GERMANY
National Catholic Reporter
Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service | Oct. 15, 2013
VATICAN CITY The president of the German bishops’ conference said he is following with “great attention and great concern” the case of a bishop accused of making false statements in court and under fire for allegedly spending close to $40 million in renovations and new construction on his residence and diocesan offices.
Archbishop Robert Zollitsch, the bishops’ conference president and recently retired archbishop of Freiburg, told reporters Monday that the conference has formed a commission to investigate the project in the diocese of Limburg, and he expected the head of the diocese, Bishop Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst, to do some serious “self-examination.”
Zollitsch arrived in Rome on Sunday for the plenary meeting of the Pontifical Council for Promoting New Evangelization and for a regularly scheduled meeting of the officers of the bishops’ conference with Pope Francis.
“I take the situation in Limburg very seriously,” Zollitsch said. He said the situation in Limburg would be one of the topics of his meeting with the pope.
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