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Limburg Bishop Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst, also known as the Bling Bishop, is now living a more austere life in a Bavarian monastery after Pope Francis expelled him from his post last week over his lavish lifestyle.

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He was removed from his diocese while there is an ongoing church probe into the renovation of his residence at a cost of €31 million, several times over the original budget.

Besides the soaring cost of the renovation, what scandalised many Germans who are indirectly paying for the refurbishing since the church is funded by taxes, is the home would include a €15,000 bathtub, €380,000 furniture and €783,000 garden.

Huffington Post reports that a Benedictine monastery in Metten, southeastern Germany, said on Thursday that the controversial bishop arrived there this week as a spiritual time for recovery. How long the bishop will stay in the Bavarian monastery is unknown.

However, what is known is that his residence will be converted into a refugee centre or a soup kitchen for homeless people, Limburg church officials said.

A spokesman for Caritas, a charitable Catholic organisation for the homeless, said, quoted by The Independent, "The residence is like an inherited sin which the bishop has left in his wake ... People who seek sanctuary with us could be given food in the residence.

By converting the palatial residence of the 53-year-old Bling Bishop into a refugee centre, it would follow the footstep of another former Limburg bishop who welcomed into his house a refugee Eritrean family and he moved in the home for novice priests.

The bishop's lifestyle contrast with the humble lifestyle Pope Francis is living and leading by example by opting to live in a Vatican apartment instead of the papal mansion and using a regular car and not the luxury cars that his predecessor, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI used.

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