Ordained to the priesthood on 3 October 1926,[3] Gracias then did pastoral work in Bandra until November 1927, when he entered the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.

Pope Pius XII promoted him to Archbishop of Bombay on 4 December 1950 to replace Roberts, a 57-year-old Englishman, who made way for the appointment of a native-born Indian.

[4] Gracias demonstrated his support of Goan nationalism and an opponent of Portuguese colonial rule by presented an image of the Virgin Mary as an indigenous Indian, at a time when the populace was still accustomed to European representations.

[12] He hosted the first papal visit to India in 1964, when Pope Paul VI attended the International Eucharistic Congress in Bombay,[2] preceded by a symposium of Catholic theologians to which he invited Hans Küng.

[3] In 1970 he was one of 15 prelates chosen to organize the 1971 Synod of Bishops, and he supported Pope Paul against critics of his approach to church governance and insistence of priestly celibacy.