Eighth Bishop of Cairns. Third Archbishop of Canberra and Goulburn.

Australian Dictionary of Biography entry: https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/cahill-thomas-vincent-9660

"Archbishop Cahill was senior member of the episcopate", Catholic Leader, Brisbane, 23 April 1978, pp 1, 20:

Archbishop Thomas Vincent Cahill, Archbishop of Canberra and Goulburn, who died in Sydney on Sunday afternoon, April 16, had close links with Queensland, having been Bishop of Cairns from 1948 to 1967, when he was appointed to Canberra-Goulburn.

Archbishop Cahill died in St Vincent Hospital, Darlinghurst after a heart attack. Archbishop Cahill was a senior and influential member the Australian hierarchy for many years.

He was secretary of the Australian Episcopal Conference and of its Central Commission, until succeeded in that position recently by his Auxiliary Bishop, Bishop Patrick Dougherty. 

Only last week, it was announced that Mgr Kevin Manning, of Blayney, NSW, had been appointed assistant secretary of the AEC from August 1.

Archbishop Cahill was also secretary of the Australian bishops’ Liturgical Commission.

Archbishop Cahill in 1968 was appointed by Pope Paul a member of the Roman Curia with full rights, being made a member of the Congregation for Religious and Secular Institutes.

He was also a member of the Vatican Secretariat for Non-Believers.

He was honored by Queen Elizabeth, who awarded him the CBE in the 1972 Birthday Honors List.

Archbishop Cahill was born at Bendigo on February 22, 1913, the son of Patrick and Elizabeth Cahill, and was baptised in the Sacred Heart Cathedral, Bendigo, on March 9, 1913.

He attended St Kilian School, conducted by the Sisters of Mercy, for two years (1918 and 1919) and at the end of 1919 continued his primary and then secondary education at the Marist Brothers College, Bendigo.

In November 1929 he entered the Pontifical Urban College De Propaganda Fide, Rome, and did his ecclesiastical studies at the Propaganda University.

In July 1931, he gained the Doctorate of Philosophy.

He was ordained to the priesthood in Rome in the Church of Santa Maria in Vallicella (Chiesa Nuova), by Archbishop Palica on September 21, 1935.

He remained in Rome for further theological studies and gained the Doctorate of Theology in July 1936.

Dr Cahill returned to Australia in November 1936 and was appointed assistant priest in the Cathedral parish of Bendigo, his native diocese.

He worked there doing parish work and for some time also was Diocesan Director of Catholic Action.

In November 1939, he became Secretary of the Apostolic Delegation, North Sydney, when Archbishop (later Cardinal) Panico was Apostolic Delegate.

Dr Cahill was made a Privy Chamberlain by Pope Pius XII in July 1940, with the title Monsignor. When the Prisoner of War Information Bureau was set up by the Vatican in World War II, a branch was established at the Apostolic Delegation and Mgr Cahill was put in charge of it.

For this work, he was honored by the Pope at the end of the war with the Cross Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice. During this period, Mgr Cahill lectured at the nearby convent of the Sisters of Mercy with lectures on liturgy and theology.

At weekends he did parish relief in the parish of Drummoyne. In April, 1948, Mgr Cahill returned to the diocese of Sandhurst. where he was appointed diocesan chancellor. In the ensuing months, he organised the diocesan archives, prepared a diocesan synod, and assisted in episcopal visitation of parishes and clergy conferences.

On November 11, 1948, Pope Pius XII appointed Mgr Cahill Bishop of Cairns in succession to Bishop Heavey, OSA. He was consecrated on February 9, 1949 by Cardinal Gilroy in Sacred Heart Cathedral, Bendigo, and arrived in Cairns on March 26, 1949.

At this time, there were no diocesan clergy in the Cairns diocese.

All priests were Augustinians, to whom the diocese had been entrusted as a vicariate apostolic until 1941.

Bishop Cahill established a diocesan clergy and organised the diocese along the lines of other diocese of Australia.

With the help of Archbishop Duhig, of Brisbane, he obtained volunteers for Cairns from among Brisbane seminarians.

In less than three years, diocesan priests began to arrive in the Cairns diocese.

Ten new parishes were established and in every parish schools, convents and churches were erected during the 18½ years Bishop Cahill ruled the diocese.

A Catholic hospital and home for the aged were established.

The last work he undertook in Cairns was the erection of St Monica Cathedral, which was incomplete when he left.

During this period, Bishop Cahill visited Home for ad-limina visits in 1950 and 1960.

He attended all sessions of the Second Vatican Council and did not miss one general congregation.

He was elected a member of the Conciliar Commission for Religious and attended all its meetings.

He was subsequently named a member of the Post-conciliar Commission and member of the Sacred Congregation for Religious and Secretariate for Non-Believers.

These posts entailed regular trips to Rome during and after the Council.

On April 13, 1967, Bishop Cahill was appointed Archbishop of Canberra and Goulburn and took possession of the see on August 9, 1967.

The city of Canberra, capital of Australia, was developing at an extraordinary rate and in his time there, several parishes were established in the Canberra area, schools built and St Christopher Church was converted for use as a cathedral.

Archbishop Cahill was an Australian delegate to the ordinary assemblies of the Synods of Bishops in Rome in 1967 and 1971 and was a member of the Council of the Secretariate of the Synod of Bishops, having been elected after the Synod of 1971 as a representative of Asia and Oceania.

In the closing stages of his life and episcopate, Archbishop Cahill obtained the agreement of his fellow bishops on the Australian Episcopal Conference for the erection of a national shrine at Canberra.