Any Roman Catholic prelate who missed the message from Pope Francis that he wanted “a church which is poor and for the poor” certainly had to pay attention last month when the Vatican forced the resignation of the bishop of Limburg, Germany, because of his taste for opulent housing worthy of the Holy Roman Empire.
Scandal arose when Bishop Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst was discovered spending at least 31 million euros, or nearly $43 million, to renovate his princely home, right down to a new €15,000 bathtub. The Vatican found that the bishop had tried to hide the true costs from his flock, and he was unceremoniously forced to resign for some humbler station.
Though the verdict is still out on Francis’ impact on the hidebound Vatican bureaucracy, which he hopes to reform, he is obviously galvanizing the church laity to complain about the double standards and hypocrisy in the lush lifestyles of their shepherds.
In the United States, Wilton Gregory, the archbishop of Atlanta, apologetically announced this week that he would not be moving in to a new $2.2 million, 6,000-square-foot mansion he had custom built. Archbishop Gregory conceded that he had second thoughts after being rebuked by lay Catholics “struggling to pay their mortgages” even as they faithfully heeded his pleas for church donations.
Leaders of a half-dozen other American dioceses have moved to plainer surroundings as Francis keeps up the pressure, urging simple runabouts, not limousines, as preferable transportation for priests and nuns.
How far will the pope go in his refreshing demand for an unpretentious lifestyle for the global church? By coincidence, the centuries-old church of St. Francis at Ripa, in a less elegant part of Rome, is in a state of impoverished disrepair, forced to appeal for support on the crowdfunding website Kickstarter as tourists begin showing up by the busloads because the new pope chose the name of Francis. The saint stayed there in a cell that contains a stone he is said to have used as his sleeping pillow.
No word yet on whether Pope Francis thinks it is time to prescribe stone sleeping pillows for dedicated church workers.
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