Bishop Crowned As "Protector of the Buddha's Teaching"
The title was conferred by Supreme Patriarch Nun Nget of Cambodia's Mohanikaya Buddhist order. It recognized more than twenty years of cooperation with Buddhist institutions, educational work, and social projects.
Bishop Schmitthaeusler stated at the ceremony: "When religions journey together, the world will witness true peace."
Already in 2022, Bishop Schmitthaeusler had received the title "Maha Upasaka" ("Great Lay Benefactor") from Cambodia's Buddhist authorities.
Several days after the June 2026 ceremony, Cambodia's King awarded Bishop Schmitthaeusler the Grand Cross of the Royal Order of Cambodia.
Funding Buddhist Monastic Life
Since 2023, Schmitthaeusler has supported a Buddhist primary school, "Chomroen Olivier," at the Ang Montrey pagoda. It is named after Buddhist abbot Nget Chomroeun and himself.It provides religious and secular education to about 40 young Buddhist monks.
Schmitthaeusler supported teachers' salaries, daily provisions for monks, construction at the pagoda, the abbot's residence, and even a Buddha statue.
Seven Years in the Sacristy and a Single Christian
Bishop Schmitthaeusler was born June 26, 1970, in Strasbourg, France. He is a member of the Paris Foreign Missions Society (MEP). He taught French in Japan in the early '90s, and was ordained a priest for the MEP in 1998. That year, he went to Cambodia, where he learned Khmer. He has spent his entire ministry there.
In 2002, Monsignor Schmitthaeusler arrived in the rural Chomkartieng area of Takéo province, where at the time there was one Christian.
There was no housing. For seven years, the young priest lived in the sacristy of the chapel he was building in a province with a single Christian.
Entrepreneurship Instead of Evangelisation
His first project with the local Buddhist community was the construction of a 2 km road connecting his church to the Buddhist Ang Monrei temple. He has maintained ongoing relationships with five successive Buddhist abbots of the Ang Monrei temple since 2002.
In 2003, he built a tourist village for couples. On 70 hectares in Kampot, alongside an agricultural school.
He developed a "village” aimed at couples for weekend getaways and foreigners wanting to sample local culture — complete with a planned monthly performance and a dance/music/performing-arts to attract visitors.
He became coadjutor apostolic vicar of Phnom Penh in December 2009 and succeeded as Apostolic Vicar of Phnom Penh on October 1, 2010, at age 39 - the youngest French bishop at the time.
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