VATICAN CITY
Irish Times

Paddy Agnew

Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst, the so-called “Bishop of Bling” who was removed from the diocese of Limburg in Germany because of his lavish spending on the bishop’s palace, is to be appointed to a new position in the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelisation, according to Rome-based website Vatican Insider.

Bishop Tebartz-van Elst (55) made world headlines two years ago when details of a €30 million renovation project for the bishop’s palace were revealed by a German church-commissioned report. Among the items of lavish expenditure it revealed were works of art, chapel windows, built-in cupboards and also a two-seater bathtub costing approximately €20,000.

The bishop had excused himself by saying he was much more a theologian than an architect, adding that he had been keen to see that the restoration of the period palace be done properly. At the time of his “resignation”…