Roman Catholic Diocese of Oran

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Oran (Diocèse d'Oran, Dioecesis Oranensis) is a Roman Catholic diocese in the ecclesiastical province of Algiers in Algeria.

History
The current diocese of Oran was created on 25 July 1866, with the diocese of Constantine, by dismemberment of the single diocese of Algiers (established in 1838). It is limited to the east by the Archdiocese of Algiers, to the south by the Diocese of Laghouat, to the west by the border of Morocco; it covers nearly 56000 km2. It is believed that its current population is around 9.8 million inhabitants spread over 9 departments, of which 1,500 are Catholic. At the time of Saint Augustine, about thirty bishoprics existed on the current extent of the diocese; from the 16th to the 18th centuries.

Oran, occupied by the Spaniards, depended on the Archbishop of Toledo. After the massive departure of the French at the independence of Algeria in 1962, then of foreign workers at the beginning of the Algerian Civil War, the Catholic community only has a few hundred members nowadays. Pierre Claverie, bishop of Oran between 1981-1996, was murdered together with a Muslim assistant by a bomb that had been planted at the door of the bishopric.

Special churches
The seat of the bishop is Cathédrale Sainte-Marie in Oran.

Bishops of Oran

 * 1) Jean-Baptiste-Irénée Callot (January 12, 1867 – November 1, 1875)
 * 2) Louis-Joseph-Marie-Ange Vigne (March 1, 1876 – February 27, 1880), appointed Bishop of Digne, France
 * 3) Pierre-Marie-Etienne-Gustave Ardin (February 12, 1880 – March 27, 1884), appointed Bishop of La Rochelle and Saintes, France
 * 4) Noël-Mathieu-Victor-Marie Gaussail (January 10, 1884 – June 10, 1886), appointed Bishop of Perpignan-Elne, France
 * 5) Géraud-Marie Soubrier (March 2, 1886 – March 24, 1898)
 * 6) Edouard-Adolphe Cantel (July 8, 1898 – December 10, 1910)
 * 7) Pierre-Firmin Capmartin (February 19, 1911 – December 25, 1914)
 * 8) Christophe-Louis Légasse (December 6, 1915 – August 13, 1920), appointed Bishop of Périgueux (-Sarlat), France
 * 9) Léon-Auguste-Marie-Joseph Durand (October 11, 1920 – March 20, 1945)
 * 10) Bertrand Lacaste (December 29, 1945 – November 30, 1972)
 * 11) Henri Teissier (November 30, 1972 – December 20, 1980), appointed Coadjutor Archbishop of Alger
 * 12) Pierre Lucien Claverie, OP (May 25, 1981 – August 1, 1996)
 * 13) Alphonse Georger (10 – 1)
 * 14) Jean-Paul Vesco, OP (December 1, 2012 –  27, appointed Archbishop of Alger and is current administrator of Oran)