After nine years at the head of the diocese of Oran, the Dominican friar, Bishop Jean-Paul VESCO, was appointed by Pope Francis to head the metropolitan archdiocese of the Algerian capital, (27.12.2021). He succeeds Archbishop Paul Desfarges, who has reached the age of retirement .
Algiers has a new archbishop.
Born in Lyon in 1962, Jean-Paul Vesco joined the Dominican order in 1995 after studying law and working as a lawyer. He was ordained a priest in 2001. His first contact with Algeria took place a year later when he moved to the Dominican convent of Tlemcen, in the diocese of Oran. He became the vicar general in 2005 and then the bursar in 2007.
He returned to France at the end of 2010 after being elected Prior Provincial of the Province of France. He held this position for a few months before being appointed by Benedict XVI to head the Diocese of Oran on 1 December 2012. On 8 December 2018, Archbishop Vesco hosted in his diocese the beatification of the 19 martyrs of Algeria, among them Bishop Pierre Claverie, the former bishop of Oran assassinated in 1996, and the monks of Tibhirine. Archbishop Vesco participated in the 2015 Synod on the Family held in the Vatican, pleading in particular for attention to remarried divorcees. As head of the Archdiocese of Algiers, he succeeds Archbishop Paul Desfarges, a member of the Society of Jesus, who is leaving his post at the age of 77. Archbishop Desfarges was appointed in December 2016 by Pope Francis after having been bishop of the diocese of Constantine and Hippo, as a distant successor of St Augustine.
Sources:
- Monseigneur Jean-Paul VESCO, nouvel archevêque d’Alger. Prêcheurs. Bulletin de liaison de la province de France. (2021, décembre) Nº 251. Page 5.
- Holy See Press Office. Resignations and Appointments, 27.12.2021
