A year after being fired as Catholic bishop in Evereux, Normandy, Jacques Gaillot has created the first diocese on the Internet.

John Paul II reassigned the controversial bishop to Partenia, an ancient city in the Sahara Desert that has been only sand since the Middle Ages. Gaillot had blessed homosexual marriages, promoted condom distribution, and encouraged priests to marry, earning him the nickname "the Red Cleric."

The bishop's site on the World Wide Web, published in English and French, has received around 50 electronic mail messages a day, Gaillot says, most from France and the United States.

"To go onto the Internet is like a dream," he says. Rather than promoting homosexual marriages and condom distribution, Gaillot's site has focused on the homeless and government censorship.