Bishop Vincent McCauley

The Bishop Who Would Not Leave

Vincent Joseph McCauley was born on November 13, 1906, in Council Bluffs, Iowa. He entered the Congregation of Holy Cross at the University of Notre Dame and was ordained a priest in 1930. Almost immediately, he was sent to the Bengal mission in India, where he served for fifteen years among the poorest communities of the subcontinent.

After returning to the United States in 1946, Father McCauley held various positions within Holy Cross. In 1961, Pope John XXIII named him the first Bishop of the newly created Diocese of Fort Portal in western Uganda. He arrived in a young nation full of hope. He threw himself into building up the local Church, training catechists, establishing schools, and living with a simplicity that his people could recognize as genuine. He chose a small house rather than a bishop’s residence.

When Idi Amin seized power in 1971, Uganda descended into years of terror. Foreigners fled. Many religious leaders were killed. Bishop McCauley refused to leave. He stayed with his people through the worst of it, continuing to celebrate Mass, visit the sick, and encourage the faithful. His presence was itself an act of witness: a shepherd who would not abandon his flock.

Bishop Vincent McCauley died on November 1, 1982, All Saints’ Day, in Fort Portal, among the people he had served for more than two decades. He was seventy-five years old. His cause for canonization has been opened by the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend.

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