Bishop’s suspension a symptom of German Catholic Church’s wealth
But Tebartz-van Elst, 52, is only the latest German clergyman to run into trouble since Pope Francis took the helm of the Roman Catholic Church. Francis temporarily suspended the bishop on Wednesday while a church commission investigates the expenditures on the $42 million residence complex.
In Germany, most of the church’s top officials drive high-powered Mercedes, BMWs or Audis.
Other German clergymen have been chastised for lavish expenditures. Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Munich’s archdiocese spent around $11 million renovating the archbishop’s residence and another $13 million for a guesthouse in Rome.
“The German Catholic Church is one of the country’s wealthiest and largest organizations and its top officials expect a certain lifestyle,” said Frerk (Carsten Frerk, who specializes on church finances in Germany), who has published two books on the German churches’ wealth and what he describes as their opaque financing. “But they are wary of the extent of their wealth becoming broadly known because it might lead to fewer donations.”
Now the question remains to what extent the traditional German church can keep step with Pope Francis’ reforms and whether their efforts could put a stop to their bleeding membership rolls — predicted to reduce Christians to a minority within Germany in the next 20 years.
In 2010, 181,000 left the church after the sexual abuse scandals involving German priests were made public. Another 126,000 in 2011 and 118,000 in 2012 followed suit.
