Étienne Nguyễn Như Thể

Étienne Nguyễn Như Thể (born 1 December 1935) is a Vietnamese Catholic archbishop who served as the Archbishop of Huế from 1998 to 2012. He currently holds the title of Archbishop Emeritus of Huế.

Biography

Étienne Nguyễn Như Thể was born on 1 December 1935 in Hải Thọ, Hải Lăng District, Quang Tri Province, Vietnam, into a deeply Catholic family with seven children, originating from Thua Thien Hue Province.^[1]

He entered the minor seminary An Ninh in Huế in 1947 and then the major seminary Saint Joseph's in Saigon in 1955.^[2]

Episcopal Ministry

Following the reunification of Vietnam under the Communist government of Hanoi, on 7 September 1975, Pope Paul VI appointed him Coadjutor Archbishop of Huế and assigned him the titular see of Tipasa in Mauretania. He was consecrated a bishop on the same day by Archbishop Philippe Nguyễn Kim Điền. He assisted Archbishop Philippe Nguyễn Kim Điền for eight years during the difficult post-war period. He resigned on 23 November 1983 due to health reasons. On 23 March 1994, he was appointed Apostolic Administrator sede vacante et ad nutum Sanctae Sedis. In November of the same year, he obtained permission from the government to reopen the seminary of Huế, and in 1995, he was elected president of the Committee for the Clergy and Seminarians of the Vietnamese Bishops' Conference, re-elected for a second term in the triennium 1998–2001.^[3]^[4]

On 1 March 1998, Pope John Paul II appointed him Archbishop of Huế. He took possession of the archdiocese on 9 April of the same year. Unable to travel to Rome, he received the pallium on 14 August of the same year from Cardinal Paul Joseph Phạm Đình Tụng. He led the archdiocese for 14 years, retiring on 18 August 2012 due to age limit.^[5]