Pope names San Diego’s Michael Pham first Vietnamese-American bishop in U.S.

Michael Pham had kept the secret for eight days.

But finally Thursday, Auxiliary Bishop Pham could happily describe how he was chosen by Pope Leo XIV as the formal (called ordinary) bishop of San Diego — the first U.S. bishop with Vietnamese roots.

“It was such a thrill for me when Apostolic Nuncio Christophe Pierre gave me a call” May 14, Pham told a press conference at the San Diego diocesan center. The cardinal asked: “Are you by yourself?”

Pham, alone in his office, says he got nervous – but soon learned he was succeeding Cardinal Robert McElroy, who became the eighth archbishop of Washington, D.C., after 10 years in San Diego.

“This was great news — that I get to stay home in my own diocese,” he said, thanking God and expressing gratitude to McElroy for “laying the groundwork” for the 1.3 million-Catholic diocese and “following the vision of Pope Francis,” including McElroy’s focus on synodality.

Asked if McElroy had influenced the pope to pick him, Pham said: “I think, with his voice, I’m sure he had some sort of thumb on that [scale].”

Pham, 58, called it “wonderful news” that he would represent his heritage as bishop-elect. “Hopefully as a church we come to recognize multicultural (values) so we can all come together … that we can all celebrate our faith, united in Christ.”

He hoped his election — the new pope’s first bishop pick for America — would be a sign of “beacons of light” and hope for the country and society. He’ll be officially installed as bishop on July 17 (site to be determined).

Childhood memories

At age 8 in 1975, the Da Nang-born Pham fled the North Vietnamese Army with his family, jumping on a rice barge and spending several days at sea with no food or water. As the seasick Pham left the boat, he saw many people on the floor.

“I thought they were sleeping,” he once recalled, “but I came to realize that they were dead.”

After having moved to a small town called Lam Son, where his large family survived by farming and fishing, Michael became a boat person — a refugee.

“In 1980, with his older sister and a younger brother, he fled to Malaysia aboard a small boat packed with 119 passengers,” said a diocesan account. “At sea for four nights and three days, he said the boat was pursued by authorities of the Communist government, pummeled by massive waves that he likened to something out of the film ‘The Perfect Storm,’ and even boarded by pirates.”

A collision with the pirate ship damaged the refugees’ boat, splitting the bow almost in half.

Pham lived in a Malaysian refugee camp with his older sister and younger brother for about seven months before an American family sponsored them and they relocated to Blue Earth, Minnesota, in 1981.

A few months later, another sister joined them. By 1983, his remaining four siblings and parents arrived. In 1985, the family moved to San Diego, lured by the warmer weather they encountered during a visit to relatives there.

On Thursday, Pham recalled seeing San Diego as “heaven on Earth. I came out here for a visit. We said: This is the place.”

He graduated from San Diego High School and San Diego State University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in aeronautical engineering. He began working on a master’s, but didn’t finish before entering St. Francis Seminary at the University of San Diego.

He finished his training at St. Patrick’s Seminary in Menlo Park with a bachelor’s in systematic theology and a master of divinity. In 1999, Pham was ordained a priest of the San Diego diocese. In 2009, he completed a master of science in psychology. And in 2020, he earned a licentiate in sacred theology.

Later in San Diego, Pham was associate pastor of St. Mary Star of the Sea Parish and pastor of Holy Family, St. Therese and Good Shepherd parishes.

After serving as one of three auxiliary bishops in San Diego — and leading recent multicultural Pentecost Masses — Pham was elected diocesan administrator on March 17.

His mentor McElroy was an outspoken disciple of Francis’ focus on saving the planet from the climate crisis among other issues, including immigrant rights, which some in the church labeled “liberal” or “progressive.” McElroy had called for less stress on abortion as the pre-eminent matter.

I asked Pham if he were concerned about how he might be criticized by the church’s right wing.

“I hope that people can . . . see me as a person who stays focused on Christ and we move forward,” he said. “Life is very important, and we need to … stay focused on how we take care of other people of God in our life and society today.”

On abortion, Pham said: “Life is important from the beginning to the end. We need to look at the whole spectrum. It’s not that it’s not important, but to consider that all life we need to take into consideration.”

He said that as McElroy “processed his thought” on those issues, it “was very, very good.”

Updated at 9:15 p.m. May 22, 2025