First American bishop appointed by Pope Leo emerges as a new voice of the Catholic Church

Geoff Bennett:

Bishop Michael Pham, recently appointed by Pope Leo as the first U.S. bishop under his papacy, has emerged as a new voice of the Catholic Church.

Through his own story of survival as a child refugee from Vietnam, he stepped into the national spotlight, showing up at immigration courts to support families caught in legal limbo in the current crackdown.

Amna Nawaz spoke with him earlier this month and provides a closer look at how he's turning his ministry into a mission.

Amna Nawaz:

It's a role Bishop Michael Pham says he never expected to fill.

Bishop Michael Pham, Diocese of San Diego: All I wanted to be was to be a good priest, to serve God's people, to serve the people in our society today. And that's what I wanted the most, is to be part of people's lives. And it's so fun and joyful.

Amna Nawaz:

Now leading the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego and its 1.3 million members, Pham was the very first bishop in the U.S. appointed by Pope Leo.

But his path to this post was an unlikely one. Fleeing communism in 1970s Vietnam, he and his siblings landed in a Malaysian refugee camp when he was just 13.

Bishop Michael Pham:

I'm there in Malaysia walking along the beach thinking, this is it. That's — this is the way I'm going to live without my parents around. That was an emotional for me to realize that.

Amna Nawaz:

Years later, through an American refugee charity, the family was reunited in 1981 during winter in Minnesota.

Bishop Michael Pham:

I went out the house, didn't realize it was a cold winter. I had my short on and my T-shirt and with a bicycle outside. I went out. I hopped on and I was riding it. Within five minutes, it was so cold.

(Laughter)

Bishop Michael Pham:

I said, that's it. That's the initiation into a new country.

Amna Nawaz:

Eventually settling and studying in San Diego, Pham was ordained as a priest in 1999, serving a diverse community that shares a 140-mile border with Mexico and commissioning this statue to reflect that.

Bishop Michael Pham:

This is who we are.

Amna Nawaz:

A multicultural…

Bishop Michael Pham:

Multiculture.

Amna Nawaz:

That matters to you.

Bishop Michael Pham:

Oh, yes, very much so. And that's who we are here in this diocese.

Amna Nawaz:

But who we are as a nation, he says, has changed.

I know you have recently said the climate today in America is very different to the climate that you arrived in as a child back then.

Bishop Michael Pham:

Yes. Yes.

Amna Nawaz:

What did you mean by that?

Bishop Michael Pham:

When I came in as I grew up in the '80s, there's so much of openness to welcome to me and to people that I have seen and known. Today, it's a challenge. People look at you with different eyes in a sense, how much they're willing to welcome you.

Amna Nawaz:

This summer, as immigration enforcement ramped up, part of President Trump's promise of mass deportations, Pham decided to act, leaving clergy to the San Diego federal courthouse, where immigrants were often arrested by ICE agents at their hearings.

Bishop Michael Pham:

We continue to walk with the people, accompanying with the people, and whatever we can do as the law allows, we will work with the people.

We are called to journey with the people and to care for the people from the periphery. And these people are in need, and we need to act upon what we say. I just can't sit and not doing anything about it. So long as it's the value of God or the lives that people and opposed to the Gospel values, then we need to speak up.

Amna Nawaz:

And do you see some of these policies as going against your moral values?

Bishop Michael Pham:

As the church teaches that every country has the right to set up their borders, and rightly so, but how they treat the people by deporting them or without their — the respect and dignity of the human person, that's really against the values of the Gospel.

Amna Nawaz:

Pope Leo, who's been described as the first modern immigrant pope, has urged the public to see migrants and refugees as messengers of hope. And he's been criticized by supporters of President Trump for posts he made before he became pope critical of the president and vice president's policies.

The church today, Pham says, must act on its beliefs. So he's convening bishops to discuss how to respond to the administration's immigration policies.

Bishop Michael Pham:

And we want to learn from different dioceses what we have been doing and what work and how it can be effective and moving forward. So…

Amna Nawaz:

And when you say effective, is the goal to change policy, to change minds?

Bishop Michael Pham:

We hope the policy of reformed immigration is — would be lovely.

Amna Nawaz:

As bishop, he's also still reckoning with the sexual abuse crisis that's rocked the Catholic Church.

Many survivors are still seeking accountability. And I know the diocese was put into bankruptcy proceedings by your predecessor back in 2007. There was a nearly $200 million settlement for over 140 lawsuits, but there are new lawsuits since California law changed to reopen the statute of limitations, and new claims have been filed.

How do you — as the leader now, how do you ensure accountability?

Bishop Michael Pham:

Well, first of all, I feel for the survivor, just to sit and hear from the survivor. Survivors shared their experience. It's very painful. And we recognize that. And it was terrible things that — what the church had done. And how do we move forward from this?

Amna Nawaz:

Can you pledge to people who came forward for some of these hundreds of new claims that there will be accountability, that they will see justice?

Bishop Michael Pham:

Well, as a church, we had set a policy that's zero tolerance. We want to make sure that people trust us and believe in us.

Amna Nawaz:

That trust, he says, can only be restored through the actions, not just the words, of the church he now helps to lead.

Bishop Michael Pham:

And I think there's great hope. And it begins with us. It begins with who we are and how we live our lives. And it will trickle out to others certainly at work and at home and in our community. There's great hope, but we need to do more.