Voice From The Desert [Hardcover]

Jacques Gaillot (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 1996

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 dreams for a Catholic Church that exists to serve the people of God.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

When the Vatican removed Gaillot from his thriving diocese in Evreux, France, to Partenia, a defunct diocese in the Sahara desert, the bishop responded with the truthfulness of vision that had perhaps played a role in his removal: he continued to reach out to those whom the church no longer reaches. This is the letter Gaillot writes to his new flock of Muslim North Africans and to the wider audience of those willing to hear his challenge. He calls on all Catholics to persist in dialog without condemnation so that the church can, as Jesus did, embrace the dispossessed: those marginalized by poverty; those living with AIDS; those in prison; those ostracized for homosexuality; and, ultimately, those struggling on the borderlines of their own Christian faith. An honest, impassioned, and respectful plea for change that will resonate with those who work toward openness and healing in any Christian community; recommended for theology and public libraries.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

This is a remarkable book--full of humor, compassion, hope, and vision. Gaillot was dismissed as bishop of the diocese of Evereaux in January 1995 and subsequently transferred to Partenia, a "lost" diocese in what is now Algeria. In his more than 10 years as bishop of Evereaux, Gaillot established a reputation as an advocate for the poor and outcast, a critic of church policy regarding contraception and abortion, an advocate for persons with AIDS, a defender of immigrants, and a champion of gay and lesbian rights. His dismissal led to massive popular protest and an outpouring of support at all levels inside and outside the Roman Catholic Church. Gaillot responded to his transfer with characteristic humor and media savvy by establishing a "cyber-diocese" on the World Wide Web. His book is a pastoral letter to his new diocese, a truly catholic postmodern vision radiant with hope for a human world in which peace and justice embrace. Steve Schroeder

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 120 pages
• Publisher: Crossroad (August 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0824515846
• ISBN-13: 978-0824515843
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,796,015 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Luminous - true spirituality at its best, May 7, 2000

By 

Sophia (the Pacific Northwest) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Voice From The Desert (Hardcover)

"Voice from the Desert" is a deceptively-simple, slight volume, in which Bishop Jacques Gaillot chronicles his "resignation" from the see of Evreux, France; and his "appointment" as Bishop of Partenia - a North African wasteland, now defunct. With remarkably little bitterness, this extraordinary man outlines his beliefs and the actions which eventually led to his dismissal. His resilience was such that he established a cyber-diocese on the Internet, and thus can reach millions of souls, where before he only reached thousands. One can only mourn for an institutionalized church which prizes doctrine, authority, and image over the true, all-embracing and eternal love which Gaillot embodies with every word. My only regret is that he does not address the ordination of women and the position of women in the Catholic church. A beautiful, inspiring and radiant book.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Bishops Voice, August 28, 2009

By 

M. Ortiz (Brisbane Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Voice From The Desert (Hardcover)

The Bishop having been sacked by Rome attempts to tell his story to an imaginery people in the desert his new see. We get a lot of insight into his thoughts and what led to Rome's decision. The Bishop thinks his stand is absolutely right but like so many others before him and currently has no chance against the church with its archaic man made rules.

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars 1.8 stars: One side of the story, February 13, 2001

By 

dylanissimus "dylanissimus" (Massachusetts) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Voice From The Desert (Hardcover)

Toward the beginning of "Voice," Bishop Jacques Gaillot compares JP2 to Joseph Stalin, immediately estranging himself from this reader's sympathy. He recovers somewhat to give a sporadically engaging but under-informative essay on papal authority: Is the Catholic Church over-bureaucratized and over-centralized?

Condemning the authorities as vicious, meanspirited, intolerant, insensitive (stop me if you've heard that one before), Gaillot really doesn't tell us what made him fall under the scrutiny of the Holy See. This particular pontiff is famously patient, not having excommunicated whole raftloads of dissident theologians, but issuing restrained admonitions when something's amiss. (I think he's excommunicated two [2] theologians, one of whom has already been restored to communion.)

The book is brief, and Gaillot does not tell us how, in the hypothetical diminution or absence of papal authority, the Catholic Church would be able to stop itself from splintering as the Anglican Communion has done in the last quarter-century. An Eastern Orthodox theologian might have insight into this question; Gaillot proffers not insight as much as self-justification and the occasional baseness of name-calling.

We learn that Bishop Gaillot considers himself the eparch, if you will, of a cyber-diocese, where persons who might be inclined to sympathize with his views of ecclesiology & moral theology can gather, refresh themselves, and lament the alleged immitigability of JP2, Cardinals Ratzinger & Gantin, and other figures more representative of the main stream of Roman Catholicism than the soi-disant progressives. This cyber-diocese has an interesting if not quite memorable name which begins with a P.

Persons who parrot the National Catholic Reporter might be inclined to appraise Gaillot's slender and breezy account more highly than this reviewer (indeed, the book carries a preface from NCR editor Thomas Fox).