Quick Facts
Biography
Paul Jacques Marie Desfarges (born on 7 May 1944) in Saint-Etienne in Loire (department) is a Jesuit French-Algerian Catholic Archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Algiers in Algeria since 2016.
Biography
Paul Desfarges arrives in Algeria in 1965 for military service. He teaches as a civilian in a White Fathers school to Ghardaia, southern Algeria.
Returning to France, he decided to become a Jesuit and joined the novitiate of the Society of Jesus on 14 October 1967. After his vows as religious and theological studies he was ordained priest on 14 June 1975. Desfarges made his solemn profession on 30 April 1981.
Paul Desfarges spent nearly 30 years in Constantine, where, among others, teaches psychology at the University from 1976 to 2006. In 1982, he won the Algerian nationality.
From 2006 he headed the spiritual center Ben Smen to Algiers, while the upper Algiers Jesuit community.
Pope Benedict XVI appointed him bishop of Constantine and Hippo on 21 November 2008. He succeeds Bishop Gabriel Piroird who retired for reasons of age.
Paul Desfarges was consecrated on 12 February 2009, and his installation as bishop of Constantine was on 20 February of the same year.
On December 24, 2016 Pope Francis named Desfarges to be the current Archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Algiers.