Title: Voice from the desert
First published: 1996
Description: 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 dreams for a Catholic Church that exists to serve the people of God.
Subjects: Catholic Church, Church history, Controversial literature, History, Imaginary letters, Moral conditions, Pastoral letters and charges, Social conditions, Faith
Places: France
People: Jacques Gaillot (1935-)
Time periods: 1945-, 20th century
LC classification: BX1779.5 .G3513 1996