Growing numbers of Catholics
are leaving the Church in protest at the behaviour of the Bishop of
Limburg who has spent an estimated $40 million on renovations to his
palace, reports The Tablet.
The thousands leaving both locally and nationally has alarmed the
German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Moreover, the crisis caused by the
behaviour of Bishop Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst has divided the most
senior German Catholics.
Besides having spent an estimated $40m on his residence, including
$20,000 on his bathtub, Bishop Tebartz has also received two court
orders for perjury from a Hamburg court and nine for breach of trust
from a court in Limburg.
Under the German system people leave the Church by signing the
appropriate documents.
They then no longer pay the automatic church tax,
but lose church-linked privileges.
Dioceses can easily monitor numbers,
and register sudden trends.
Mrs Merkel's spokesman, Steffen Seibert, said the situation in
Limburg was proving a burden on the Catholic Church.
"One may
conceivably express the hope that the solution found will be positive
for the faithful and will strengthen people's trust in the Church," he
said.
Earlier this week Archbishop Robert Zollitsch said: "We have an
enormous credibility problem on our hands and it's the German Church
that is bearing the damage."