Voice from the desert

by Jacques Gaillot

In January, 1995, thousands took to the streets in France. Their cause? An advocate for the poor...a champion for the rights of AIDS patients, homosexuals, and other social outcasts...a friend to non-believers...a critic of Catholic Church rules...and beloved bishop of the diocese of Evreux: Jacques Gaillot. The Vatican, judging Gaillot to be disobedient to authority and harmful to church unity, "relocated" him to a desert diocese in Moslem North Africa that had effectively ceased to exist thirteen centuries before: Partenia. Partenia today is no more than a phantom diocese. . The action made international headlines as not only French Catholics but many throughout Europe and the United States expressed outrage. For them, Gaillot had been the hopeful sign of a new church. Voice from the Desert is Gaillot's visionary letter to his new flock, the church in Partenia. It is, in effect, a pastoral letter to all Catholics. In vibrant, clear, and poetic prose, Bishop Gaillot expresses his drea