'L'affaire' Gaillot: Vatican miscalculation?

National Catholic Reporter, Feb 24, 1995

From the bits and pieces dribbling in from France, it is becoming clear that the Vatican miscalculated the effect the firing of Bishop Jacques Gaillot would have on French Catholics.

First, there were the thousands - many of whom had to stand in pouring rain - who showed up for Gaillot's farewell Mass in his Evreux diocese.

Since then, there has been continuous coverage in the French press, including that of the Rome correspondent for the Catholic La Croix, who reported that the Vatican was being deluged with mail addressed to Pope John Paul II and Cardinal Bernardin Gantin - the official who handed Gaillot his pink slip Jan. 12 - protesting the treatment of Gaillot. "Few could imagine that Monsignor Gaillot would generate such an uproar," the correspondent wrote.

One bright spot in this sad episode is the realization that progressive Catholics, just like the conservatives who have been badgering Rome for years, can storm the Vatican with their letters of protest.

The furor was undoubtedly fed by a book-length report in the French publication Golias, which claimed the Vatican had given in to years of pestering by right-wing factions in France who wanted Gaillot removed.

The publication also claims to have confirmed that the Vatican used Gaillot's own vicar general, Fr. Jean-Francois Berjonneau, to spy on the bishop and produce a report to be read by the pope.

In the end, said Vatican insiders, the Berjonneau report "was not hostile" toward Gaillot. But the sinister machinery had been placed in motion, and the Vatican bureaucracy apparently is increasingly a machine that cannot be stopped.

Having so dispassionately rolled over a bishop whose greatest offense against the church was to have been a bit of a compassionate maverick, why should Rome care at all about the French protest?

In most circumstances perhaps the Vatican operatives would not be very concerned. But they have signaled that Rome would welcome discussions with the French bishops. The La Croix correspondent speculated that Rome is "keen on calming things down and trying to dialogue" with visiting French bishops because the pope has trips planned to France for 1996 and 1997

No one wants to deal with street demonstrations.

If Vatican officials miscalculated in France, they also are most likely missing the larger point. People everywhere are tired of seeing those leaders who are willing to openly exercise compassion and understanding - whether toward gays or the poor or racial minorities or women - get bullied and disciplined by right-wingers and Rome.

It is difficult to imagine what Rome thought the reaction would be to sacking a bishop who was widely known for his work among society's marginalized. His declarations and work have more than a faint biblical ring to them.

No one is saying he was heretical, just that he was sometimes not fully in sync with the other members of the hierarchy. So he remains a bishop with a mythical diocese and the benefit of enormous goodwill and his own lively, holy imagination. (He said he plans to write a pastoral letter to the people of his new diocese, whoever and wherever they may be.)

Perhaps, if nothing else, Gaillot and the strong outpouring of support he has inspired will force Rome to think twice before it goes after the next bishop or theologian who happens to upset the extreme conservatives.