JACQUES GAILLOT

'Bishop Jacques Jean Edmond Georges Gaillot' (born September 11, 1935; ; generally known in French as 'Monseigneur Gaillot') is a French Catholic clergyman and social activist. He was from 1982 to 1995 bishop of Évreux in France. In 1995, he was demoted to titular bishop of Partenia, an extinct diocese, for having expressed too loudly, in the view of his hierarchy, liberal positions on political and social matters.
It is these viewpoints and unorthodox stances that have earned Gaillot the nickname of 'The Red Cleric'.^[1]

Contents

Education and early career

Media attention and controversy

Removal from Évreux

Reaction to removal

After Évreux

Consequences for the Church

Quotes

References

See also

External links

Education and early career

Jacques Gaillot was born in Saint-Dizier in Champagne. As a teenager, he already desired to become a priest. After his secondary studies, he entered the seminary in Langres.
From 1957 to 1959, he carried out his compulsory military service in Algeria during the war of independence.
From 1960 to 1962 he was sent to Rome to complete his studies in theology and get his bachelor's degree. He was ordained a priest in 1961.
From 1962 to 1964, he was sent to the Higher Institute for Liturgy in Paris, while teaching at the major seminary in Châlons-en-Champagne.
From 1965, he was a Professor at the regional seminary of Reims. He chaired many sessions to implement the orientations of the Second Vatican Council.
In 1973, he was appointed to the parish of St Dizier, his hometown, while becoming co-manager of the institute for the training of the educators of the clergy (IFEC) in Paris.
In 1977, he was appointed vicar general of the diocese of Langres. In 1981, he was elected vicar capitular. In May 1982, he was appointed bishop of Évreux, being consecrated into the position on 20 June. ^[2]

Media attention and controversy

As soon as Bishop Gaillot had taken place in Évreux he began to engage in activities that may be said to have cost him his position. During his first Easter message he wrote: "Christ died outside the walls as he was born outside the walls. If we are to see the light, the sun, of Easter, we ourselves must go outside the walls." Following this he then stated that: "I'm not here to convince the convinced or take care of the well. I'm here to support the ill and offer a hand to the lost. Does a bishop remain in his cathedral or does he go into the street?. . .I made my choice." Within months Gaillot had begun to act on his word. ^[3]
In 1983, he supported a conscientious objector before the court in Évreux. During the yearly assembly of the episcopate, he was one of the two bishops (of a total of 110) voting against the episcopate's text on nuclear deterrence, which supported having nuclear arms as a legitimate deterrent.^[4]
In 1984 he angered numerous Catholic authorities by refusing to support the movement in defence of French parochial schools.
In 1985, he supported the First Intifada in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and met Yasser Arafat in Tunis, being embraced by the controversial figure in a private audience. Perhaps the most notable event he performed in 1987 was attending, by invitation, a special session of the United Nations in New York to speak out for disarmament. The first amount of considerable media attention paid to Gaillot came in January 1985 when he signed an appeal on behalf of underpaid Catholic school teachers; also signing the appeal was Georges Marchais, the head of the French Communist Party. This proved to be highly controversial, bringing about the start of a right-wing campaign against Bishop Gaillot. Within his own diocese, Le Figaro spear-headed the campaign. At this point Bishop Gaillot was described as being "a tool of the church's worst enemies"^[5]
In 1987, he went to South Africa to meet a young anti-apartheid militant from Évreux sentenced to 4 years in prison by the South African régime. There he also appeared at a demonstration with Communist militants. In order to accomplish this trip, he had to renounce going with the diocesan pilgrimage to Lourdes, a move that attracted criticism. Further, in the same year he also announced that the French Bishops "remain too preoccupied by the correct functioning of the church and its structures." ^[5] This only ensured that the responses to Gaillot when he later attacked the right wing French political party the National Front were even stronger. Also in 1987 Gaillot traveled to Athens to show solidarity with a boatload of Palestinian refugees.

In 1988, during a closed-door session of the assembly in Lourdes, he advocated the ordination of married men to the priesthood. After the proceedings had finished Gaillot spoke to the press about the discussions held and also promoted his own viewpoints. In doing this, he broke the secrecy of the conclave. By promoting a revision of clerical celibacy and the use of condoms, he caused considerable tension with the French bishops' conference. He later defended his previous actions, remarking that "I never broke the vow of celibacy ... I only questioned it. But that's worse."^[5] Also that year, Gaillot took the unprecedented step for a Roman Catholic bishop of blessing a homosexual union in a "service of welcoming", after the couple requested it in view of their imminent death from AIDS.
In 1989, he participated in a trip to French Polynesia organized by the peace movement, asking for the end to French nuclear testing. He also participated in the ceremony of the transfer of the ashes of the late bishop Baptiste-Henri Grégoire (1750-1831) to the Panthéon, a necropolis for the great men of France. Grégoire had been instrumental in the first abolition of slavery, and the end of discrimination against the Blacks and the Jews during the French Revolution. The hierarchy of the Catholic Church had refused to give him the last sacraments because of Grégoire's acceptance of the Civil Constitution of the Clergy. Gaillot was the only French bishop participating in this ceremony. By this stage in his career, Bishop Gaillot had earned an impressive reputation, both positive and negative. The French journalist Henri Tincq wrote in ''Le Monde'' that "[Bishop Gaillot] has the merit of saying out loud what many people in authority in the church think down deep."^[5]
Throughout 1989 Gaillot continued to cause considerable tension within the French Bishops' Conference, to the extent that the members of the episcopate voted to censure him. This disciplinary action came after Gaillot gave an interview to the publication ''Lui'', the French equivalent of ''Playboy''. Furthermore, he also gave interviews to leading gay magazines and lambasted the incompetence of the Roman Catholic hierarchy to judge the circumstances of homosexuality. At this point, the bishop offered his resignation to the Pope, should he feel it necessary to remove him; no such action was taken however. ^[5]
Toward late 1989 he attempted concillatory movements, signing an agreement in which he promised "loyalty" and "docility" to the pope. This agreement did not last long however; within a week, Gaillot had distanced himself from the majority of other bishops by appearing on television to criticise the "feeble state of internal debate in the church" and express his feelings of grief that progress had not been made since the Second Vatican Council.^[10]
In 1991, he opposed the Gulf War, publishing a book called ''Open letter to those who preach war, but let it be waged by others''. He also condemned the embargo on Iraq. By the end of 1991 the French Bishops' Conference had censured Gaillot three times, most recently for his intervention in Haiti, rousing support for Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
Bishop Gaillot also caused controversy with a number of other actions. He was frequently condemned by others for his numerous television appearances, but justified them by claiming that if people still found a Bishop interesting, then they clearly still found the church interesting.
As well as this Bishop Gaillot also took a lenient stance with regard to abortion, claiming he was not qualified to judge a woman who found herself in such a scenario. He is considered to be a foremost theologian fighting for theological reform in numerous fields of church thinking, including abortion, homosexuality and contraception.
By 1994, Archbishop Joseph Duval of Rouen, the President of the French Bishops' Conference was attempting to convince Gaillot to cease in his actions; Gaillot however responded by withdrawing his offer of resignation, desiring that the scenario not be reduced to the same response given by the Vatican in the case of Archbishop Raymond Hunthausen.
At the height of the controversy that Bishop Gaillot caused during his tenure as Ordinary of Évreux he was the target of a bitter campaign to disparge his name. Unsubstantiated allegations of homosexuality, racism, anti-Semitism, and psychosis and neurosis were all made by highly placed authorities in the French clergy. ^[11] Bishop Gaillot countered in kind. He branded Archbishop Duval an "ayatollah" seeking to impose "ideological uniformity" within the French Bishops' Conference. Further, he also compared the leadership style of Cardinal Gantin to those of the East German political police the Stasi. ^[12]
Testament to Gaillot's strong yearning to reach out to the 'exiled' is the fact that by the time he left office at the Diocese of Évreux he had visited more prisons than any bishop in France's history.

Removal from Évreux

On January 13 1995, Jacques Gaillot was summoned to a meeting with Bernardin Cardinal Gantin, Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops at the Vatican City. He was offered the choice of resigning his see and become emeritus bishop of Évreux, or being removed from the see. In that case, he would simply be the ex-bishop of Évreux, though retaining his titular see of Partenia. Gaillot chose not to resign; instead, he left the Vatican and returned to France to give a press conference, providing one short press release to explain the events:
The See of Partenia, now located in the desert of Algeria, has not existed in reality since the 5th century when it was in Mauritania. This function is a kind of sinecure with no pastoral responsibilities. Gaillot still continues to reach out however, this time on the internet, as a "virtual bishop".

Reaction to removal

This removal sparked an emotional response from thousands of people across France and the rest of the world. Twenty thousand people attended Bishop Gaillot's last mass at the Cathedral in Évreux and stayed on the streets protesting the Vatican's decision, including Gaillot's own mother. Protestors united under the leadership of the Communist mayor of the region and marched on the streets during the rain. With the Cathedral full, many people stayed outside for the bishop's last mass.
The choice to remove Bishop Gaillot as ordinary of Évreux was widely seen as a mistake by both lay people and clergy, and also by many non-religious people who had come to view Gaillot favorably. After his removal, a reported forty thousand people wrote letters to the Cathedral office at Évreux, with more being sent to the Vatican and eminent prelates. He was perceived favorably by a significant number of people, particularly due to his ministry to all people without distinction. In addition, he had became a national figure after the sanctions taken against him.^[13]
Official polls taken at the time consistently revealed the French public to be against the punishment brought upon Gaillot. One CSA survey showed that total of 64 percent of the public were against the firing of Jacques Gaillot as bishop of Evreux, with only 11 percent approving of his firing and a remaining 25 percent being undecided. ^[14] Some later polls showed that support for Gaillot might even have been as high as 75 percent. ^[15]
Reaction from the French clergy varied. While no French bishop expressed public support for Bishop Gaillot, Monsignor Jean-Michel Di Falco, the official spokesperson for the clergy hierarchy, reported that both Cardinal Coffy of Marseille and Archbishop Duval were "visibly troubled" by the actions taken against Gaillot. Duval later released an official statement saying that "I pleaded for patience in Rome". Only weeks later, Duval was on record as saying that he "regretted" the manner in which Rome had dealt with Gaillot. Duval later came to summarise the actions as being "an authoritarian act which cannot be accepted by society, even if it is carried out by the Church". ^[16]
As well as this the Archbishop of Cambrai, Jacques Delaporte, defended Gaillot saying that "This is a wound for our church... It is a source of misunderstanding for the poor and for all those who seek the truth and who put their trust in the church." ^[17]

After Évreux

After being removed from his position as prelate of Évreux, Bishop Gaillot wrote the following comment:
After leaving the Bishop's Palace, Gaillot immediately moved in with illegal squatters in Paris' infamous Rue de Dragon street. Since then he has shown similar solidarity with the homeless. Bishop Gaillot continues to defend human rights and engage in activism, regularly publishing information about his activities on the website of Partenia.
He remains active as a pastor to the excluded. He also travels throughout France and also internationally, spreading the word of the Christian Gospel and defending those who are considered "outcasts" (namely immigrants). He is an avid anti-war protester and is considered by many to be a strong socialist. Jacques Gaillot had a strong friendship with Abbé Pierre.

In 1995, after his removal as Bishop of Évreux, Gaillot attended a Call to Action conference in Detroit as one of the keynote speakers. He held three sessions, proving to be very popular despite speaking through a translator. He hosted the conference alongside other controversial Catholic Theologians including Professor Hans Küng and Bishop Thomas Gumbleton. ^[18]
The removal of his responsibility over a specific geographical diocese permitted Gaillot to be even more daring in his activism. Indeed in 1995 following his removal, Bishop Gaillot engaged in protests regarding the policy of French nuclear testing at Mururoa Atoll in the Tuamotu Archipelago of French Polynesia. Gaillot went with a fleet of protest ships, being on the Greenpeace vessel Rainbow Warrior himself, he was subsequently removed from the ship by French commandos, given that Rainbow Warrior had sailed within the exclusion zone, and escorted back to the atoll. ^[19]
Gaillot has been so active in his beliefs that he has had to be stopped by the Vatican on numerous occasions, including one time when he was given a direct order by Pope John Paul II to avoid a conference in Italy about homosexuality. ^[20]
On World Youth Day, in Bonn, 2004, Cardinal Joachim Meisner of Cologne invoked Canon 763, which allows a bishop to prevent another bishop speaking in his diocese for a grave reason, to ban Gaillot from addressing a session of the event on the topic of ''Being a Christian in the Third Millennium: A Faith which has Hope''. ^[21]
Also in 2004 Bishop Gaillot met with Maryam Rajavi, a controversial Iranian political activist. Gaillot strongly criticised the actions of some extremist religious leaders in Iran, going on to comment that “One must not forget that the strength of truth will make it [the Iranian resistance] triumphant. Darkness will give way and truth will prevail despite all the lies and ruses”. Rajavi publicly thanked the bishop and expressed that his support had been very effective in promoting the cause of the Iran resistance. ^[22]
Furthermore, Gaillot has also taken position as a well-known public figure in France, fighting for a number of causes. One notable example of this is the fact that Bishop Gaillot serves as the co-chairman of one of France's foremost Human Rights activist groups, 'Droits Devant' (Rights First).
In 2007 Gaillot expanded his use of the internet by posting a video interview on the website ''Google Video'', attempting to bring attention to the escalating violence occurring in Darfur. ^[23]
Bishop Gaillot has written over a dozen books; one of them, ''A cry on Exclusion'' (''Coup de gueule contre l'exclusion'') got much media attention. The book criticized the French laws on immigration proposed by the then-minister of the Interior, Charles Pasqua. This book was the justification for his demotion by the Catholic hierarchy. Another book released shortly after his demotion was ''Voice From the Desert: A Bishop's Cry for a New Church''. This book was mainly an autobiographical text discussing events surrounding his demotion.

Consequences for the Church

The controversy surrounding Bishop Gaillot during the 1990s highlighted the deep rifts already present in the Catholic Church on an international level, but notably within France as well. Many American Catholic sources took sides in the Gaillot affair. Newspapers such as the ''National Catholic Reporter'' reported favorably of the bishop; other sources such as EWTN responded to the ordeal in a more negative manner, chosing to associate Bishop Gaillot with heresy and describing his appointment as a "terrible mistake". ^[24]

Quotes

★ "The Gospel is where I learnt that love is stronger than law."

★ "The church must be where there is need, and homosexuals have suffered innumerable discriminations. If the church doesn't free people from oppression, what purpose does it serve?"

★ "We are in the situation of people who hold the key, but will not open the door."

★ "I think that too much emphasis is put on the pope and the papacy. I firmly believe the reform will come from grassroots movements, not the hierarchy."

★ "If we take as our starting point the poor, everything will be renewed - liturgy, catechism, the life of the church. It changes the way we think, pray, our very lifestyle. But if we take as our starting point the Status Quo, we will never be able to catch up with the Good News."

★ "Rejection by others, community withdrawal, refusal of differences, fears and shame of oneself: all this must fought by dialogue and new legislative rules."

★ "While the church often appears allied with the Right, the gospel is not neutral"

★ "The church is too linked to a certain level of social wealth ... The poor are tolerated but not permitted to take responsibility or make decisions [because] they don't have the knowledge or the diplomas. Let's gamble more audaciously. Let the poor become conscious of their rights, dignity, and citizenship in the church. Let them appropriate the gospel. They don't need us as their spokesmen."

★ "Religious dictators resemble giants who walk on weak footing because they do not rely on the interests of the people. As such, they are vulnerable. Although they may hang tough for a while and cause enormous pain and suffering for the people, they will ultimately collapse."

References

1. Reuters. French Against Vatican Sacking of "Red Cleric" 17 January, 1995
2. Diocese of Partenia. [1] January, 2007
3. Commonweal. Provocateur or prophet? The French church & Bishop Gaillot pg.2 6 October, 1995
4. Commonweal. Provocateur or prophet? The French church & Bishop Gaillot pg.1 6 October, 1995
5. ibid.
6. ibid.
7. ibid.
8. ibid.
9. ibid.
10. Commonweal. Provocateur or prophet? The French church & Bishop Gaillot pg.4 6 October, 1995
11. Commonweal. Provocateur or prophet? The French church & Bishop Gaillot pg.5 6 October, 1995
12. Commonweal. Provocateur or prophet? The French church & Bishop Gaillot pg.4 6 October, 1995
13. Christianity Today. Deposed Bishop Invents Online Diocese 29 April, 1996
14. La Vie. January, 1995
15. Commonweal. Provocateur or prophet? The French church & Bishop Gaillot pg.3 6 October, 1995
16. ''His Holiness'' pg. 509, Carl Bernstein & Marco Politi
17. National Catholic Reporter. Protests follow French bishop's removal 27 January, 1995
18. Call to Action. My Option for the Poor 1996
19. The Militant. Protesters Say `No Nukes In Pacific!' 7 August, 1995
20. BBC News. Bishop's Gay Conference Ban 2 July, 2000
21. Lifesite News. World Youth Day Cardinal Forbids French Dissident Bishop from Speaking in Cologne 2 November, 2004
22. Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran. [2] 17 August, 2004
23. Diocese of Partenia. Darfur: conscience awakening 1 May, 2007
24. The Wanderer. How a bishop is Deposed 2 Feb, 1995

See also

★ Abbé Pierre

★ Call to Action

★ Partenia

External links

★ Biographical article about Bishop Gaillot

★ Biographical article about Gaillot printed in National Catholic Reporter

★ Biography of Jacques Gaillot, in French

★ Bishop Gaillot's speech at the Call to Action Conference

★ Interview with Bishop Gaillot

★ Official site of Droits Devant - in French

★ Official site of the See of Partenia