Pope Leo XIV makes first U.S. bishop appointment, fills San Diego vacancy

Pope Leo XIV waves as he leaves after his first weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square at The Vatican, Wednesday, May 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Leo XIV, history’s first American pope, on Thursday made his first American bishop appointment as he named Bishop Michael Pham as bishop of San Diego, California.

Pham, 58, is currently an auxiliary bishop in the diocese. He fills the vacancy created when Pope Francis named Cardinal Robert McElroy archbishop of Washington D.C. earlier this year.

Pham, who was born in Da Nang, Vietnam, was ordained a priest in the San Diego diocese in 1999 and was made a bishop in 2023. He was in charge of programming for the dioceses’ ethnic groups and as of March had been the main diocesan administrator. The diocese of San Diego counts about 1.3 million Catholics in a total population of about 3.5 million people, according to the U.S. Catholic bishops conference.

Prior to his election May 8, the former Cardinal Robert Prevost headed the Vatican’s bishops office and in that capacity would have reviewed and vetted Pham’s file.

In another appointment Thursday, Leo named a nun as the No. 2 in the Vatican’s congregation for religious orders, a possible sign that he plans to continue Francis’ efforts to promote more women to decision-making roles in the Vatican.

Sister Tiziana Merletti, the former head of the Franciscan Sisters of the Poor, is a canon lawyer and now reports to Sister Simona Brambilla, whom Francis in January appointed as the first-ever woman to head a major Holy See office.

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