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Rising Criticism: Heat on wealthy German Catholic Church
BERLIN - As a scandal-ridden bishop withdrew to a monastery in deep Bavaria for a "spiritual time of recovery" this past week, Germany continues to debate how symptomatic Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst, the so-called “Bishop of Bling,” is of the German Catholic Church.
For years, no one batted an eye at the institution’s estimated $365 billion fortune, which includes one of the world’s richest dioceses in Cologne – with wealth rivaling or even topping that of the Vatican.