A Buddhist school for novice monks named after a Catholic bishop opened in Cambodia on June 26, a tribute to more than two decades of friendship and cooperation between the country’s Buddhist and Catholic communities.
The “Chomroen Olivier” Buddhist Primary School, named after Venerable Nget Chomroeun, abbot of Ang Montrey Pagoda, and Bishop Olivier Schmitthaeusler, apostolic vicar of Phnom Penh, was inaugurated at Ang Montrey Pagoda in Takeo province.
The ceremony also marked the opening of a new residence for the abbot and drew Buddhist monks, government officials, students, local residents, and Catholic and Buddhist faithful.
The school is the latest milestone in a partnership between Ang Montrey Pagoda and Our Lady of the Smile Catholic Church that began after Schmitthaeusler arrived as a missionary in nearby Chomkartieng in 2002.
“This stands as a sign of a beautiful, concrete, and living collaboration between the Pagoda and the Our Lady of the Smile Catholic Church, and more broadly, between Buddhism and the Catholic Church in Cambodia,” Schmitthaeusler said in a document sent to LiCAS News.
According to the prelate, the Catholic Church has supported the Buddhist primary school since 2023. About 40 young monks have already studied Pali and Sanskrit, along with Khmer, mathematics, and computer science.
Schmitthaeusler said one of the first joint projects between the Catholic and Buddhist communities was the construction of a 2,200-meter road linking Ang Montrey Pagoda and Our Lady of the Smile Catholic Church.
“This road became the symbol of our relationship,” he said.
The collaboration later grew beyond infrastructure. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Catholic Church helped build a greenhouse to provide fresh vegetables for the monks and later established a meditation garden.
The two communities also visited quarantine centers together to support people isolated during the pandemic, celebrated Christmas, Khmer New Year, and Pchum Ben with elders and poor families, and delivered humanitarian assistance to victims of the recent Thailand-Cambodia border conflict.
Education became another pillar of the partnership. Each year, Buddhist and Catholic leaders meet with about 500 students at Saint Francis School for lessons led by representatives of both faith traditions. International participants in the Eighth Colloquium on Buddhism and Christianity, organized by the Holy See and Cambodia’s Supreme Patriarchate, also visited Ang Montrey Pagoda for preaching and teaching.
“These events are concrete signs reminding us of a fundamental truth: we are all brothers and sisters in humanity, and human dignity is priceless,” Schmitthaeusler said.
The ceremony also recognized Schmitthaeusler and Venerable Nget Chomroeun with the Grand Cross of the Royal Order of Cambodia.
In his remarks, the abbot thanked the bishop for supporting the pagoda’s development since 2002. He credited Schmitthaeusler with helping establish the Buddhist primary school, sponsoring teachers’ salaries, providing daily meals for monks, and funding major construction projects.
“The various achievements that have arisen in this pagoda, such as the Buddha statue… and the construction of the abbot’s residence, a major portion came from the funds of Bishop Olivier,” the abbot said.
Schmitthaeusler said he accepted the royal honor as recognition of the work undertaken jointly by Cambodia’s Buddhist and Catholic communities.
“On this day, as the King of Cambodia honors me with the Grand Cross of the Royal Order of Cambodia, I receive this distinction as a precious encouragement to persevere,” he said. “It is a sign that our shared mission, Buddhists and Catholics, bears fruit and commits us even further.”
Schmitthaeusler urged Buddhists and Catholics to continue building on their decades-long partnership, saying peace requires perseverance even when it goes unnoticed.
“It is work that requires patience: war makes noise, while peace is silent. Yet it is peace, and peace alone, that will allow new generations to flourish and live in tranquility,” he said.
Catholics are a small minority in Cambodia, where Theravada Buddhism is the state religion and is practiced by the overwhelming majority of the country’s approximately 18 million people.
The Catholic Church has about 20,000 faithful across one apostolic vicariate and two apostolic prefectures. It has rebuilt steadily since emerging from the devastation of the Khmer Rouge era through education, health care, social services, and pastoral ministry
