The first American bishop appointed by Pope Leo XIV was installed on Thursday as the leader of the Catholic Diocese of San Diego.

Across San Diego, a lot of attention was focused at St. Therese of Carmel Parish for a day of ceremony and sanctity. There was a procession of 200 cardinals, bishops and priests, and more than 1,200 people attended the installation Mass for Bishop Michael Pham.

Pham is the seventh bishop of the Catholic Diocese of San Diego and the first Vietnamese American to lead a U.S. diocese.

“It’s such an honor and comes with great responsibility,” Pham said.

He values bringing various ethnicities and different Catholic groups together, and prides himself on being a man of all people for all voices.

“It’s important to recognize the people from the peripheries, the vulnerable, the refugees, the immigrants,” Pham said. “Many of these people are voiceless, and we need to be that voice for the people.”

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

Dr. Michael Lovette-Colyer, vice president of mission integration at the University of San Diego, said one reason Pham’s installation was significant is because he’s a local.

“Previous pope would look for sort of an outsider to come in and provide fresh perspective or to have a new set of eyes, but it seems that Pope Leo has a different approach, which is to elevate people who are already intimately connected to the area,” Lovette-Colyer said.

Those who attended Thursday’s installation Mass shared words of excitement and hope, as well as wanting people to know that Pham is an expert communicator and listener.

“You could stop him on the way if he’s running to somewhere, and if you needed his attention, he would stop and talk to you, and that’s what a true shepherd should be,” Mass attendee Dibiana Jones said.

“I think he’s able to talk to anybody, Black, white, Hispanic, Vietnamese,” said Father Evan Bui of St. Thomas More. “He can walk with people in that sense. That’s the beauty of Bishop Pham. He can connect with you heart to heart.”

Pham replaces Cardinal Robert McElroy, who is now the archbishop of Washington, D.C.