(SAN DIEGO) – His Holiness Pope Leo XIV has named Bishop Michael Pham as head of the Diocese of San Diego. He is the first Vietnamese American to lead an American diocese and is the seventh Bishop of San Diego. His installation Mass will be held on July 17.
“With profound gratitude and blessing, I receive my appointment to be the seventh Bishop of the Diocese of San Diego. I cannot express enough how grateful I am to God for blessing me with graces to serve God’s people. I am deeply thankful to Pope Leo XIV who entrusted me with this portion of the Lord’s vineyard. It brings an added sense of awe as I am a son to this diocese. It is an honor to serve ‘my home,’ where I received my call and vocation to the priesthood more than 31 years ago. My priestly ministry has been greatly nurtured and enriched all these years,” Bishop Pham said.
“‘The Good Shephed knows his sheep, and they know him.’ I find great joy and hope in these words as I assume my new role as bishop, shepherd, and brother to a wonderful community of bishops, priests, religious men and women, deacons, and lay leaders who have ministered alongside me all these years. I look forward to continuing the mission of our diocese as we embrace the call to be a synodal church where we listen, dialogue, and advance forward with a grateful heart.”
Bishop Pham 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 Minnesota. 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 a Systematic Theology Baccalaureate and Master of Divinity degrees. He was ordained a priest of the San Diego Diocese in 1999. In 2009, he completed a Master of Science in Psychology. In 2020, he completed a Licentiate in Sacred Theology.
Bishop Pham served as associate pastor of St. Mary Star of the Sea Parish; diocesan vocations director; pastor of Holy Family, St. Therese and Good Shepherd Parishes, and Vicar for Clergy.
He has been serving as diocesan administrator since mid-March, following the departure of Cardinal McElroy to the Archdiocese of Washington.
In one of his most noteworthy assignments, he served as Vicar for Ethnic and Intercultural Affairs, where he did groundbreaking work bringing together more than 20 of San Diego’s ethnic Catholic communities. Under his leadership, the diocese launched in 2018 an annual Pentecost Mass for All Peoples and festival celebrating our ethnic and cultural diversity.