Father William Cahill
Diocese of Portland (Jesuits)
Ordained: 1946
Died: 1986
Assigned as follows:
- 1946-1947: Weston College (Weston, MA)
- 1947-1949: Fairfield College Prep. High School (Fairfield, CT)
- 1949-1950: (Auriesville, NY)
- 1950-1960: Cheverus High School (Portland, ME)
- 1960-1962: St. Robert’s Hall (Pomfret, CT)
- 1960-1962: St. Bernard’s (Fitchburg, MA)
- 1962-1964: St. Mary’s (Boston, MA)
- 1964-1966: Boston College High School (Boston, MA)
- 1967-1972: Immaculate Conception (Boston, MA)
- 1967-1972: Boston City Hospital (Boston, MA)
- 1971-1972: Weston College (Mt. Clemens, MA)
- 1972-1977: St. Joseph’s Hospital (Mt. Clemens, MI)
- 1977-1978: Veterans’ Administration Hospital (West Roxbury, MA)
- 1977-1979: Campion Center (Weston, MA)
- 1978-1985: Immaculate Conception (Cambridge, MA)
- 1981-1985: Immaculate Conception (Boston, MA)
- 1981-1985: Boston City Hospital (Boston, MA)
Summary of Abuse Allegations against Fr. William Cahill:
Fr. William Cahill was ordained a priest of the New England Province of the Society of Jesus in 1946. In the first two decades of his career, Cahill taught in high schools in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and in multiple parishes in the Diocese of Portland. For the following two decades, he worked as an assistant hospital chaplain, in Michigan, and in Massachusetts. Cahill finished his tertianship within the Diocese of Albany.
According to media reports, in March 2002, several men came forward with accusations that Fr. Cahill sexually abused at least three male students at Cheverus High School in Portland, Maine in the 1950s and 1960s. He was also accused of having sexually abused a freshman student in the early 1950s. One accuser said that on two occasions, the priest pinned him against the blackboard, then fondled him.
In an email to the Governor’s Office, one man alleged that Fr. Cahill tried to molest him, but he successfully rebuffed the attempt.
Another 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.
In January 2019, Fr. Cahill was publicly named on a list of Northeast Province Jesuits with credible allegations of sexual abuse of a minor. Father Cahill’s name also appears on the Archdiocese of Detroit’s 2019 list of credibly accused clergy under the heading “religious order priests.”
Cahill was never charged, and died in February 1986.
Horowitz Law is a law firm representing victims and survivors of sexual abuse by Catholic priests and other clergy in the Diocese of Portland in Maine. If you need a lawyer because you were sexually abused by a priest in Maine, contact our office today. Although many years have passed, those abused by Catholic clergy in the Diocese of Portland now have legal options, but filing deadlines may apply so do not delay in reaching out to us. Our lawyers have decades of experience representing survivors of clergy sexual abuse in Maine and nationwide. We can help.
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