Letter of November 1st 1999 from Jacques Gaillot

Polemic in Germany

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Polemic in Germany

Invited to go in Germany, I saw the concern of the Catholics I met. They were troubled by the statement from Rome about the family planning centers.

The Catholic Church is responsible for about 270 of these centers. They offer a place for consultation prior any decision to proceed to a legal abortion. The Church provides help, welcome and understanding to women in great difficulties, even some times in a desperate state. As it is also for the Protestant Church, this social service is recognized and appreciated by the Government Administration.

The Catholic Church estimates that one women out of four finally decides of not having an abortion, that is about 5 000 lives are saved per year. But if the women, after discussion, still wants to go on with abortion, these centers deliver a certificate which is necessary for abortion. It is at that point that the Vatican intervenes to order the Bishops not deliver the legal certificate.

Already a few Bishops, like the ones from Köln and Fulda, decided to obey Rome and to close those centers. Some Catholics have decided to leave the Church and do not pay their religious taxes. But many Bishops, including their President, hold on and they want to appeal to the Pope himself.

Why not trust the Catholic Church which is in Germany? She is able to know and assess the human needs of the people of that country.

If the Catholic Church had to close those centers, she will be off side. Putting herself above the others, she will lose any credit in the public opinion by willing to stand on principles and to keep clean hands.

The Church which wants to protect life can only be humble among her people. She is doing her duty by helping women in distress. Her mission is accomplished when she is unselfishly helping women to save lives.

For the moment the polemic is going on. The news paper Le Monde (Oct. 4, 1999) finished its chronicle related to this subject by these words :" What a waste!"

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Mgr Jacques Gaillot
EGLISE VIRTUELLE
EGLISE DE L'AN 2000
Un évêque
au royaume d'Internet

In January 1995 Jacques Gaillot abruptly received his resignation from his office at Evreux. In a rather surrealist way, this eviction was transformed in an appointment at an ancient and fictitious see, Partenia in Algeria. This made him a kind of virtual Bishop of which his potential parishioners were spread all over the planet... A year later, he decided to take the institution at its word, he opened a web site to dialogue with every body in the world. It was immediately successful: thousands of Internet users from all over France, Canada, Australia and dozens of countries, laymen or clerics, Christians or non Christians, for or against, conversed on many various subjects. This book accounts for the site of Partenia 2000 as an extraordinary way of exchanging, it is an indication of the Church to be in which the geographic divisions of the dioceses, inherited from the Middle Age, do not mean much. Assembled by Philippe Huet and Elizabeth Cocquart, Jacques Gaillot presents messages about exclusion, racism, death penalty and many other passionate matters. Dreaming of a Church in harmony with the evolution of the world, evocation of revolts and hopes of a whole generation, this collection of testimonies, faithfully received by the Bishop, opens a "pastorale" of a totally original kind.

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