Pope Leo XIV, the first U.S.-born pontiff, on Thursday made his first American appointment, naming Vietnamese-born Bishop Michael Pham to oversee the Diocese of San Diego.
Bishop Pham, 58, has served as auxiliary leader and diocesan administrator since 2023. He now steps into the role left empty by Cardinal Robert McElroy.
Cardinal McElroy was named archbishop of the Archdiocese of Washington by the late Pope Francis early this year.
Bishop Pham has held several parish and diocesan posts, from vocations director and pastor of various parishes to vicar general and head of intercultural outreach, according to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops
Colleagues describe him as a steady hand with deep pastoral instincts and administrative know-how, according to the conference. He has served on virtually every major diocesan board, including the Finance Council, the Personnel Board of Priests, the Seminary Board, the College of Consultors and the Diaconate Council.
The Diocese of San Diego serves roughly 1.3 million Catholics among a population of 3.5 million, making it one of the largest in the western United States.
As an auxiliary, Bishop Pham oversaw ministries to San Diego’s vast immigrant and ethnic communities.
Bishop Pham fled to the U.S. from Vietnam as a young man, initially pursuing a secular career by earning a bachelor’s degree from San Diego State University and beginning a master’s degree program in aeronautical engineering. He left the field to enter the seminary, later earning multiple theological degrees from St. Patrick’s Seminary in Menlo Park, California.
He was ordained a priest in the Diocese of San Diego in 1999.
In a separate move Thursday, Pope Leo named Sister Tiziana Merletti as the new secretary of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Religious Orders. Sister Merletti is the second woman appointed to a top leadership post in the Holy See this year.
A canon lawyer and former superior of the Franciscan Sisters of the Poor, Sister Merletti will report to Sister Simona Brambilla, who Francis named as the office’s prefect in January.
