How much does it cost to renovate a medieval bishop's palace in modern Germany? What's a fair cost for that sort of thing? How do you even go about getting an estimate?
Well, in Limburg, Bishop Franz-Peter Trebatrz-von Elst did get estimates, for something in the neighborhood of 5.5 million euros. That's a big wad of cash, the sort that could probably make a significant dent in -- we're just making this up, now -- the lives of poor people in Limburg. But the bishop went ahead with his renovations.
Which cost a whopping 31 million euros. About $42 million in real Fahrenheit money.
There are stories of a $20,000 bathtub and a conference table that cost ... well, never mind. Plus the first-class flights to visit poor people in India, and so forth. A lot of freaking Deustchmarks, if Deutshmarks were still a thing.
It all smells like a steaming pile of -- and you knew this was coming, didn't you? -- Limburger cheese. Needless to say, this wasn't going to play well with a pope who has named himself after the Poverello, the Little Poor Man. And it didn't.
Bishop Trebartz-von Elst has been suspended by the Vatican pending the findings of an official inquiry. Word is that, on his way to get smacked down by the Pope, he flew on a discount airline.
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