SAN DIEGO — Bishop Michael Pham was installed as the seventh bishop of the Catholic Diocese of San Diego on July 17, in a joyous multicultural Mass. He became the first Vietnamese-American bishop to lead a diocese in the country.
“Today, I humbly stand among giants and feel tremendous honor and privilege being appointed by Pope Leo XIV to lead and serve the Church in the Diocese of San Diego as Diocesan Bishop,” said Bishop Pham in his homily.
An estimated 1,200 faithful packed St. Thérèse of Carmel Church for the Mass, including Cardinal Robert W. McElroy, of the Archdiocese of Washington, the diocese’s former bishop, around 20 bishops from California and elsewhere and approximately 200 priests. Cardinal Christophe Pierre, the pope’s representative in the United States, presented Bishop Pham with the apostolic mandate naming him bishop of the diocese. And Archbishop José Gomez, of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, presided over the Mass.
A large contingent of Bishop Pham’s family attended the Mass, including his parents and siblings, and friends. Members of the Vietnamese Catholic community filled many pews.
When he was a boy, he and his family fled the oppressive regime in Vietnam. They lived in a refugee camp in Malaysia before being sponsored by a U.S. family and relocating to Blue Earth, Minnesota. A few years later, they moved to San Diego, where he would go on to earn a Bachelor of Science degree in engineering before applying to the diocese’s seminary.
Since being ordained in the diocese in 1999, Bishop Pham has served in four parishes, served as vocations director, as Vicar for Ethnic and Intercultural Communities, and as auxiliary bishop, among other leadership posts.
It’s unusual for a priest who was formed in a diocese to be appointed later to lead it. Members of the diverse communities he served in the last 26 years crowded into the church for the installation Mass. Their beloved pastor and friend had been elevated to bishop, and with their applause, standing ovations and nearly constant smiles, they showed that they could not be happier for him, for the diocese and for the Church.
