So much for the concept of collegiality!

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis on Wednesday permanently removed a German bishop from his Limburg diocese after his 31 million-euro ($43-million) new residence complex caused an uproar among the faithful.

The Vatican said Monsignor Manfred Grothe, currently an auxiliary bishop in Paderborn, would take over but that Tebartz-van Elst would get a new job “at the opportune time.”

Pope Francis “fires” fellow bishop over financial embarrassment.

Editor’s note: Maybe the good bishop would enjoy running the Vatican Bank?

 

Cardinal Marx has a point

In a March 13 homily to the German bishops, Cardinal Marx said that the Gospel account of the woman caught in adultery (Jn. 7:53-8:1) should be applied to discussions of divorce and remarriage.

After reviewing the textual history of the passage and recalling that some rigorists in the early Church did not think that the sin of adultery could be absolved, Cardinal Marx said that Jesus showed the scribes and Pharisees, who wanted the woman to be stoned, that they, too, were sinners. “One thinks of the rigorists of all time in the Church … All are sinners like the woman, all have need of forgiveness.”

The prelate added that Jesus’ forgiveness of the woman, his restoration of her dignity before God, and loyalty to his example of mercy to sinners are important in the Church’s discussion of divorce and remarriage, especially as applied to confession, which is intended to offer sinners forgiveness and to save people from “the sentence of God” and “also from social death.”

Jesus’ forgiveness of the woman, however, is not a call to laxism– a reference to Christ’s words, “Go, and sin no more”– but a “call to a new life,” Cardinal Marx continued

The passage is crucial in understanding guilt and forgiveness, he concluded. “If we pastorally, spiritually, and theologically practice this more, then more doors could open than we think at the moment. Amen.”

Link to story

Editor’s note: What do you think?

No surprise: German Catholics reject sex rules.

PARIS, Feb 3 (Reuters) – Germany’s Catholic bishops,
responding to a worldwide Vatican survey, said on Monday that
many Church teachings on sexual morality were either unknown to
the faithful there or rejected as unrealistic and heartless.

They said the survey, drawn up for a synod on possible
reforms in October, showed most German Catholics disputed Church
bans on birth control and premarital or gay sex and criticised
rules barring the divorced from remarriage in church.

Link

Nasty church politics and intrigue in liberal Germany

One might think we were living back in the days of the Renaissance.

Tremendously high expenses for “luxurious” buildings by the Bishop of Limburg have brought him into the headlines as the “Protz-Bischof” (“the showy Bishop”). Scandal has rocked the diocese and Rome decided therefore in October 2013 that bishop Tebartz-van Elst was to take some time out, while a committee investigated the matter. He has retired to the Bavarian monastery of Metten, while awaiting a final decision.

Given the reaction of the press, of the diocese and the general public outcry, one might have thought he had done something far more serious. In reality, this affair is really about something quite different than a project that went over budget.

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Priest reports: Liturgical abuse in Germany “horrible”. Mass is no longer Catholic. And there’s more…

My colleague said it:
“. I remember, you were pale then and came to my room and hammered your fists against the wall.”
And all this happens even though the bishops, after having been admonished by Rome, sent their priests clear instructions.

You have never let me celebrate, because they have understood that I am a priest who faithfully followed the Roman Missal and fearing perhaps that the faithful could make a comparison. […]

“Not Only Contemptuous Disobedience, but Devilishly”

All this is not only contemptuous disobedience and contempt for the authority of the Church. All this is demonic, because it is non-Catholic thinking and a non-Catholic style in the Catholic Church which is enforced with violence. It not only it thus intended to take away the people of God’s faith, one goes even further: it wants to take away their faith in the Church.

In Rome you know these things exactly. “Perhaps we will soon do something concrete?”

“What?” laughed my colleague. “They will give the Archbishop a cardinal’s hat at the next consistory, because certain Archbishop seats are connected to the dignity of Cardinal. But the owners of this right are obviously not obliged to ensure that their priests obey Church law.”

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German Catholic Church far from poor: 27 dioceses hold an estimated $100 billion worth of assets.

Pope Francis’s decision to suspend Germany’s Bishop Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst has brought worldwide attention to the bishop’s lavish spending. But it’s also drawn attention to the special relationship that the Roman Catholic Church has with the German state. Some observers say the fact the church is partially subsidized by Germany’s taxpayers, giving it an estimate net wealth of $100 billion, is the underlying reason for Bishop Tebartz-van Elst’s opulent lifestyle.

Here’s a closer look at why Germany’s Catholic Church is one of the wealthiest branches in the world:

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Editor’s note: The love of money is the root of all evil – not merely having it.  But Jesus warned us that the rich are going to have a tough time getting into heaven. I wonder how that applies to the Catholic Church, exactly? Will God permit the end times church to be looted by the Beast and the Antichrist? That said, today’s German Catholic Church is the envy of many religious institutions, the world over.

Funny that nobody ever thought to reform church finances during Vatican II. Multi-hundreds of billions in cash and other hard assets must not be “pastoral” enough for that obtuse spirit of the world!

Acts 3:1-9

(1) Now Peter and John went up into the temple at the ninth hour of prayer.
(2) And a certain man who was lame from his mother’s womb was carried: whom they laid every day at the gate of the temple, which is called Beautiful, that he might ask alms of them that went into the temple.
(3) He, when he had seen Peter and John, about to go into the temple, asked to receive an alms.
(4) But Peter with John, fastening his eyes upon him, said: Look upon us.
(5) But he looked earnestly upon them, hoping that he should receive something of them.
(6) But Peter said: Silver and gold I have none; but what I have, I give thee. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, arise and walk.
(7) And taking him by the right hand, he lifted him up: and forthwith his feet and soles received strength.
(8) And he leaping up, stood and walked and went in with them into the temple, walking and leaping and praising God.
(9) And all the people saw him walking and praising God.

How does somebody (especially a Catholic bishop) get “temporarily” suspended?

The pope has suspended the bishop of Limburg for the immediate future. The German cleric was temporarily relieved of his post in the wake of a scandal involving a 31-million-euro ($42 million) renovation project.

Text and video

Editor’s note: Was this bishop some sort of ideologue – or worse yet – a traditionalist? Or, did he simply put his trust in collegiality and cash – instead of Jesus Christ? Perhaps this is some sort of retribution against German Cardinal Ratzinger for his recent criticism of some of Pope Frances’ recent decisions?  Will Bishop Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst now be required to operate from a hotel room, cook his own meals, share his lodging with a Jewish rabbi and drive a 1984 Volkswagen Beetle, while feigning abject humility? Why didn’t Cardinal Mahoney get suspended for wasting $660 million of church funds on abuse settlements? Is this just politics? Is the Pope Catholic? Watch this space for further developments!