Catholic Church in Brunei

In the modern day, the Catholic Church has been said to play an "important role" in interreligious dialogue in Brunei.

Early history

The first recorded Catholic missionaries arrived in Brunei in 1587, in the form of two Spanish Franciscan priests. However, it was not until 1855 that Brunei was included under its first ecclesiastical circumscription, as part of the Apostolic Prefecture of Labuan and North Borneo, and formally included under that territory in 1927. During the intervening years, a small church was set up in Brunei, dedicated to Our Lady of Every Grace, while the first baptisms of Bruneians were recorded. The church was eventually dismantled.

In 1929, the first church and mission school building to be physically located in the town of Kuala Belait in a multi-purpose building were established. The Kuala Belait Catholic community came to be known under the patronage of St. John during the 1950s. Up until this point, Brunei had been serving as an outstation of Our Blessed Sacrament Parish in Labuan. Fr. Crowther of the Mill Hill Missionaries was made the first resident priest in the state of Brunei; other clergy visited from neighbouring missions intermittently.

In 1941, another mission was established in then Brunei Town, with a building constructed on donated land that included church, living quarters and school facilities; the school and church came under the titled name of St. George. The resident priest was the principal. During the Japanese occupation, the school and church facilities ceased to function for their originally designated purposes, and were partly utilized by Japanese forces; the mission continued after the closing of hostilities.

In 1945, the Mill Hill Missionaries and the Sisters of St. Joseph combined efforts to form the Seria English School, then located on the present day location of Brunei Shell Recreation Club. In 1952, coinciding with the period in which Brunei became listed under the Apostolic Vicariate of Kuching, the Seria English School was relocated to elsewhere in Seria town, and renamed St. Michael's School, which had become overcrowded with male and female students by 1955. During 1955, the Church of Our Lady (colloquially referred to as St Michael's Church) was opened. In 1956, the Sisters of St. Joseph established St. Angela's School, up the road from St Michael's School, and the former was officially designated as an all-girls school, with the latter becoming an all-boys school. Following this development of infrastructure in the area, Seria became the headstation of the Brunei mission.

Between 1959 and 1976, the Apostolic Vicariate of Miri-Brunei was formed, which eventually was raised to Diocese of Miri-Brunei.