Roman Catholic Cardinal. A native of Chênex, Léon-Etienne Duval entered seminary in Annecy. Furthering his studies in Rome, he was ordained priest on December 18, 1926. Director of works in the diocese of Annecy, where he also taught at the local seminary, during the Second World War he supported the French Resistance. Named honorary canon and vicar general of Algiers in 1942, on November 3, 1946 he was elected bishop of the diocese of Constantine-Hippone by Pope Pius XII, receiving his episcopal consecration on February 11 of the following year. Promoted to the metropolitan see of Algiers on February 3, 1954, Duval championed the independence of Algeria, and encouraged peace among Muslims, Christians and Jews. One of the first French public figures to recognize Algeria's right to independence, he worked to convince France to let go of its colony. After Algeria gained independence, he became a dual citizen of Algeria and France, sparking many to call him "Muhammed Duval" and considered as a "traitor" in the eyes of several fellow Frenchmen. President of the North African Episcopal Conference from 1963 to 1988, he opposed the Action Française which supported establishing Catholicism as the state religion, believing that faith and politics should remain separate. Pope Paul VI created him cardinal priest with the title of Santa Balbina in the consistory of February 22, 1965. Retiring from the pastoral government of his see on April 19, 1988, Cardinal Duval died in Algiers on May 30, 1996. Hospitalized for three weeks after fracturing his femoral neck, his passing occurred at his apartment adjacent to the Notre-Dame-d'Afrique Cathedral at 9 hrs., shortly after being discharged. His funeral mass, celebrated at the Basilica of Notre Dame d'Afrique, was a collective mass together with that of the seven assassinated Trappist monks of the Abbey of Our Lady of Atlas of Tibhirine brutally assassinated on the previous May 21. It was presided by Cardinals Francis Arinze and Jean Marie-Lustiger, representing Pope John Paul II. His remains are found buried inside the same basilica.