Friday, June 26, 2020

Limburg Story

Around six years ago, there was this hot topic for several months in Germany....surrounding a regional Catholic Church and it's bishop.  The location was about 12 miles away from where I live and it figured into the news almost nightly.  Today, HR (my local Hessen public TV network) did an update.

To explain the scandal....it goes to a renovation idea of a Cathedral over in Limburg.  It's a historic site and no one was going to argue about money being spent to preserve it.  The problem here....the project was going to involve not only the Cathedral, but the residence across the street. 

In a true renovation project, you'd go and hire a guy to be 'lead', and he'd have common knowledge on construction 'screw-jobs' and how to avoid wasting money. 

In the Limburg episode....this Bishop headed everything. 

At some point, the renovation costs were laid out.....31-million Euro.  It was around four times the originally planned amount. Where'd most of the waste go to?  The residence.  He'd have some part almost done, and then someone would talk him into upgrading this item (like the bathtub), and all the tile work done....had to be re-accomplished.  Over and over, he screwed up.

All of this came out into the public eye.

The Rome leadership finally said 'enough' and removed him.  The folks around Limburg?  They wanted actual corruption charges drawn up. 

So the update?   After this mess cleared a bit, the bishop was sent to Rome.   He was given a fake job of sorts....mostly to talk in countries where the Church doesn't really exist. 

Interestingly enough....he's vacationing this summer....back in Germany. 

1 comment:

Daz said...

You gotta hand it to them, corruption, paedophilia, molesters, all incredibly well protected by the catholic church.