Archbishop of Alger
Jean-Paul Vesco was born in Lyon, France, on March 10, 1962. He earned a law degree and practiced law at a firm in Lyon before deciding to join the Order of Preachers. He began his novitiate year in 1995 and made his first religious profession on September 14, 1996. He was ordained a priest in Lyon on June 24, 2001. He arrived in the Diocese of Oran, Algeria, on October 6, 2002, to join the Dominican community in Tlemcen. In 2004, he was appointed as the diocese's delegate for the preparation of the Interdiocesan Assembly of Algeria (AIDA). He served as Vicar General of the diocese starting in 2005 and assumed the role of Diocesan Bursar in 2007. On October 16, 2007, he was elected Superior of the Dominican community in Tlemcen, a position he held until January 2011, when he was elected Provincial Superior for France.