targets for thrift close at hand.