My Option for the Poor

BISHOP JACQUES GAILLOT:
CALL TO ACTION CONFERENCE, Detroit, 1996

Introduction
I am really thrilled to have this honor to introduce Bishop Gaillot to you today. We've lived in Europe and we've followed Bishop Gaillot with considerable interest, most recently on the Internet where he has his own home page as bishop of Partenia. He's known to many of you for his engagement for the gospel, particularly on the part of the poor, the marginalized, the outsiders. His message is that we really can't be Christians unless we are inclusive, unless we really make an effort on the part of those who are on the outside. My wife was very inspired by Bishop Gaillot several months ago when she heard of his new diocese. He'd been deprived by the Vatican of his diocese of the see of Evreux in France and made bishop of Partenia which apparently exists on some maps of Northern Africa, but we saw this man and my said, "Gee, that is wonderful!" We live in the Diocese of Arlington where our daughters cannot even be altar servers and we thought how marvelous it would be if he could become our bishop. (Applause from audience.) And she wrote to Bishop Gaillot and she was delighted to receive a personal handwritten reply from him. I think it is probably indicative of his warm pastoral spirit as priest and as bishop which has inspired so many people and which continues to inspire Catholics in France and around the world. So, with that, it is my great pleasure to introduce Bishop Jacques Gaillot, formerly bishop of Evreux, now bishop of Partenia and, I think, bishop of all of us.

Gaillot
Good morning and thank you for your warm welcome. Thank you for being here. I am deeply impressed with the fact that you are all here and with what you represent with regard to the poor of the world and the living of the Gospel. What I am going to say this morning will touch probably on the deepest part of everything that you live and will concern all those whom society, and the Church also, have left behind.

You know that Jesus represented himself and appears in the Gospel primarily as the one who stood for the poor. He came to give sight to the blind, to free prisoners, and, in a word, to bring liberation. He specifically said he came to give the good news to the poor. He didn't specifically say to everybody, but to the poor. In Jesus' eyes, when the good news is preached to the poor, then something automatically happens where everybody else finds access to the good news, but it starts with the poor. When you start with the poor you start with everybody.

John the Baptist, as you know, began with the question of whether or not Jesus was truly the Messiah. John sent some people from his prison cell to ask Jesus, "Are you indeed the one who is to come?" Jesus trusted them enough to say, "Go out and tell only what you have seen: The deaf hear, the blind see and the poor have the good news preached to them."

So Jesus had a passionate interest in men and women who are outcasts, excluded. And he threw himself entirely into those areas where men and women are particularly in greatest danger. Not only did he bring the good news to the outcasts who were excluded, but he identified, he was himself, excluded and outcast. Jesus found his joy in the fact that the poor and outcasts had the good news preached to them. Jesus' choice in favor of the poor is and has to be the Church's choice and ours as well. We don't really have the right of questioning whether the Church's responsibility is toward the poor. Insofar as we ask that question, we are not giving ourselves over entirely to the poor and since the time of Jesus, of course, we realize that this path is THE normal and regular path for those who follow the Gospel. In France, the country I come from, there are many excluded and outcast peoples.

The excluded one is the one who exists for no one else. We have excluded people, outcasts, in the area of love, education, immigration and society at large. And today, unfortunately, many, most, excluded people have to be able to say society doesn't need them. In the past, we have examples of societies where the rich people really couldn't do without the poor. But today we can get along without the poor. Because of technology and mechanical advances, we have a society that can do without the kind of employment that the poor might otherwise aspire toward. In the past, it was possible, certainly, to exploit the poor. Today, it is possible to eliminate them, to do without them in society.

So we have a society which creates outcasts. It makes excluded people. We have men and women by the side of the road with the knowledge that society doesn't want or need them. We live in a society which creates the one who performs best, who succeeds most, who is richest. And when you have a society that creates winners, you automatically create a society of losers. So we have a society of losers starting from school-age. Perhaps we could say that the sin of the modern world is to be the loser.

Recently, on a television program, the moderator of the discussion ask some school children to define some excluded people. They asked a 9 or 10 year old child, "What's an excluded person? What do you mean by an outcast?" And the young child defined the outcast. He said, "In my opinion, it's somebody who never succeeds in catching up with himself." In France, there are more and more outcasts, excluded people. In Paris, for example, a big city, if you step outdoors, you will see people begging in the streets, in the subway. If you are driving a car and you stop at a red light, someone will always come over and ask you for something. People say, "A few years ago, it wasn't like this." These outcasts are younger and younger people. From the ages of 18 to 25, you see lots of young people like that begging in the streets. And these people say, "The street is the only place that welcomes us." Today, it is very easy for anyone to just tip over into the category of being excluded, of being an outcast, of being poor. This can happen to people who have college degrees, people who are in the professions. It could even happen to a bishop. (Laughter and applause from the audience.) I think you people understand French real well, because you managed to laugh even before the translation.

Excluded people seem to acquire handicaps much like those little Russian dolls that have a lot of layers inside. You accumulate exclusions. You first of all are without work. Then you have AIDS. Then you're without your proper identification papers, etc., etc. You can accumulate exclusions. And, in the final analysis, excluded people have a feeling, a sense for celebration. Since life is hard, they really need to know how to rejoice. When you don't know what's going to happen tomorrow, you have to be able to live for the day and seize the opportunities for enjoyment. Their celebrations are extremely simple. They enjoy simply being together, singing, dancing, enjoying one another's presence, but they have the feeling for celebration.

Among the excluded in France, I have a particular affection and duty toward those who are without proper identification papers, illegal immigrants. When I say, foreigners in France, I mean particularly foreigners NOT of Europeans extraction, North Africans and Africans. We have some rather oppressive laws that are extremely hard on foreigners. We have laws that push them into a category of "underneath life," being rejected. We are very hard on them and we punish them.

There was this past summer the story of the refugees in the parish in Paris of St. Bernard's parish. It is a story which I think is worth retelling. About 300 Africans found one day that their visa was simply not renewed. These people had been in France about 10 or 12 years, had been working and living there. Everything seemed to be going well until one day the visa is simply not renewed. In France, if you don't have papers, you are not allowed to work. And if you can't work, then you are out in the street and you are a homeless person and subject to arrest. If you are arrested by the police, they will take you straight to the border.

So these 300 Africans decided one day that they would simply come out of the shadows and assemble together in a well-known church in Paris, the St. Bernard's Church. And in March, around the 18th of March, they took over the parish to emphasize their plight to the media and to the public. Obviously, this is kind of a shocking thing -- 300 Africans taking over the church and it turned out that the parishioners of this church were themselves very much divided on whether this should be taking place or not. These Christians from the parish, many of them, said, "These Africans are most of them Moslems, why don't take over a mosque somewhere?" (Laughter from the audience.) And other parishioners said, "The church is, after all, God's house. Where else could they expect a better welcome?" There were those who said, "You should remove the Blessed Sacrament from the church (groans from the audience), because the presence of these people de-sacralizes the church." (louder groans from the audience) Other parishioners said, "Heck, no! The Blessed Sacrament is in the church all the time that the church is empty. All the more reason why it should be there when it is full." (Laughter and applause from the audience.) And the parishioners wondered, "Where are we going to have Mass on Sunday?" (Laughter) Others said, "We should have Mass with them. If we were in their country, that's what we would expect to happen and we should be grateful to be able to celebrate Mass with them in our own church." In any case, the Blessed Sacrament was removed from the church and many other liturgical items were removed especially since this was coming up on Good Friday and there was a lot of stuff to be moved. And the pastor, with the approval of the Archbishop, wrote to the police commissioner to have him come and take back the church for the parish, which is what happened.

So, one fine morning, at 6:00 in the morning, 6,000 police showed up to evacuate 300 Africans. And they took away the women and the children and I was standing there on the square and I felt a great sense of shame for my church and my society. How difficult it is to welcome the foreigner! And our bonds with outcasts are not uncomplicated. I would say that the way you welcome the foreigner is a test, for both any society and for the church. So these 300 Africans were all of a sudden in an exodus, wandering through the city of Paris, going from place to place, hoping for some kind of welcome. And eventually, they found a welcome in an abandoned warehouse and a train station in Paris. And, believing that they were still threatened by the government and that at any minute they could be arrested and led to the border, they decided once again to take over another church.

So they came finally to St. Bernard. This church is located in a working-class neighborhood. And here in this church, these Africans found a warm welcome. (Applause from the audience.) And everything took place: Mass, weddings, baptisms with the Africans around them and it was very beautiful. (More applause.)

And since there was a kind of general fear that these people would still be arrested or excluded, both among themselves and in the population of the city, that many Parisiens came to the church to assure them that they were safe there. And, in the month of August, when all of Paris is on vacation, 2,000-3,000 people both from Paris and from outside, came to surround the church and make it safe. (Applause) And many of them were invited to come into the church and spend a night there, particularly supporting those who were on hunger strike and it was a very beautiful thing.

That's how I learned to sleep in a church. (Laughter and applause.) I have to admit, you can really sleep well in a church. I should say that I slept not very far away from the Blessed Sacrament. (Laughter) And also, right next to a famous actress. (Laughter and applause) (Louder laughter and applause) For those who are familiar with French cinema, I can tell you that the actress in question was Emmanuelle (last name). So we were ready that if the police came at dawn, we should be prepared for this and each one would have a particular role to play. For example, some would ring the church bells. Others would call the media so there would be some coverage. I was to chain myself to an African. (Laughter and applause from the audience.) And at dawn, what we had to do was to get rid of all the mattresses in the church and put the chairs back in their proper place to indicate that we were a community here and as a community to sing and celebrate. And the pastor was there to light all the candles and to read a text, entitled "I Have a Dream," the text from Dr. Martin Luther King. (Applause)

So there we are, 5:30 in the morning, all of a sudden, there was some general alarm. There it is, the police have come. So we all got up, got organized, everyone was very serious. Frankly, we were afraid. So we got together, fixed all the chairs in the right place and began singing. It turned out that our lookouts had made a mistake. There were no police. (Laughter) Two lookouts had awakened 300 people for no reason. But it was a good practice! (Laughter)

The police eventually did come -- 3,000 of them again. They routed us out with considerable brutality. They even broke down the church doors with hatchets. The people surrounding the church who were really a nonviolent people and were there very peaceably were beaten by the police and this event had a terrible shocking effect on the French population because of its appearance in the media. Because of that event, many French people came to a final deep realization that foreigners are really human beings and they changed their attitudes and they changed their attitudes and their practices toward foreigners from that day.

Today, things are still going on. It's no longer 300 Africans in a church, but thousands of people without sufficient papers, illegal immigrants without work who are coming out of the shadows and making themselves known as a result of this event.

I would like at this point to make a few directional points for our church. I would like to see a church that takes as its starting point care for the poor -- that's its starting point. (Applause)

This past summer, I was on vacation with my family and at one point, I had the opportunity to walk into a large cathedral-type church and I noticed on the door a sign that said, "This is the house of God. You are welcome here whether you are a Christian believer or not, whether you are rich or poor, no matter who you are." And some vacationer, probably, had written by hand underneath the sign, "And for all you handicapped people, particularly in wheelchairs." And when you look at all the steps you had to take to get up there, you say, "What were they thinking of when they left the handicapped out?" We all know that the church and the society that these are made for everyone, but we easily forget that some people can't have access to it. And the experience of last summer has shown that when you include the foreigner and the poor, this has ramifications in your whole liturgical life. You pray better, you sing better, your actions change, you are a better person, whereas the opposite is just not true.

My second point is that the church can be transformed, renewed, improved by the poor. I was recently invited by a family in the Pads area, and this is a family I didn't really know, so I went and I showed up at this big beautiful house and I went inside. I saw that other families had been invited along with me and the head of the household came and said, "We've invited you all here because we all have something in common. We are all parents of autistic children." These families then began telling me about their experience, the struggles they have had, the difficulties and the graces. In the course of the meal, I asked them a question. I said, "Tell me, what have your autistic children taught you?" And one woman at the table said, "Bishop, our childrenhave taught us everything. They have taught us a sense of life and a sense of death." And I think when Christians are involved with the poor, they are involved with that "everything," the essential. And then we see that many of the problems of our church are becoming relativized. They become less important.

Thirdly, I would say, that I would like to see a church that allows their place; that is, that gives them a right to speak and listens to them. It's really wonderful when outcasts get the power of speech. We are never disappointed. Last year, there were some bad strikes in France, and at one point the prime minister said, "Well, we're going to initiate a social dialogue." So they had a panel and they invited what they thought were all the people involved in a strike, but the outcasts and excluded were not invited. So, we tried to say to the government that you must invite the outcasts and the excluded. It was obviously not easy. We ran up against the police, but eventually the prime minister gave in and granted to a panel a big hall much like this one that we enjoy today. And every evening there were unemployed people and foreigners who got the right to speak. It was really marvelous to hear these people, people who do not really need someone to speak for them. In the church, what a wonderful thing it would be if the outcasts and excluded had a right to speak and we could hear them. (Applause) We should be a church of the outcasts and not a church which excludes or makes outcasts. (Applause) If society creates outcasts, the church should not be one that does the same. That's why I want the Diocese of Partenia which hasn't really existed since the 5th century (laughter) to become the diocese of all those excluded in the world. (Applause)

Last year, at Christmastime, I had a chance to meet with the Pope. It was only a half hour, but I asked him, "Please, make me the bishop of Partenia." And the Pope said, "But there isn't one, it doesn't exist." And I told him, "That's precisely what's interesting. Then everybody can belong to it." (Applause)

Fourth point: I would like to see a church that is willing to compromise itself with the poor; that is, dedicate itself and be part of the poor. We often have beautiful words in the church with regard to the poor, but what we are lacking is real contact. How important it is for the church to impose acts of solidarity with the poor and to show that the church's choice is always on the side of the poor. It's not especially a question of helping the poor, but of making them responsible, giving them the power to be responsible. It isn't enough to help the poor, but they must be allowed to become actors, to stand up and be actors in their own lives. We often have these demonstrations in Paris, demonstrations that I'm a part of occasionally and you will see in the demonstration signs that say, 'We want justice. We don't want charity." In the Bible we see that justice means to give the other person his or her place. The church must remember this fundamental obligation that it has toward justice.

One evening I was invited by some students in Pads from the political science school in Paris. One of them asked me, "What would a bishop recommend for a student in political science?" (Laughter) You're laughing. I wasn't laughing. (Laughter) And I said to this student, "You will have in the future great responsibilities. You will be given jobs with great responsibilities. And you may find yourself in a position where you are responsible for mothers and fathers of families. If I can give you," I told him, "one word of advice it's never tolerate injustice no matter what side it comes from." (Applause) "Refuse the unacceptable."

I would like to conclude by saying that, with regard to the poor, the most important thing is to grant them their dignity. I think that was Jesus' attitude in the Gospels, to give each person...

One day, I encountered in a train station in Paris a young person who was without visible means of support. There was a media person who came by there and asked, "Does the fact of appearing in newspaper headlines and so on, don't you think that gives you some sort of dignity?" And the young man answered, "Dignity is always in the person. No one can take it away from you or give it to you by putting you in the papers." He said, "I respect the dignity of others and I expect others to respect mine." And I admired the words of that young man, that dignity is not something that anyone can ever really take away from you, that it is part of your essential being. The only attitude that can really liberate someone is to recognize that person's dignity.

Thank you very much.