Rev. William B. Cahill, s.j.-Assignment Record

Assignment Record – Rev. William B. Cahill, s.j.

Summary of Case: A priest of the New England Province of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), Cahill was ordained in 1946. In the first two decades of his career, Cahill taught in high schools in Connecticut, Maine, and Massachusetts. The following two decades Cahill worked as as an assistant hospital chaplain, in Michigan and in Massachusetts. He died in 1986. In early 2002 several men came forward with accusations that Cahill sexually abused boys at Cheverus High School in Portland, ME in the 1950s.

Ordained: 1946
Died: Feb. 5, 1986

Start	Stop	Parish/Assignment	Town/Accusations	State	Position	Notes
1946 Boston archbishop was Richard James Cushing (1944-1970).	1947	Weston College	Weston	MA	theology student
1947 Hartford bishop was Henry Joseph O'Brien (1945-1968).	1949	Fairfield College Prep. High School	Fairfield	CT		Fairfield Prep. had 852-893 students, all male.
1949 Albany bishop was Edmund Francis Gibbons (1919-1954).	1950		Auriesville	NY	tertianship
1950 Portland bishop was Joseph Edward McCarthy (1932-1955), followed by Daniel Joseph Feeney (1955-1969).	1960	Cheverus High School	Portland • In 2002 Cahill was accused of having sexually abused a freshman Cheverus student in the early 1950s. Cahill's accuser said that on two occasions, the priest pinned him against the blackboard, then fondled him. • In March 2002 a man accused Cahill of attempting to molest him in 1959, when the man was a Cheverus student. Cahill's accuser stated in an email to the Governor's office that a staff member found a young boy, with his pants down, tied to a chair in Cahill's room, and that Cahill subsequently "disappeared" from Cheverus.	ME		Cheverus High had 275-440 students, all male.
1960 Norwich bishop was Vincent Joseph Hines (1959-1975).	1962	St. Robert's Hall	Pomfret	CT	instructor	This was the Tertianship of the New England Province of the Society of Jesus.
1960 Worcester bishop was Bernard Joseph Flanagan (1959-1983).	1962	St. Bernard's	Fitchburg	MA		Per Cahill's Jesuit assignment record card he served "most of the period" of his tertianship at St. Bernard's.
1962 Boston archdiocese	1964	St. Mary's	Boston	MA	4/12	St. Mary's had a school with 171 boys and 160 girls.
1964	1966	Boston College High School	Boston	MA	history teacher	BC High had 1,276-1,304 students, all male.
1966 Norwich diocese	1967		Pomfret	CT		The 1967 Directory indexes Cahill as at BC High, but it does not list him as there in the Boston archdiocesan pages. Nor is he listed as at his next assignment. Cahill's Jesuit assignment record card states he was in Pomfret.
1967 Humberto Sousa Medeiros replaced Cushing as Boston archbishop (1970-1983).	1972	Immaculate Conception	Boston	MA	32/37, 27/31, 34/36	This assignment is per the Directories. Cahill's Jesuit assignment record card states he was here 1967-1971.
1967	1972	Boston City Hospital	Boston	MA	assistant chaplain	This assignment is per the Directories. Cahill's Jesuit assignment record card states he was here 1967-1971.
1971	1972	Weston College	Weston	MA		Jesuit residence. The Directories show Cahill to have been at Weston College 1971-1976. The Jesuit assignment record card indicates otherwise.
1972 Detroit archbishop was John Francis Dearden (1958-1980).	1977	St. Joseph's Hospital	Mt. Clemens	MI	assistant chaplain	This assignment is per the Jesuit assignment record card for Cahill.
1977 Boston	1978	Veterans' Administration Hospital	West Roxbury	MA	assistant chaplain
1977	1979	Campion Center	Weston	MA
1978 Bernard Francis Law (1984-2002) repolaced Medeiros as Boston archbishop.	1985	Immaculate Conception	Cambridge	MA	3/5	Immaculate Conception had a school with 210 students. Cahill's Jesuit assignment record card states that he was at this assignment 1978-1981; the Directories list him here 1978-1985.
1981	1985	Immaculate Conception	Boston	MA	14/21, 13/20
1981	1985	Boston City Hospital	Boston	MA	chaplain	Cahill is not indexed beyond the 1985 Directory. Cahill died February 5, 1986.

Sources: Official Catholic Directory (New York: P.J. Kenedy and Sons, 1947-1985)

• Cahill, William Benedict, Jesuits' assignment record, Maine AG Documents, Bates number 000014
• Maine AG Document Production, PDF, page 16-17, Bates numbers 000129-000130, July 8, 2005
• Maine AG Document Production, May 27, 2005

Priests in a Parish: We use the following convention to show a priest's place among the clergy of a parish: 1/2 means that he is the first priest listed in the Official Catholic Directory (usually the pastor) and that there is a total of two priests at the parish. The shorthand 3/4 means that the priest is listed third on a four-priest roster. See our sample page from the Directory.

Note: The Official Catholic Directory aims to report the whereabouts of Catholic priests in the United States on January 1 of the Directory's publication year. Our working assumption is that a priest listed in the Directory for a given year was at the same assignment for part of the previous year as well. However, Kenedy and Sons will sometimes accept updates well into the year of publication. Diocesan clergy records are rarely available to correct this information. The Directory is also sometimes misleading or wrong. We have tried to create an accurate assignment record, given the source materials and their limitations. Assignment records are a work in progress and we are always improving the records that we post. Please email us with new information and corrections.

This assignment record collates Cahill's career history as it is represented in the Official Catholic Directory with allegations as reported in the media. We make no representation regarding the truth of the allegation we report, and we remind our readers that the U.S. legal system presumes that a person accused of or charged with a crime is innocent until proven guilty. Similarly, individuals who may be defendants in civil actions are presumed not to be liable for such claims unless a plaintiff proves otherwise. Admissions of guilt or liability are not typically a part of civil or private settlements. For more information, see our posting policy.

This assignment record was last updated on Sept. 15, 2013.