Blog

Jacques Gaillot and Partenia

I’m about to leave London for a few days so thought I’d leave you with some thoughts about someone who I came across while in France. A Bishop who seemed to be ahead of his times by not just putting a church on the internet but a whole diocese.

Mgr Jacques Gaillot started causing controversy with his actions and statements almost as soon as he was made Bishop of Évreux. He was outspoken about many social issues, campaigning for peace and justice both in France around the world, and also advocated progressive change in the Catholic Church.

Despite the support of thousands of people both in France and abroad he was removed as Bishop of Évreux in 1995 as he refused to resign.  He was then given the titular see of Partenia which is in the Algerian Desert, a convenient way of silencing him and removing his pastoral responsibilities. Mgr Gaillot responded by moving into a squat in Paris to live among the families of illegal immigrants. He also continued to minister online as Bishop of the online Diocese of Partenia. (Remember this was in 1996 probably before any trendy Christians were blogging or using macs etc!) Partenia has been an online space for dialogue about spirituality and activism ever since.

I’ll finish with a quote from his book “Voice from the Desert”

“I had a dream: to be able to accompany the poor, the excluded, the ignored, without having to explain myself or justify myself to the rich, the secure, or the comfortable. To be able to go where distress calls me without having to give advance notice. To be able to show my indignation at destitution, injustice, violence, the sale of weapons, and managed famines without being considered a meddler in politics.

I dreamed of being able to live my faith within the church, but also in society, in my time and with my times. I dreamed of the freedom to think and express myself, to debate and criticise, without fear of the guillotine. I dreamed of the being different within the unity of faith, and remaining myself, alone and yet in solidarity with others. Ultimately, I hoped to be able to proclaim a Gospel of freedom without being marginalised.”

Most of his writings are not available in English but I’m hoping this might change in the future.

POSTED 13.08.10 BY: jonnyspoor | Comments (4)

4 Responses to “Jacques Gaillot and Partenia”

  1. On August 13th, 2010 at 11:55 pm Ian Mobsby said:

    What an incredibly interesting story Jonny – do you have links to the sites you mention.

  2. On August 20th, 2010 at 6:33 pm Con Carroll said:

    Jonny, I have heard of Jacques Gaillot. many years ago. yes in this time of crisis for churches in Ireland and Europe America. we could with more people like Jacque. some years ago he joined in a protest with people who live on the streets, they occupied some French Minister, in government office I have created new blogh http//spiritualityjustice.blogspot.com

  3. On September 5th, 2010 at 6:25 pm Nicolas said:

    Jonny, if you do know some good essays from him you would recommend (I can do French), please let me know.

    Reading about Mgr Gaillod leaves me with a somewhat bitter taste. I don’t recall a lot as this was happening when I was about 10-12 y.o. What I do recall though is the sense that I personally got – at the time – that somehow his teaching was too liberal and that was a bad thing. Now, I am not sure whether it was the media that reported it in a critical way or it was commentators/people who were critical of his teaching. But I don’t think I would have supported him at the time.

    In many ways, it’s only 15 years ago, but gosh, the world and I have really moved on it seems. What makes me bitter though is while his teaching is now probably much more accepted, even within the Catholic Church (although not officially), we/I did not recognise the prophetic nature of what he was writing/saying.

    It’s quite humbling… and I do hope that we/I’ll have learnt from that lesson.

  4. On September 6th, 2010 at 1:35 pm jonnyspoor said:

    Some of it is not in date but http://www.partenia.com is worth a look.