This article explores the place of the first Vietnamese Catholic bishops in the politics and society of late colonial Vietnam. It places the rise of these influential figures in the broader contexts of the decline of missionary Catholicism, the Vatican's push to form national Churches in Asia, and institutional and cultural changes in Vietnamese Catholicism during the interwar years. By doing so, the article explores the links between faith and politics in colonial Vietnam, showing how changes in Vietnamese Catholicism reflect a growing contestation of colonial rule and greater ties to global Catholicism that help explain the Church's place in Vietnamese society after independence.