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This is an archive article published on July 4, 2018

Pune: Some priests accuse Bishop of functioning in an arbitrary manner

Bishop denies charges, says he is willing to discuss issues with disgruntled priests

Bishop Thomas Dabre

A group of Catholic priests in the Poona Diocese have accused the Bishop Thomas Dabre of functioning in an arbitrary manner, with “little regard for internal democracy”. The murmurs of discontent have become stronger since the Bishop reportedly issued transfer orders to as many as 27 priests from churches in Pune district a couple of months ago. To register their protest, some of the Parish priests have refused to follow the transfer orders.

Bishop Dabre has denied the charges against him. “Not only do I deny the charges levelled against me, but I find them to be false,” he said.  The Bishop also said he was ready to meet the priests who have complaints against him and discuss all the issues.
According to the priests, the Bishop had asked them to comply with the transfer orders by May 30. Some of these priests alleged that their transfers showed “lack of sympathy of the Bishop towards those suffering from various ailments”. They said despite repeated pleas, the Bishop refused to cancel the transfer orders, which forced them to approach higher authorities.

However, they claimed that they “failed to get justice” from the authorities, and have fallen into a state of depression.

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Father William Fernandes of the Khadki church said he was transferred to Our Lady of Fatima Church in Chakan, despite the fact that he was over 70 years old and a diabetic. “I am not in a position to travel to Chakan, which is 25-30 km away from the city.,” he said.

Father Fernandes said when he tried to get his transfer order cancelled and sought a transfer to a nearby church, the Bishop refused to heed his pleas. “I have been forthright and frank in giving my views, opinions and suggestions in priests’ council meetings. The Bishop doesn’t like that. He has been constantly demanding apologies and causing me mental agony,” alleged Father Fernandes. “I have even refused to accept the transfer orders…therefore, I have been told to go the clergy home, which is meant for retired priests,” he added.

Another priest, Father Albert Fernandes, said has was transferred to Miraj in Sangli district from Hadapsar church, but he refused to accept the transfer orders and went on a year-long leave. “I requested that I be allotted a church in the city, not one in Sangli district, due to health reasons. But the Bishop didn’t accept my request.”  “The Bishop doesn’t listen to anyone . Those who are in his good books are given favourable postings. Those who speak up or freely express their views are punished.,” he added.

Father George DSouza, who was the Vicar General to the Bishop, accused the latter of being “undemocratic”. “He keeps repeating that he is the Bishop and everyone should obey his orders. This is a dictatorial attitude,” said Father DSouza, who retired five years ago.’

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William Naidu, an activist from the Catholic community, claimed that of the 75-80 priests in the Poona Diocese, at least 35 “were not happy because of the way the Bishop had treated them”.

On the allegation of arbitrary transfers, Bishop Dabre said as far as he knew, only one priest had complained of ill health. “I have told him that we will take care of his health, as we always do,” he said. Speaking on the long leave taken by another priest, the Bishop said the priest had asked for a sabbatical and had been granted permission to take one.

Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades.   Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives. Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees. During Covid, over 50 doctors were  asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa. Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died.     Manoj More is on Facebook with 4.9k followers (Manoj More), on twitter manojmore91982 ... Read More


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