In an indication of the direction of his papacy, Pope Leo XIV has made his first bishop appointments, and for San Diego, his choice was a huge winner.

According to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops:

WASHINGTON – Pope Leo XIV has appointed Most Reverend Michael Pham, auxiliary bishop of San Diego and diocesan administrator, as the Bishop of San Diego.

The appointment was publicized in Washington, D.C. on May 22, 2025, by Monsignor Većeslav Tumir, chargé d’ affaires, a.i. of the Apostolic Nunciature, in the temporary absence of Cardinal Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the United States.

Bishop Pham’s biography may be found here.

The Diocese of San Diego is comprised of 8,852 square miles in the State of California and has a total population of 3,454,921 of which 1,381,968, are Catholic.

He picked the bishop we all wanted among the local Catholics I know, Michael D. Pham, who is well known as a friendly, lively auxiliary bishop and formerly a priest in our parish, very conservative and level-headed, but doesn't put politics out there. No global warming, no Che Guevara politics, no social justice-warrioring, no NGO culture replacing religious culture, no guitar Mass.

He's a former Vietnamese boat person who fled that regime, having seen communism firsthand, so unlike a lot of characters in the Church, has no affection for that hideous idea.

I love his coat of arms, which features a ship at sea, and the archdiocese says is mainly a reference to St. Peter the fisher of men, but also nod to his father who had been a fisherman in Da Nang, Vietnam. I look at that and can see that obviously, it is also a reference to the boat people fleeing communist brutality, too. Next time I see him I'll suggest they could add that if he likes the idea.

He's known for his hard work juggling all kinds of jobs in the diocese -- administrative and pastoral -- and like Pope Leo XIV, still finding time to exercise. Like Pope Leo, who must have picked him as an auxiliary bishop in 2023, he also was a hard science major in college -- Pope Leo a math major, Bishop Pham an engineering major. The point being, they do seem to have a lot in common, which sets a great tone for the Church going forward.

He's very orthodox in his thinking much like the growing Vietnamese community in the Catholic Church, which has to be the liveliest ethnic community of them all here, all the pews filled, everyone singing, loaded with young people full of a very conservative and committed version of the faith.

His bio says he was a descendant of the Vietnamese Martyrs, of whom many became saints, from the years 1630 to 1885, many well before the French showed up as colonializers; they were St. Francis Xavier's, or possibly St. Thomas the Apostle's people, which is kind of exciting.

The elders in my family have known him since ... before he was a priest. And I have worked with him on many Sunday mornings as a lector, which is always a wonderful experience.

He has a preternatual capacity for never forgetting anyone's name. You could have met him six years ago and he would still remember your name. He's also known for pitching in, or, what is probably now called his generous pastoral spirit. He always puts himself last.

A couple years ago, when both priests in my parish were out on sick leave for cancer treatment, he was the one who filled in for them. He still fills in, now that we have just one priest -- and any time he does, the whole parish literally applauds him.

That he was picked for the big bishop job is a tall order, and I dread the thought of him having to deal with the diocese's bankruptcy, the payouts from the bad priest cases, the NGO mess with encouraging illegal immigration (wittingly or not), the supercilious lefties, the crummy city government, but he's pretty much been in training as the acting bishop of the diocese, chosen by the other Church leaders by acclamation, so at least it won't be new.

I'd like to see him named cardinal, but this is good news for now. The Church is in good hands with Bishop Michael at the helm in San Diego.

And we have one more very good reason to be optimistic about the papacy of Pope Leo XIV. He knows how to choose just the right bishops.

Image: Diocese of San Diego // coat of arms, public domain