VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter
Joshua J. McElwee | Mar. 26, 2014 NCR Today
Pope Francis on Tuesday effectively fired a German bishop who had attracted controversy for extraordinary expenses on a new diocesan center, sending a signal that he is willing to oust bishops who do not align with his vision of a “poor church for the poor.”
The Vatican announced Wednesday the pontiff had accepted the resignation of Bishop Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst, who had reportedly spent some 31 million euro ($43 million) on a new residence and complex in his Limburg diocese in western Germany while at the same time reducing salaries for staff in the name of financial austerity.
Francis had suspended Tebartz-van Elst from his role in October while the Vatican’s Congregation for Bishops studied the matter. Wednesday’s statement says the pope on Tuesday decided that the German diocese had “come to a situation that prevents a fruitful exercise of the ministry” of the bishop.
The statement said Tebartz-van Elst will receive another assignment in a “timely manner” and asks the German diocese to “accept the decisions of the Holy See with docility and wanting to commit to finding a climate of love and reconciliation.”
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