The Roman Catholic Diocese of SAN DIEGO / Facebook
Pope Leo XIV has appointed Bishop Michael M. Pham to lead the Diocese of San Diego after the Vietnamese bishop spent two months as the administrator of the California diocese.
The Apostolic Nunciature’s Monsignor Većeslav Tumir publicized the appointment May 22 in Washington, D.C., during the temporary absence of Cardinal Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the United States.
The appointment follows a vacancy that began March 10, when Cardinal Robert McElroy, formerly the Bishop of San Diego, was installed as Archbishop of Washington, D.C. Bishop Pham has served as diocesan administrator since March 17.
Bishop Pham has served as auxiliary bishop of San Diego since September 2023. He also served in several diocesan leadership roles, including vicar general and episcopal vicar for ethnic communities.
Born in Da Nang, Vietnam, in 1967, Pham left the country as a refugee in 1980. He arrived at a Malaysian refugee camp with his older sister and younger brother and was resettled the following year in Blue Earth, Minnesota, through the sponsorship of an American family. Additional family members joined them over the next several years, and the family moved to San Diego in 1985.
Bishop Pham earned a bachelor’s degree in aeronautical engineering from San Diego State University and began work toward a master’s before discerning a call to the priesthood. He later completed a Master of Science in psychology in 2009 and earned a licentiate in sacred theology in 2020.
He studied for the priesthood at Saint Patrick’s Seminary in Menlo Park, California, and later received a licentiate in evangelization from Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit.
Ordained a priest for the Diocese of San Diego on June 25, 1999, Bishop Pham’s ministry has included assignments as parochial vicar at Saint Mary, Star of the Sea in Oceanside; vocation director for the diocese; and pastor at Holy Family, Saint Therese, and Good Shepherd parishes in San Diego.
