French bishop flouts Vatican rules on London visit

BY ANDREW M BROWN
BISHOP JACQUES GAILIATI-, the rebel French bishop who was sacked by the Pope two years ago, flew in the face of the magisterium at the weekend, with customary élan, by not only receiving Communion in an Anglican church but distributing it also.
But Bishop Gaillot's actions were "not helpful to the ecumenical movement", Bishop Cormac MurphyO'Connor, chairman of the Bishops' Department for Mission and Unity, told the Catholic Herald on Tuesday.
Bishop Gaillot, whom the Holy Father dismissed as Bishop of Evreux in January 1995, preached on Sunday morning at St James's Anglican Church, Piccadilly, at the invitation of the rector, the Rev Donald Reeves. Through an interpreter, the bishop spoke of the millennium, and told a rapt congregation to be ready for the kingdom of God, which he envisaged as a "coming together of the human community". The bishop said a recent visit to Jerusalem, which, with its two peoples and three religions, was "a mystery" and "a symbol for all humanity", had influenced his thinking on the future possibilities for human unity.
'We know that the kingdom of God is now in the process of being made," said Bishop Gaillot. "We do not know when the Lord will come. The most important thing is to know that he is coming and to be ready." The bishop had earlier explained to Donald Reeves that he would receive the Eucharist because it would be "discourteous" not to, even though the Church expressly forbids intercommunion with churches derived from the Reformation. To do this provocatively or persistently would amount to apostasy.
"The Catholic understanding of the relationship of the Eucharist to the Church is of fundamental importance," said Bishop Murphy-O'Connor, "and the bishop seems to have ignored the proper understanding of Catholic principles of ecumenism in this matter."
However Bishop Gaillot is not the first prominent Catholic to break the rule at St James's, Piccadilly. The controversial Dutch theologian, Fr Edward Schillebeecicx, has also done so. And Cherie Blair was reported to have received Anglican communion during the Labour party conference.
The English and Welsh bish
ops are understood to be anxious to clarify and reinforce understanding of the significance of the Eucharist. But Bishop Gaillot told worshippers: "We are victims of our own regulations. God is greater than our hearts. He doesn't put us in order. When we come around the altar together is it not that Christ wants us to take the bread of unity?"
Following Bishop Gaillot's dismissal as Bishop of Evreux, the Vatican's Congregation of Bishops issued a statement. In it, the Vatican said the bishop "frequently distanced himself from the official teachings of the Church or even openly took the opposite view, notably in moral matters. A bishop cannot authorise himself to have his own ideas prevail over those of the episcopal college, of which the Pope is head."
The principle of collegiality was elaborated in the discussions of the Second Vatican Council, particularly in chapter three of Lumen gentium.