September 16, 2011
Bishop appoints Father Bernard T. Etienne as vicar general
By PAUL R. LEINGANG (Message editor)
Father Bernard T. “Bernie” Etienne, 53, grew up in Tell City, Ind., the eldest son of Paul and Kay Etienne.
One of his brothers is Bishop Paul Etienne of Cheyenne; another brother is Father Zach Etienne, pastor of Good Shepherd Church in Evansville; his sister, Sister Mary Nicolette Etienne is a Beech Grove Benedictine. A brother, Rick, and a sister, Angela, complete the list of his siblings.
The new vicar general is a graduate of Tell City High School; he graduated from Indiana University in 1981 with a bachelor’s degree in marketing. He attended the University of St. Mary of the Lake, in Mundelein, Ill., where he obtained his bachelor’s degree in sacred theology and his master of divinity degree in 1993.
After ordination in 1993, Father Etienne’s first appointment was associate pastor of St. Joseph Church in Jasper. In 1995, he was named director of the diocesan vocations team.
Continuing as vocations director, he served as pastor of St. Joseph Church, Princeton, from 1996 to 2006, and pastor of Blessed Sacrament Church in Oakland City from 1999 to 2006. During those years he was chaplain of Southwestern Indiana Teens Encounter Christ from 1998 to 2001. He was named Dean of the Princeton Deanery in 2005.
Father Etienne was appointed pastor of Holy Rosary Church in Evansville in 2006, and Dean of the Evansville East Deanery in 2008. He continued to serve as director of the vocations office until 2010.
Role and responsibilities as vicar general
The language used for his appointment as vicar general is formal and precise; his job description includes terms that are still to be refined in discussion with the priests of the diocese.
What is most clear is the fact that the vicar general has a powerful position, as defined in canon 479, and as described by Bishop Charles C. Thompson in his letter of appointment: “Father Etienne shall have the same executive power throughout the whole diocese as that which belongs to the diocesan bishop and shall enjoy those habitual faculties which the Apostolic See has granted to the diocesan bishop.”
Bishop Thompson plans to meet with the priests of the diocese to discuss the vicar general’s job description; that description currently includes the following threefold function:
- to advise and assist the bishop in the governance of the diocese.
- to represent the bishop on occasion in administration and pastoral work.
- to serve as a vicar for priests with particular responsibility to promote the spiritual and physical wellbeing of priests and provide for the continuing formation of priests serving in the diocese.
While the scope of the vicar general’s function is described, the particular responsibilities will be under discussion with the priests of the diocese, and the position description will be a working document for the first year, Bishop Thompson said.