Servant of God Vincent Joseph McCauley, CSC
By Miriam Ayieko
(March 8, 1906 - November 1, 1982)
Have you ever wondered why the CUEA Library is named so? Who was Bishop McCauley? The CUEA library is named after a zealous Missionary Bishop who is also one of the founding fathers of CUEA.
The Bishop McCauley Memorial Library is The Catholic University of Eastern Africa’s (CUEA) main university library, it is located at the Pope Paul VI Learning Resource Centre, Langata Campus, Nairobi, Kenya.
Bishop Vincent Joseph McCauley, CSC was an American missionary prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. Bishop McCauley, CSC was a member of the Congregation of Holy Cross, and served as the first Bishop of Fort Portal Catholic Diocese in Uganda from 1961 to 1972. Later, he served as the Chairman of the Association of Member Episcopal Conferences in Eastern Africa (AMECEA) from 1972 to 1979.
Providentially, just this past August 2026 his cause for beatification was introduced in the Congregation for the Causes of Saints as a Servant of God.
The eldest of six children, Bishop McCauley was born on March 8, 1906, in Council Bluffs, Iowa, USA. His parish school, St. Francis Xavier, first awakened in him a desire for missionary work and evangelization. Inspired by Holy Cross priests who preached a mission at his parish in the fall of 1924, McCauley left Creighton University and joined the seminary with the Congregation at the University of Notre Dame.
McCauley professed his Final Vows in Holy Cross on July 2, 1929. He was sent to the Foreign Missionary Seminary in Washington, D.C., and was ordained a priest on June 24, 1934. His departure to the missions in East Bengal in India (a territory that today encompasses Bangladesh and part of India) was delayed two years until October 1936 because of a lack of funds due to the Great Depression. In 1958, he was sent to lead the Holy Cross new mission in Uganda.
As pioneer Bishop of Fort Portal Diocese, he built the diocese from the ground up, founding many parishes and diocesan structures, and St. Mary’s Minor Seminary for local priestly formation. He also played a significant role in the founding of The Catholic University of Eastern Africa, together with other CUEA founding fathers. These are among other significant contributions of the Servant of God Bishop McCauley’s Holy Cross legacies to the Church in Eastern Africa.
Bishop McCauley died while undergoing risky exploratory surgery on November 1, 1982, and was buried in the Holy Cross community cemetery at Notre Dame on November 4, 1982.
In memory of Bishop McCauley’s illustrious missionary work to the Church in the AMECEA region, including his service as Bishop of Fort Portal, Uganda, Chairman of AMECEA and his contribution to founding CUEA (a brainchild of AMECEA) and the inculturation of the Gospel the CUEA library is proudly named Bishop McCauley Memorial Library to honour his zealous missionary legacy to the Church in Eastern Africa.
We are united in praying for the beatification of the Servant of God Vincent Joseph McCauley, CSC
Background information from:
Congregation of Holy Cross
https://holycrosscongregation.org/holy-ones/servant-of-god-vincent-mccauley/