‘Bishop of Bling’ gets vital role in Jubilee

The former Bishop of Limburg, Bishop Tebartz-van Elst, left, has been given responsibility for catechesis during the Jubilee Year of Mercy, writes Christa Pongratz-Lippitt. Bishop Tebartz-van Elst was appointed “delegate” of the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelisation in December 2014 and took up his position last month. Last year he resigned as Bishop of Limburg after being dubbed the “Bishop of Bling”, over allegations of lavish spending on his residence.

In an exclusive interview with the German katholisch.de website, Archbishop Salvatore Fisichella, who is in charge of planning the Holy Year, said Tebartz-van Elst would be responsible for vetting the catechisms of local bishops’ conferences which were sent in for approval by the Vatican, and checking to ensure their complete conformity with the Catechism of the Catholic Church. “It will be his task to keep the attention of the ­conferences focused on catechesis [and] support associations and groups committed to keeping up the vitality of the faith. And he will have to ensure that the Catechism of the Catholic Church is a common point of reference in local cat­echisms,” Archbishop Fisichella explained. Conferences including the US, Irish and German ones have published a Catechism for Adults.