His Life & Mission
From Council Bluffs, Iowa, to Fort Portal, Uganda: five chapters spanning seventy-six years, three continents and a single, undivided vocation.
Born on March 8, 1906, in Council Bluffs, Iowa, the eldest of six children in a devout Catholic family. A mission appeal by Holy Cross priests set the course of his life.
He professed his final vows on July 2, 1929, graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 1930, and was ordained to the priesthood at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart on June 24, 1934.
He bragged he would log 80,000 miles a year to preach missions, driven by a burning love for souls.
Arriving in Dhaka on November 16, 1936, he taught at Holy Cross High School and formed a new generation of catechists. He moved into mission territory among the Kuki people, where malaria struck him severely.
He was appointed rector of Little Flower Seminary in 1940. Evacuated by the U.S. Army during the Second World War, he returned to America and gave himself fully to raising support for the Holy Cross Missions.
“If you want to build a better world, you need fewer architects and more bricklayers.”
He was chosen to lead the Congregation’s new Uganda mission despite grave concerns for his health. Three years of foundational work led to his appointment by Pope St. John XXIII in 1961 as the first Bishop of Fort Portal, a see he served until 1972.
Mariam Sequens Non Devias. “Following Mary, you do not go astray.”
His episcopal motto
Key moments
Elected AMECEA chairman in 1964, he united the Catholic bishops of six nations. He steered three triennial plenary meetings and established the Gaba Pastoral Institute for lay formation.
He served as Executive Director in Nairobi from 1972 to 1979, and helped found the Catholic University of Eastern Africa in 1979.
“Whatever unity we bishops in Eastern Africa have, we owe it to Bishop McCauley.”
Cardinal Maurice Otunga of Nairobi
Bishop McCauley died on November 1, 1982, the Solemnity of All Saints, during surgery at the age of 76. He bore more than fifty operations for facial cancer with characteristic quietness.
The Cause for his Beatification was formally opened in August 2006, and he now bears the title Servant of God.
“A valiant man of God died, but a saint was born.”
The Cause
Pray for his Beatification
“His endurance of physical pain, and his example of humility, self-giving, deep faith, and pastoral zeal, were an inspiration to many people.”
From the Prayer for his Beatification