High-Rolling Catholic Bishop Spends $475,000 on Wardrobes

By Hannah Ongley
The Styleite
October 11, 2013

http://www.bishop-accountability.org/AbuseTrackerArchive/2013/10/

Move over, Anna Dello Russo — there’s another heavily embellished fashion plate on the block.

But we’re not talking about a magazine editor or socialite-slash-DJ. Rather he’s one bishop of Limburg, Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst, who is being criticized for spending $42m on his new headquarters in west Germany, The Local is reporting.

Today it was revealed that the Karl Lagerfeld of the Catholic church had not only let costs overrun ten times the initial estimate, but had allocated the funds thusly: A little over $1m on a garden, $34,000 on a table, $20,000 on a bathtub and a truly mind-boggling $475,000 on walk-in wardrobes.

The church is paying, but the bishop is being criticized for setting a bad example. He has also apparently kept his financial council in the dark about mounting costs. “Those who know me, know that I don’t need any kind of grandiose lifestyle,” the swanky suffragan told Bild newspaper, presumably while ensconced inside his wardrobe selecting vestments from a computer screen Cher Horowitz-style.

Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst also came under fire last year when Der Spiegel magazine revealed he flew first class to India to visit poor children.