Pune’s Bishop Dabre Dumped by Pope Francis
Unmesh Gujarathi
Editor in Chief
Gifting himself a 17 lakhs Honda City car from School Trust funds and about 10 lakhs cheque from Church Collections has resulted in Pune’s Bishop Thomas Dabre being shown the door by Pope Francis, the world head of the largest religion on the planet – Roman Catholics. Though the kick out has been sugar coated as resignation this is a standard camouflage in such cases.
Sprouts was the first and only newspaper in the world to expose the craze for a luxurious swanky car at the age of 77, of a religious retired Bishop compared to the simple lifestyle of the Lord Jesus whom he is supposed to follow.
Dabre looted school funds to fulfil his car craze as if he was a young flamboyant teenager trustee like the recently arrested Pune Rosary Trust secretary – Vivek Aranha. This has made the common Catholics all over the world hang their heads in shame as evident from the tremendous response to Sprouts from all corners of the world.
The disgust amongst Catholics became more chilling when Sprouts published Exclusive and Explosive news that at the time of gifting this car, salaries of peons, ayahs, clerks and teachers of Poona Diocesan Educational Society (PDES) schools were being cut by 25 percent by its Chairman – Dabre claiming fees freeze by parents !
The chilling aspect became even more horrific when Sprouts SIT reported that about 100 odd priests in the diocese were deprived of their annual travelling allowance of Rs 5000 for two years by their so-called and self styled ‘caring shepherd’ Dabre.
The Dabre reason – “Bear the cut with Christ-like smiles as Church funds had dried up due to Covid fear”. The poor sheep were already being paid a measly ₹ 6000/- salary per month while Shepherd Dabre unashamedly swiped off about 10 lakhs via a cheque from Church funds to felicitate himself as the good shepherd !
The tragedy of these two glaring daylight robberies by Dabre amounting to a mind boggling 27 lakhs or ₹ 0.27 Crore were cheered and clapped by none other than Nuncio Leopoldo Girelli of Delhi and Cardinal Oswald Gracias of Mumbai at a Pune public function in October 21 to felicitate Dabre for his golden Jubilee priesthood milestone.
Sprouts has a video clip showing this most disgusting incident which rubbed salt into the wounds of the suffering staff and religious!
The Church collections in the Dabre headed St Patrick’s Cathedral (main Church of Pune Diocese) immediately plummeted to ₹ 40,000 from an average of ₹ 1 lakh per week indicating the silent but decisive protest by the lay Catholics and a Slap on the face for Dabre which was result of the continuous Sprouts exposes.
The worst debacle and igimony that Dabre and Pune Diocese faced was when he sheepishly surrendered the Honda City car to the school trust when two lay Catholics challenged the loot in the Jt.
Charity Commissioner Court, Pune and was issued notice. Even before the Court ruled on the case , Dabre developed cold feet, chickened out fearing public shame and outcry if ordered to surrender the car by the Court and gave a shameless reason of being hurt by the allegations and hence forced to transfer the car.
Non See O , DisGracias and Dabre were fully aware that trustees cannot take even a Rupee’s benefit from trust accounts but blessed, cheered and clapped the loot in public !
The Pope is learnt to have had enough of the brazen and reckless behaviour of Dabre and decided to boot him out on 25th March 23 veiling it as resignation accepted which is a Vatican routine to camouflage kick out of an errant cleric.
Sprouts Readers will recall that even Bishop William of Mysore was asked to go on leave instead of suspension which is the normal administrative action to have an independent inquiry into serious allegations.
Sprouts SIT can reel off any number of such leave and resignation alibis or sugar coated kick-outs dished out by the Vatican in punishing rogue priests in the past just to protect and safeguard the prestige and image of the Church.
The Dabre successor – Bishop John Rodrigues of Mumbai, sources informed is a Cardinal Gracias choice and is reported to have been tasked to cover up tracks of Dabre’s loot and misdemeanors otherwise which actually will land up at the doors of his underworld type religious boss and Don – DisGracias.
Gracias is supposed to be a joint beneficiary of the Dabre and other similar diocesan loots by rogue Bishops in the Country along with successive Nuncios in Delhi who are in turn given protection from any action by Rome. DisGracias is supposed to be among the 6 advisors to Pope Francis and practically chooses Catholic heads in India despite this being the prerogative of the Nuncio. He is therefore reported to be popularly called ‘Don DisGracias’ in the Indian Catholic Circles.