His name had been put forward to succeed Bishop Barbarin in Lyon. Finally Jean-Paul Vesco will not leave his favorite land since Pope Francis has just appointed him bishop of Algiers.
This former lawyer born in Lyon 59 years ago had been Bishop of Oran since December 1, 2012. He had received episcopal consecration on January 25, 2013 in Oran Cathedral, from the hands of Cardinal Philippe Barbarin.
In love with Algeria
Addressing the Catholics of Algeria, the new bishop of Algiers reacted thus to this appointment: “It is an office and an honor which were really not in my horizon of thought until recently, but I receive them with Confidence and in the joy of discovering each of the members of the Archdiocese whom I know without knowing him, as do people who have seen each other, sometimes for a long time, but who have never lived together! I will not be long in coming to Algiers for a round trip, before my installation, on February 11. ”
Jean-Paul Vesco has always been a lover of Algeria, in the footsteps of Charles de Foucaud. After being ordained a priest for the Dominican order on June 24, 2001, he moved to the diocese of Oran six years after the assassination in 1996 of Mgr Pierre Claverie, bishop of the 2nd largest city in Algeria.
A city where the prelate knew how to be quickly recognized and appreciated by the Muslim authorities of the whole country and which he liked to show his visiting friends. With an unmissable stopover: the statue of the Virgin dominating the bay of Oran and which is quite simply a copy of the Virgin of the Basilica of Fourvière.
On the pastoral level, Mgr Vesco distinguished himself by publishing in 2015 a book entitled “All love is indissoluble. Advocacy for remarried divorcees ”. A reflection that made the bishops speak a lot at the last synod on the family in Rome.