This week in Christian history: Tragedy at Charles Spurgeon event; 'Bishop of bling’ suspended

Pope Francis suspends ‘bishop of bling’ – Oct. 23, 2013

This week marks the anniversary of when Pope Francis suspended German Bishop Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst, reportedly due to his excessive spending on a luxury residence.

Tebartz-van Elst garnered controversy when he spent over $42 million on a residence in Limburg, leading newspapers to dub him "the luxury bishop" and the "bishop of bling."

The exorbitant expenditures went against the pontiff's efforts to have Church leaders focus their resources more on charity than on lavish projects and to live more simply.

For his part, the bishop confessed to "carelessness or misjudgment on my part," but denied any wrongdoing, claiming that the money funded several different projects and that additional costs came from building regulations.

By March 2014, Tebartz-van Elst had resigned from his position as bishop. Later, he was appointed to a Vatican position as delegate on catechesis at the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization.