The Archbishop of Algiers will be created cardinal by Pope Francis during the consistory on December 8. He learned of his appointment by a phone call while he was on his way to church to celebrate mass.
Jean Charles Putzolu – Vatican City
Appointed in 2021 archbishop of Algiers by Pope Francis, Mgr Jean-Paul Vesco will receive the cardinal’s bar on December 8 in Rome. This Dominican, born in Lyon in 1962, was first a lawyer before being ordained a priest in 2001. He has been in Algeria since 2002, first at the Dominican convent of Tlemcen, in the diocese of Oran. He became vicar general of the diocese in 2005. Elected provincial prior of the Dominicans of France, he returned to France in 2010. Pope Benedict XVI appointed him head of the diocese of Oran on December 1, 2012. December 8, 2018 , Mgr Vesco welcomed in his diocese the beatification of the 19 martyrs of Algeria, including Mgr Pierre Claverie, the former bishop of Oran assassinated in 1996, and the monks of Tibhirine. Shortly after the announcement of his nomination to the purple cardinal, he gave an interview to Radio Vatican-Vatican News.
Interview with Mgr Jean-Paul Vesco
Mgr Jean-Paul Vesco, you were informed today of this appointment, the choice of Pope Francis. What is your first reaction?
I gasp, obviously, because I couldn’t just imagine it for a thousandth of a second. I feel the weight of an immense, undeserved honor and the desire to continue to advance in the service of this Church, and following Pope Francis who opens it to the world.
What can this mean for you? What can this change in your mission, in your pastoral ministry?
I think Algeria will be honored. There is the memory, obviously, of Cardinal Léon-Étienne Duval which has remained very strong. I admit that my first thought was for Mgr Henri Teissier who was an immense archbishop of Algiers and who we always said should have been a cardinal. I gladly offer him this honor that has been done to me, and I believe that it is a good thing for our little Church. Anything that contributes to giving it an echo outside, to giving it a form of recognition is good for our mission here in Algeria. I believe that Algeria will also be honored with this distinction, I believe that it is important for Algerians and I am Algerian. And so it is also as an Algerian that I receive this honor done to me.
We also cannot fail to have a thought for the monks of Tibhirine…
Exactly. It is the testimony of this Church, of these 19 blesseds, of the monks of Tibhirine (assassinated on May 21, 1996, editor’s note), of Mgr Pierre Claverie (assassinated on August 1, 1996, editor’s note). It is really as a result, and because of his assassination, that I am in Algeria. This little Church continues to make sense. It has changed a lot since the 1990s and 2000s. But it remains faithful to this vocation of a Church open to the society in which it is located, a Muslim society. I believe that this is also a sign that Pope Francis wanted to give.
It seems to me that throughout his pontificate, what stands out is his desire to imprint a particular way for the Church to be in the world. We found ourselves completely understood from within, by all the messages that the Pope wanted to send to the universal Church, both by the Document on Human Fraternity co-signed with the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, and by his encyclical Brothers all and Laudato Si’ as well. Through this nomination, I feel that it is also an encouragement to persevere in this way of being a disciple of Christ also open to the truth of the other.
Is this appointment, this confidence shown by Pope Francis, also a message for you to be closer to Rome, even if you have always been, but also closer to your Muslim brothers?
It will indeed be a stronger link with Rome and it will be important. This will be an additional bridge. In any case, I really believe that this is a sign given for us, for our Muslim brothers and sisters. And I think that, whatever anyone says, the fact that the archbishop is a cardinal is a contract. This gives weight to credibility, weight to our presence, to our words. I am the pastor of this church which aims to be a bridge, which aims to be fraternity, which aims to be a link with all of humanity. I am very happy. I think that will not keep me away from Algiers and Algeria. On the contrary, this appointment will anchor me there even more.
What weight will this give to your action to defend the charitable activity of the Church in Algeria?
Plus, indeed, our Church is perceived as being recognized, as a Catholic Church which counts in Algeria – the Holy Father counts, his word counts – plus, obviously, this reinforces the credibility of what we are experiencing. And our action is always carried out in this same spirit, that of the monks and Cardinal Duval. We are still in this same vein, even if many things have changed both in society and in the Church. So, I simply believe that it will indeed be a particular weight. It is a lever, and I will use this lever for the good of our Church and our country, Algeria.
I will also use it to move towards a more synodal Church, towards the evolution of the place of the laity, of women in the Church, of the place of the divorced and remarried in the church, of the place of a form of collegiality stronger. These are struggles that are also mine, independently of what we may experience in Algeria, even if I try to implement them in our diocese. And maybe that mattered too. And so this touches me, but I also see it as an encouragement to continue in this direction of an ever more synodal Church, always more open and perhaps less vertical.
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