SAN DIEGO (CNS) - Pope Leo XIV appointed Michael Pham, previously auxiliary bishop of San Diego and diocesan administrator, as the Bishop of San Diego on Thursday.
Pham, 58, was born in Da Nang, Vietnam and fled as a 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, [Minnesota]," according to the diocese. The remainder of his family joined him in Minnesota before moving to San Diego in 1985.
Pham 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 was ordained a priest of the San Diego Diocese in 1999.
Upon Leo XIV being named as Pope, Pham congratulated the American-born Pontiff.
"Pope Leo XIV has split his priestly life between his beloved Chicago, assignments in Rome and serving as a missionary and later a diocesan bishop in Peru," Pham said. "He was made a cardinal by Pope Francis in 2024 and headed the Dicastery for Bishops, a position in the Vatican that advises the Pope on the selection of bishops around the world."
The Diocese of San Diego is comprised of 8,852 square miles and has a total population of 3,454,921 -- 1,381,968 of which identify as Catholic.
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