Pope Leo XIV, in one of first appointments, names San Diego auxiliary bishop to head diocese

WASHINGTON (OSV News) — Pope Leo XIV has appointed Auxiliary Bishop Michael M. Pham of San Diego to head the diocese.

Bishop Pham, who was born in Vietnam, succeeds Cardinal Robert W. McElroy, who is now the archbishop of Washington. The bishop, who is 58, has been San Diego’s diocesan administrator since the cardinal was appointed to Washington. He is also vicar general for clergy.

His appointment was publicized in Washington May 22 by Msgr. Veceslav Tumir, chargé d’ affaires at the apostolic nunciature. Cardinal Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the United States, is temporarily away.

Bishop Pham’s appointment is one of the first made by the new pope since the May 18 Mass inaugurating his Petrine ministry.

“We’re overjoyed!” the San Diego Diocese said simply on its website. The date of his installation has not been announced yet.

Bishop Pham is the third Asian American and the first Vietnamese American bishop to lead a diocese in the United States.

He fled Vietnam as a 13-year-old refugee in 1980, accompanied by his older sister and a younger brother, arriving first at a refugee camp in Malaysia, before being sponsored a year later in 1981 by an American family and relocating to Blue Earth, Minn. A few months later, another sister came to live with them and in 1983 the remainder of his family — four more siblings and his parents — arrived in Minnesota. His family moved to San Diego in 1985.

He graduated from San Diego State University with a bachelor’s and started a master’s degree in aeronautical engineering before transferring to St. Francis Seminary at the University of San Diego. He completed his seminary training at St. Patrick’s Seminary in Menlo Park with systematic theology baccalaureate and master of divinity degrees.

He was ordained a priest of the San Diego Diocese June 25, 1999 and his first parish was as associate pastor of St. Mary Star of the Sea Parish.

He has served as diocesan vocations director and been pastor of Holy Family, St. Therese and Good Shepherd parishes. In 2009, he completed a master of science in psychology. In 2020, he completed a licentiate in sacred theology.

On June 6, 2023, Pope Francis named then-Father Pham as a San Diego auxiliary. Then-Father Felipe Pulido, vicar for clergy and director of vocations for the Diocese of Yakima, Washington, was appointed an auxiliary for San Diego the same day. Their epicopal ordination was at St. Therese of Carmel Church Sept. 28, 2023, joining San Diego Auxiliary Bishop Ramón Bejarano in ministry under Cardinal McElroy, then San Diego’s bishop.

Bishop Pham also has served on the college of consultors, the diocesan finance council, the priests’ council and the diaconate council, among other boards. He has been the diocese’s vicar for ethnic and intercultural communities, and vicar general.

The Diocese of San Diego covers San Diego and Imperial counties in Southern California and is about 8,900 square miles. The nearly 9,000-square-mile diocese of San Diego has 96 parishes and 13 missions. Out of a total population of over 3.4 million, there are nearly 1.4 million Catholics.

This story was updated at 2:40 p.m.