Abdul Mannan Khan and his disabled son Abu Mosa Khan meet with Father Robert Terence McCahill at their home in Munshigonj district, Bangladesh, on Nov. 18, 2025. The priest visits villages daily to find disabled children and connect them with medical treatment. / Credit: Stephan Uttom Rozario
Munshigonj, Bangladesh, Dec 1, 2025 / 13:34 pm (CNA).
Father Robert Terence McCahill, a Maryknoll missionary who works in health care for poor, disabled people in Bangladesh, marks 50 years of service in the country in this first week of December.
Over his five decades in Bangladesh, McCahill has visited 13 administrative districts in the Muslim-majority nation, spending three years in each one serving the people there. He left Srinagar in Munshiganj district near Dhaka in late November after completing three years there, though he does not yet know where he will go next.
“I think that just as Jesus was not tied to one place and asked to spread the word of God, I travel around and reach people of all religions with love and work,” McCahill told CNA on Nov. 18.
Born in Iowa in 1937, McCahill later moved to Indiana due to his father’s work. In 1964, he was ordained a priest and came to the Philippines that same year.
In 1975, he and four other priests came to Bangladesh at the invitation of Archbishop T.A. Ganguly of Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. After learning Bengali for a year, his first place of work was in the northern district of Tangail, where he worked for nine years.
In Bangladesh, he is known as “Bob Bhai” — Brother Bob. McCahill was given this name by a Muslim friend who thought Bangladeshi Muslims would have difficulty pronouncing his full name, and he is still known by this name in the villages where he serves.
“My only son has been disabled since birth; he cannot walk or speak. I have seen many doctors but to no avail,” said Abdul Mannan Khan, 45, a Muslim resident of Munshigonj district.
“Bob Bhai often comes to my house, laughs and jokes with my son. Now I am getting treatment in the hospital through him. I don’t need any money,” Khan told CNA.
His 15-year-old son Abu Mosa Khan is the only child in the family, and his parents care for him devotedly. But the family says that no one around them gets along with this disabled boy the way McCahill does.
“Not everything is possible with money alone; many great things are possible with love, like Bob Bhai is doing,” Khan said.
McCahill rents a small room wherever he goes or stays there if someone gives him a free one. The authorities have given him a 5-by-8-foot space in a schoolroom in Srinagar, separated by tin walls. The dimly-lit room contains a mess of clothes, a simple wooden bed, a dirty mosquito net, a basic electric light, and a fan. There is also a kerosene stove for cooking, a few small utensils, and a bicycle.
He rides a bicycle at least 12-15 miles every day to visit rural villages, see disabled children, and take them to different hospitals for treatment as needed.
“Bob Bhai comes to our house early in the morning on his bicycle,” said a man named Farman, 83.
Farman’s grandson Rakibul, 8, became disabled a year after his birth and cannot walk or speak. His mother has married elsewhere and his father no longer cares for him, so Rakibul lives with his grandfather.
“After undergoing treatment in many places, Rakibul is now getting treatment in Dhaka free of cost on Bob Bhai’s advice, and now he is on the path to some improvement,” Farman said.
McCahill, who lost his mother at an early age, moved to Indiana with his father. As a young man, he worked as a newspaper delivery boy on a bicycle. Later, while studying in high school, he worked as a house cleaner and then as a truck driver.
While driving a truck as a young man — before entering the priesthood — he was saved from a serious accident through prayer to God. The truck’s brakes failed, and he initially thought he would have to jump from the vehicle, but somehow he survived.
“After surviving that accident, I decided without any hesitation that I would become a priest and a missionary,” McCahill said.
He has had a great passion for bicycles since his youth. When he came to Bangladesh, the roads were not well developed, and he could go everywhere by bicycle. So he chose a bicycle as his vehicle.
“Among other reasons, the main reason is simplicity, and bicycles are the vehicle of poor people. At the same time, cycling also keeps the body healthy, so I ride bicycles. I believe lov[ing] one another is the key to happiness,” McCahill said.
“Also, when I ride a bicycle, many people ask me various questions. I can easily answer them while standing,” this cycling missionary said.
McCahill finds peace in his life by serving people. He will continue to serve as long as he can walk, he said. He enjoys discovering one new area after another and meeting new people. He has not faced any major difficulty in the country despite the fact that around 90% of the population is Muslim and less than 1% is Christian.
“First, there’s suspicion — expecting and getting it. By the second year, there are many people who trust you, and that builds during the year, a year of trust-building. By the third year, there is affection for me. And so I knew at that time, at the end of the third year, I could leave and do the same thing in another town,” he said.
He believes that a priest should not only celebrate Mass inside a church but also preach the word of Christ everywhere.
“I celebrate Mass here myself every day,” he said. “I want to live like this, and when I die, I want to be buried in this country.”
