The Roman Catholic Diocese of Oran 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.

Ordinaries

Bishops of Oran