The next Bishop of San Diego will be Auxiliary Bishop Michael Pham, the US bishops announced on Thursday, May 22. This is Pope Leo XIV's first appointment of a bishop in the United States.
Pham has been an auxiliary bishop for the Diocese of San Diego since June 6, 2023. He was consecrated as a bishop on Sept. 28, 2023, said the release from the Vatican. Since March 17, he has also served as the diocesan administrator prior to the appointment of a new bishop.
"We’re overjoyed," said the Diocese of San Diego on their website.
Born in Da Nang, Vietnam on Feb. 12, 1967, Pham fled the country with two of his siblings in 1980 as a refugee, said the Diocese of San Diego. The rest of his family eventually moved to the United States, and by 1985, the Phams had relocated to San Diego.
Prior to entering seminary, Pham received a bachelor's degree and a master's degree in aeronautical engineering. He was ordained a priest of the diocese of San Diego on June 25, 1999.
Pham later completed a Master of Science in Psychology, and in 2020, he received a Licentiate in Sacred Theology, said the diocese's website.
With his appointment to San Diego, Bishop Pham is now the third Asian American and the first Vietnamese American to lead a diocese in the United States, said the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.
The Diocese of San Diego had been without a bishop since Cardinal Robert McElroy was appointed as the new archbishop of Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, 2025. McElroy was installed in Washington on March 11.
