(Le Point, 13 april 2023)
Monsignor Jacques GAILLOT, a rebellious bishop who defended the cause of the divorced, homosexuals and immigrants within the Church, died in Paris, this Wednesday, April 12, at the age of 87, according to what we learned from the Conference of Bishops of France (CEF).
Jacques GAILLOT died after a rapid illness, a relative of the bishop said. “He died calm, serene, surrounded by his loved ones. The diocese of Évreux had recently indicated that Bishop GAILLOT was suffering from pancreatic cancer.
A difficult relationship with the Vatican
He had been Bishop of Évreux for thirteen years, from 1982 to 1995, before the Vatican removed him due to his unorthodox positions within the Church. The media coverage shocks and angers in high places, until the Vatican, “disoriented”, asks the bishops of France to clean their houses.
After his expulsion from the diocese of Évreux, he was named honorary bishop in partibu of Parténia, a Mauritanian diocese that disappeared in the 5th century. Bishop GAILLOT then made this “virtual” diocese an instrument of defense for the excluded (undocumented, homeless). , etc.).
In September 2015, he was received by Pope Francis for almost an hour, before whom he defended the cause of the divorced, homosexuals and immigrants. “Beyond certain positions that may have divided, we remember that he maintained, above all, his concern for the poorest and the peripheries,” declared the CEF.
Committed to the end of his life
Born on September 11, 1935 in Saint-Dizier, Haute-Marne, the son of wine merchants, he has a degree in theology and a diploma from the Institute of Liturgy, and was ordained a priest in March 1961, after having been mobilized for twenty-eight months In Argelia .
“Until recently, he continued to visit prisoners in prison, and he was still honorary president of Rights to the Front!, an association for the defense of the excluded and the homeless that he had created in particular with Jacques HIGELIN and Professor SCHWARTZENBERG. said someone close to the bishop.
(NS: Jacques GAILLOT was a member of the Iesus Caritas Priestly Fraternity)
