Pope Leo XIV has appointed a Vietnamese American bishop in the United States, selecting Auxiliary Bishop Michael Pham to lead the Diocese of San Diego, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops announced.
Pham, 58, will become the fifth bishop of the diocese and the first of Vietnamese descent to head a U.S. diocese when he is installed on July 17. His appointment follows the departure of Cardinal Robert McElroy, who assumed a new role in Washington earlier this year.
At a news conference following the announcement, Pham said: “It’s wonderful news to know that a Vietnamese American, representing my heritage in the United States, can hopefully help the Church recognise the multicultural nature of this country—that we can all come together, celebrate our faith, and be united in Christ here.”
Born Jan. 22, 1967, in Da Nang, Vietnam, Pham fled the country as a teenager after the Vietnam War. He and his family eventually reached a refugee camp in Malaysia, where they stayed for seven months before being sponsored to the United States.
Roughly 30% of Vietnamese Americans identify as Catholic, according to the Pew Research Center.
Pham said, “If we can come together as a people—and for us, particularly Catholics in this diocese, we have 22 ethnic communities—then on the celebration of Pentecost, we come together as the people of God. It’s such a beautiful sign of unity as a Church, as a people, as a human family, that we are able to be together.”
Pham was ordained a priest in San Diego in 1999. He was appointed auxiliary bishop of the diocese on June 6, 2023, and consecrated that September.