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.

(RNS) — In his first United States episcopal appointment, Pope Leo XIV named Michael Pham bishop of San Diego on Thursday (May 22). Pham fled Vietnam as a refugee in 1980 and has spent over 25 years as a priest in San Diego. He is the first Vietnamese American bishop to lead a U.S. diocese.

Pope Leo XIV Thursday appointed Michael Pham, previously auxiliary bishop of San Diego and diocesan administrator, as the Bishop of San Diego. Pham, 58, was born in Da Nang, Vietnam and fled as a refugee in 1980,