He Fled Vietnam As a Child. Now He's Been Appointed San Diego Bishop
Pope Leo XIV, the first American pontiff, chose Michael M. Pham as the first Vietnamese American to lead a U.S. diocese.
By Gary Gately
A half-century after fleeing the North Vietnamese Army with his family on a rice barge at age 8, Michael M. Pham has been appointed the first Vietnamese American to lead a U.S. diocese.
The 58-year-old Pham — appointed to lead the Diocese of San Diego by Pope Leo XIV, the first American pope — says he hopes to foster the Catholic Church’s recognition of the U.S. as a melting pot where members of different races and ethnic groups celebrate their faith together in harmony.
“It’s wonderful news to know that a Vietnamese American, representing my heritage in the United States, can hopefully help the Church recognize the multicultural nature of this country — that we can all come together, celebrate our faith and be united in Christ here,” Pham told reporters.
“I believe, if we can do that, we will be a beacon of light, a beacon of hope, for our country and for our society.”
Pham, the first American bishop appointed by Pope Leo, will be installed July 17. He will succeed Cardinal Robert W. McElroy, who took over as archbishop of Washington, D.C., in March after serving as San Diego bishop since 2015.
Since his 1999 ordination, Pham has served in the San Diego diocese in numerous roles. They include pastor, diocesan vocations director, vicar for clergy, episcopal vicar for ethnic and intercultural communities and vicar general.
Pope Francis appointed Pham auxiliary bishop in 2023, and he has been diocesan administrator since McElroy’s departure in one of the nation’s most ethnically and racially diverse dioceses. It now counts about 1.4 million Catholics, 96 parishes and 13 missions.
Pham, who was born in 1967 in Da Nang, then part of South Vietnam, recalled the harrowing experience of spending four days at sea on the rice barge with his family in 1975 without food or drinking water.
He saw bodies splayed on the barge.
“I thought they were sleeping, but I came to realize that they were dead,” he told The Southern Cross, the San Diego diocesan newspaper, in 2023.
Pham, his mother, father and their other seven children barely escaped the advancing North Vietnamese Army, and the boat didn’t get far before docking.
The family fled to the town of Lam Son, where Pham’s father earned a living fishing and farming.
But in 1980, as the communist regime’s military closed in on that town, Pham’s parents put him, his older sister and a younger brother on a small, overcrowded boat bound for Malaysia.
The parents stayed behind with their youngest children.
Pham told the diocesan newspaper that the communist government chased the boat and that pirates boarded it after a collision with a pirate ship nearly split the boat at the hull.
The three siblings reached Malaysia, where they stayed in a teeming refugee camp for seven months before being sponsored by an American family and relocating to Blue Earth, Minnesota, a small, riverfront town in the western part of the state.
A few months later, another sister joined them, and in 1983, the remainder of the family — Pham’s parents and his other four siblings — arrived in Minnesota, and in 1985, the family moved to San Diego, attracted by its warm weather.
There, Pham earned a bachelor’s degree in aeronautical engineering from the University of San Diego and began studying for a master’s at USD. But he left when he felt called to the priesthood. He went on to earn a bachelor’s in systematic theology and a Master of Divinity at St. Patrick's Seminary in Menlo Park, California. In 2009, he completed a Master of Science in Psychology at the University of Phoenix and in 2020, a Licentiate in Sacred Theology at the University of St. Thomas (Angelicum) in Rome through his studies at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit.
Pham is credited with numerous initiatives promoting diversity and inclusion among the more than 20 ethnic groups in the San Diego diocese, which offers Masses in English, Spanish, Vietnamese, Italian, Portuguese, Latin, Korean and Mandarin Chinese. As the diocese’s vicar for ethnic and intercultural communities, for example, Pham launched annual events including a Pentecost Mass for All Peoples and a popular festival celebrating ethnic and cultural diversity.
“I am deeply thankful to Pope Leo XIV, who entrusted me with this portion of the Lord’s vineyard,” Pham said. “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.”
As San Diego’s seventh bishop, Pham said he plans to build on McElroy’s focus on synodality, the ambitious, multi-year effort Pope Francis launched to make the Church more inclusive and increase lay Catholics’ involvement in decision-making.
Known as a strong ally of Francis, McElroy had vocally supported the late pontiff’s stances on immigration, the environment, outreach to LGBTQ people and faulted U.S. bishops for identifying abortion as the “preeminent priority” for voters.
McElroy has faced criticism from conservatives over some of his progressive stances.
Asked at a press conference in San Diego last week whether he believed McElroy influenced Pope Leo to appoint him as bishop, Pham replied: “I think, with his voice, I’m sure he has some sort of a thumb on that.”
Pham was also asked whether he harbored concerns that conservative Catholics will criticize him now that he’s been appointed San Diego’s bishop.
“I hope that people can remember me or see me as a person who stays focused on Christ, and we move forward,” he said. “And life is very important, and so it’s important that we need to pay attention and stay focused on how we take care of the people of God in our life, in our society today.”
Speaking about abortion, he 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."
Thanks so much, Karin. I really appreciate it.
Great read, Gary.