It was 24 years ago that the now Archbishop of Bombay Oswald Cardinal Gracias was ordained from priest to bishop. Looking back, the 84-year-old senior clergy says he has come a long way since his younger days as a priest. “It has been an exciting journey, I cannot believe it’s been 24 years,” he told mid-day. “There have always been challenges but it has been a pleasant journey due to the cooperation of everybody around me. We have been able to walk together.”

Recalling his earlier years, the cardinal said the structures and mechanisms in the diocese were not all that flexible. “There is much greater participation now as compared to that time,” he said. As for himself, Gracias says that he too has undergone his own brand of transformation in these years.