Servant of God from Omaha Nebraska

This priest from the Omaha area went to Africa as a missionary. While there, he became a bishop. For a century, white missionaries were chosen as bishops in Africa. Thanks in part to Bishop McCauley, African bishops are now very often. . .Africans.

Most Reverend Vincent McCauley, CSC

Vincent Joseph McCauley was born in 1906. In 1924, a Holy Cross mission team came to Council Bluffs, changing McCauley’s direction in life. He entered the University of Notre Dame in 1926 after one year of candidacy and the novitiate, graduating in 1930. He was ordained on June 24, 1934. In 1936, McCauley joined the Holy Cross apostolate in Bengal (now Bangladesh).

He worked with the apostolate to the Garos at Bandhura, serving for several years as the rector of Little lower minor seminary. In 1944, after becoming sick, McCauley was evacuated by U.S. military transport. After his recovery, he was assigned as Superior of the Foreign Mission Seminary and guided its operations for six years.

Completing his tenure, he traveled and preached about the Holy Cross mission in Bengal, raising money for this apostolate. In early 1958, after being asked to investigate expansion of Holy Cross’ Venerable Father Basil Moreau, CSC Servant of God Father Patrick Peyton, CSC Servant of God Most Rev. Theotonius Ganguly, CSC Most Reverend Vincent McCauley, CSC missionary effort, McCauley and Father Arnold Fell determined that East Africa and Uganda held possibilities for the Congregation. In November 1958, McCauley journeyed to western Uganda to initiate
the Congregation’s mission.

In 1961, the Holy See established the Diocese of Fort Portal and named McCauley as bishop. McCauley served the Diocese for 10 years, resigning as Bishop in 1972 to allow an African, Serapio Magambo, to take his place. In early 1973, McCauley moved to Nairobi as Secretary General of the Association of Members of Episcopal Conferences in Eastern Africa, a group he had chaired from 1964 to 1973. He oversaw an expansion from five countries to even and undertook significant projects for religious education, outreach to nomads and refugees, and other initiatives to promote ecumenism, laity and women religious.

McCauley served as Secretary General until 1979, when he turned over the reins of the Episcopal conference to Joseph Mukwaya. Bishop McCauley uffered severe health problems for much of his adult life but continued to work actively as a priest. Beginning in 1956 until his death, he underwent more than 55 surgeries for a variety of illnesses, including cancer, which left his face badly disfigured.