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Records reveal that 10 of the country's top church leaders defy the Pope's example and live in residences worth more than $1 million.
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Records reveal that 10 of the country's
top church leaders defy the Pope's example and live in residences worth more
than $1 million.
By Daniel Burke, CNN Belief Blog
Editor
"How I would like a Church which is poor
and for the poor!"— Pope Francis
Clearly, "lifestyles of the rich and
religious" doesn't cut it for Pope Francis.
The pontiff has said it "breaks my heart"
to see priests and nuns driving the latest-model cars.
He's blasted "airport bishops" who spend
more time jet-setting than tending to their flocks.
And he's warned against church leaders who
bear the "psychology of princes."
The Vatican fired one such "prince" last
year: German Bishop Franz-Peter Tebartz-van
Elst -- aka "The Bishop of Bling" -- who spent $43 million to remodel
his opulent pad.
(Bronze window frames? $2.4 million.
Getting on the wrong side of the Pope? Far more pricey.)
"God save us from a worldly Church with
superficial spiritual and pastoral trappings!" Francis said in his book-length
blueprint for the
church.
Say what you will, but this Pope puts his
preaching into practice.
Previous pontiffs lived here, at the
Vatican's opulent Apostolic Palace.
Pope Francis lives here, in a small suite
in the Vatican guesthouse.
The message seems clear,
no?
But are American archbishops following
Francis' lead?
A CNN investigation found that at least 10
of the 34 active archbishops in the United States live in buildings worth more
than $1 million, according to church and government records.*
That's not counting hundreds of retired
and active Catholic bishops in smaller cities, some of whom live equally
large.
Among archbishops, Cardinal Timothy Dolan
of New York leads the pack with this 15,000-square-foot mansion on Madison
Avenue, in one of the priciest corridors of Manhattan.
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