"More than just a golden bathtub": Limburg bishop polarises opinion with carnival costume

Liberal Bätzing is new chairman of the Bishops' Conference

The Bishop of the Diocese of Limburg, Georg Bätzing, shows humour with his costume at "Mainz remains Mainz". Not everyone likes that.

Mainz - Diocese of Limburg? Wasn't there once a scandal about an extravagant bishop and an expensive bathtub? No, thought Georg Bätzing, the current bishop of the parish on the Lahn, that cannot be the external image of our diocese and decided without further ado to give striking expression to this thought at the television carnival show "Mainz remains Mainz".

"More than just golden bathtub", was written on the T-shirt Bätzing wore at the Mainz Carnival event on Friday (17 February). He combined it with a golden hat and a yellow bow tie. The Diocese of Limburg posted a picture of Bätzing with his carnival costume on its Facebook page.

In the comments under the post, opinions differ about the polarising statement. While many users are happy that the Diocese is showing humour during the season ("Aren't bishops allowed to be fools sometimes?"), others think the message is bad style. "He's finally taking off his clothes and showing his hatred for his predecessor by referring to the Golden Bathtub, which never existed," reads one comment, which has received more than 50 likes so far. Many users point out that the golden bathtub in the Limburg bishop's residence never really existed, but merely became a symbol of wastefulness under Bätzing's predecessor Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst (click on the tag for more news on this!).

Diocese of Limburg: 31 million euros for renovations

The latter, who took office in 2008, had spent 31 million euros on the renovation of the residence by October 2013. After reports in Der Spiegel about the "show-off bishop" and investigations by the public prosecutor's office in Hamburg, Rome had sent an envoy to Limburg to reveal the bishop's actual expenditure. Shortly after the figure was published, the Pope sent the Limburg bishop into a monastic sabbatical. Tebartz-van Elst did not return to the Hessian diocese afterwards. Today he holds a post in the leadership team of the Papal Council in Rome.

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