Capuchin Order in India

Fr. Benedict Vadakkekara OFM Cap.

Establishment of Capuchin Order in India

II. Breaking the deadlock and striking root

(1916-1926)

At the extraordinary meeting held at Meerut on 23 February 1916 the Regular Superior of the Mission of Agra with his Council determined of one accord that the Friary of Mussoorie was ill-adapted for being a novitiate house. The special session had been convoked precisely to deliberate on the pressing request for the restart of the Novitiate and Study advanced by Mgr Poli of Allahabad and the Order's General Procurator. The Friary of Mussoorie was declared climatically wanting on account of its adjacency to two schools. This net verdict consequently rendered the various moves to reopen the House of Mussoorie look like flogging a dead horse; to all intents the issue was shelved indefinitely. The Regular Superior's dusty answer unwittingly brought also to the fore a certain unwished situation that then prevailed in the Capuchin Mission in India. As the movement for national autonomy for India was gaining momentum, the Church's all-European clerical cadre especially in the north of the country, was beginning to stick out like a sore thumb; there were already calls for a change.

1. Striking root natively

Despite the undiplomatic disavowal from Agra, Mgr Poli of Allahabad refused to call it a day and resolved upon pursuing the idea single-handedly. He had the unstinting support from the Order's general superiors and the authorities of the Propaganda. According to him a
former convent in Jeolikote in his Diocese could serve either as a house for the Novitiate or as seminary. But this plan fell through because in the meantime the sisters staked their claim to the house, as they had already, according to them, repaid the Rs 4,500 that the Diocese had invested in establishing the house. As it was a presumption of law for the missionaries that the Capuchin Novitiate and the Study could effectively function in India only if housed in spacious buildings in the hills, the authorities had little to pick and choose. The Missions did not own very many roomy buildings in the hill stations. The summer heat in the plains had in fact placed the Capuchins in straitened circumstances.

Mgr. Poli found himself driven to the wall because his Mission, like the other Capuchin Missions in India, was in dire need of reinforcements and his own Province of Bologna did not raise his hopes too much. The only stopgap measure he could think of was to bring up a diocesan clergy. As the opening of the Capuchin Novitiate was still a dream, he was constrained into asking the promising young men who came forward to enter the Order to complete their ecclesiastical studies and to get ordained priests. And then, they were told, he would decide if they could be accepted into the Order. Following an on-the-spot survey of the Mission of Allahabad in January-March 1920, the General Visitator spoke of four such postulants in Allahabad while some others had instead joined the Jesuits. The cogency of the Visitator's recommendation for the urgent concretization of the old project of opening a common Novitiate for the five Capuchin Missions in India too helped to force the issue.

Meanwhile the great strides that other Institutes in India were making in the work of evangelization, establishing of local communities, and in the field of education provided the Capuchins with food for reflection. These Institutes had been relying heavily on native vocations and their apostolates were achieving results. Thus the Province of Bologna not only welcomed the Order's plan to recruit natives into its ranks without reserve but also put its men and means in Allahabad at the disposal of the General for the execution of the same. Remorsefully, some of the Capuchins began thinking aloud and thought that they would probably be missing the bus if they too did not climb on the bandwagon. While in Europe there prevailed some uncertainty about the future of the religious Institutes there, the prospects for the European missionary in India did not appear all that rosy. Some of the missionaries had been airing their views on this score, but they nearly always appeared to be off target. The election of Fr Joseph Anthony as General Minister raised the hopes of some in India as they thought that he would be able to find a way out of the stalemated situation and push through the plan of opening an Indian Novitiate.

Thus on 18 November 1920, Fr Melchior of Benisa, the Order's General Procurator and Commissary, with the backing of the whole General Definitory, dispatched a circular to the Regular Superiors of Agra, Simla, Lahore, Allahabad and Ajmer, asking them to report back to him within three months on certain practicalities regarding the opening a Novitiate and a Study for the Indo-European and native youth of India. The three months' deadline was itself indicative of the high priority that the General Superiors attached to the implementation of the Order's initiative in India. Falling back on Benedict XV's Apostolic Letter Maximum illud of 30 November 1919, the circular jolted the Regular Superiors into action by carrying through the directives of the ecclesiastical authorities. The General Superiors went out of their way to emphasize the point that the envisaged Novitiate and Study would be meant to train "Indo-European and Indigenous" youth to be religious and priests. This brief clause was to have far-reaching effect on the birth, growth and spread of the Capuchin Order in India. The erstwhile Novitiate and Study of Mussoorie had been intended exclusively for the children of European descent, even though the guidelines given from Rome had been to the contrary.

The Regular Superiors promptly met at Agra on 8-9 February 1921 and the topics that the General Procurator wanted to be deliberated upon, were take up one by one for consideration. The meeting approved the suggestion that "the Senior Cambridge or equivalent examination ought to be taken as a condition for entrance into the Novitiate to be established" and such candidates spend 1/2 years in the further of Latin "at Sardhana, of course in a separate house to the Novitiate". The way the meeting made its headway may be gauged from the following:

Fr. John Baptist [Agra} had argued that there should be separate Seraphic Schools, or at least some kind of distinction in the same school, for Indians and Europeans. As this idea was not accepted, there was much discussion as to the advisability of throwing together in the same Novitiate Indians of different castes with all their caste prejudices, and Indians and Europeans with their respective eastern and western modes of living. Finally to test the sense of the meeting, Fr Pius Lyons [Simla] put forward the following proposal, (though personally he was not in favour of it), namely: 'That there be separate Novitiate for Indians and Europeans; but that there be a common House of Studies for both.' The first part of the proposal was unanimously rejected; and it was agreed to recommend that there be a common Novitiate for candidates in India of all races. Is any European candidate objected to this arrangement, he was welcome to seek admission into the Order in Europe. Of course it was recognized that with the hoped-for expansion of the Order it would be advisable to establish other Novitiates in other parts of India.

After studying various suggestions, the Regular Superiors proposed "the old St John's College building" in Sardhana for "the Novitiate and the School of Philosophy, Science and Church History" and "some other place" "for the School of Dogmatic Theology and other Chairs". As required by the Canon Law, the "familia religiosa" is to be constituted by at least six professed friars. The first House, where a four-year formation programme would take place, was to be constituted of: the Guardian, Master of Novices, Assistant Master of Novices, Lector of Philosophy, Lector of Science and Church History, and Parish Priest of the place. The second House, where too would be in course another four-year course, would be manned by: Guardian (who will also serve as parish priest), Vicar (also as Prefect of Studies), 3 Lectors of Theology and a Lay Brother. The Meeting preferred that the Guardians, the Prefects of Studies and Masters of Novices be selected from the friars already in India and that both the Houses "ought to depend entirely upon the General Superiors in Rome" and that "the Superior of one of these Hosues be appointed by the Father General as the Chief Superior under him in India for these Houses". While the Mission was to pay for the maintenance of its candidates, "the amount of the fee ought to be such as not only to suffice for the support of the Novices and the Students and the rest of the family, but also to leave a margin that would be to form a reserve fund for repaires, improvements etc." The Regular Superiors felt that founding the Novitiate or the Theologate amidst a flourishing Catholic community as in "Bandra, Bombay, Mangalore, Madras, or Calcutta", "Damaun, Cochin, Mylapore, Pondicherry ecc." would offer "a splendid recruiting ground for the Novitiate" and the contributions of the people "would enable it to be self-supporting".

On getting the report of the Meeting of the Regular Superiors, the General Superiors took up the issue with the Provincials of the respective Missions, viz, Tuscany, Bologna, Paris, Belgium and England. A copy of the report too was forwarded to each of them. Individually the Provincials gave their wholehearted blessing to the idea. The idea was already floated and the Superiors in Rome solicited feedback from the missionaries in India, who in general enthused over the project. In the light of their own experience gained in the field, some of them even advanced very illuminating suggestions.

In his letter of 25 November 1921 the Capuchin General Minister announced a fraternal visitation of the Order's various Missions in India. No mention was, however, made about the project of opening the Novitiate. Aboard the "Cracovia" the General met Mgr Paolo Prini SJ, the Bishop of Mangalore and the two clicked immediately. This friendship was to pay rich dividends as far as the growth of the establishment of the Capuchin Order in India was concerned. Before taking the final decision on the establishment or otherwise of the Novitiate the General thought it wise to visit in person its proposed site. This visit helped to remove even the last of the reservations he must have had about the project's viability. And forthwith he wrote to Rome asking that the process for getting the rescript from the Propaganda Fide be speeded up so that the Novitiate in India could be opended at the earliest. The General referred to an earlier recommendation of the Propaganda Fide on the "constitution of a monastic province of the Order in this vast Empire". The Bishops in India were insisting on "forming besides the indigenous Secular clergy also the indigenous Regular clergy". By then there were already 671 natives among the men religious in India. Of these 206 were Carmelite Tertiaries and 170 belonged to the Society of Jesus.

When in Allahabad the General had the opportunity to meet the Apostolic Delegate, who warmly welcomed the project of the Novitiate. A month later the General had not yet received the Rescript, even though the petition for the same had been made. If it were not to arrive before his leaving India, he would delegate the Commissary for the Novitiate to do the inauguration. The General got the impression that Superiors of the Missions were not as good as their words when it came to contributing towards the joint venture of the Novitiate. At the conference of the Regular Superiors of Agra, Ajmer, Allahabad, Lahore, Simla and Bombay (Damaun) held in Agra in the beginning of 1922, the General spoke of the Order's project for establishing a Capuchin Commissariat in India with a view to giving shape to an Indian Province. It was also the express wish of the Propaganda Fide, he added. Later in the course of a similar meeting, an eight-point, the "Conventio inter Superiores Regulares circa Novitiatum et juvenes qui Ordinem ingrediuntur", delineating the practical functioning of the "Commissary" for the Novitiate was approved. The Regular Superior of Agra, Fr John Baptist Tirannanzi of Florence, was elected as the Commissary and the other four Regular Superiors were his Councillors. The scope of the Novitiate was incisively spelt out as "the first step in a vaster scheme to be developed in the course of time, by which the Order will take root in India and spread itself through the country. Hence there must be no colour or race distinctions". While "in the Sardhana Novitiate there be no mitigation of the Constitutions", "the mode of life ought to be European, not Indian". "The common language of communication ought to be English" and "a beginning ought to be made in the study of the vernacular, including Persian". "In the matter of fast and abstinence, the observance of them could be facilitated by a greater use being made of chapaties instead of the ordinary leavened bread".

2. "Novitiate of Sardhana" takes shape (1922)

It was on 16 February 1922 that the General signed the document of the canonical erection of the House of Novitiate, after he had received the Rescript from the Propaganda Fide. As there were some postulants from Bombay already groomed, he personally inaugurated the Novitiate on 26 February 1922. While the Archbishop of Agra blessed the House and celebrated the the Holy Mass, the General vested two young men with the religious habit. Since the other postulants did not have all the necessary papers, they could not be inducted into the Novitiate on this occasion. The ambience at Sardhana was the appropriate one. Fr John Capistran of Antwerp from the Lahore Mission and Fr Lewis of Seggiano from the Agra Mission were nominated Master and Vice Master respectively. The other members of the Fraternity were: Fr Cyril (Paris), Fr Arsenius (Bologna) and Fr Albert (Tuscany). The General on the spot contributed Rs 6,000 towards furnishing the house; and later from Aden he sent a further amount of Rs 4,000.

As the Novitiate began its course without a hitch, everything appeared to hold out much hope that the project would in fact deliver the goods. After three months the Master of Novices informed the General that there were three novices and three postulants. The summer heatwave took its toll of the Fraternity. Frs Arsenius and Albert had to be shifted to Naini Tal and Mussoorie respectively to convalesce. Despite the requests from the part of some diocesan priests to join the Order, no one is seen actually entering the Order at this stage. In October 1922 there were five novices and three postulants. At the turn of the year Fr General had, therefore, every reason to look forward as regards the Novitiate in India. St Joseph's Seminary of Mangalore, in South India, was promising to be effectually a nursery of vocations to the Capuchin Order, thanks to Mgr Perini SJ, the Bishop of Mangalore. It was again the turn of Fr General to encourage the Novice Master and the Fraternity to continue in their dedicated service: "While the number o fnovices is increasing exteriorly, you do your best to inculcate in the Novices the true Franciscan spirit." The Vice Master too wrote in the same vein, adding an extra note of optimism.

The Status Personalis records the comings and goings that occurred at the Novitiate of Sardhana. Fidelis (James Domingo) and Felix (Stephen Sunera) began their Novitiate on 26 February 1922. On the same day Antony (Ahmid Ullah) and Raymond (Smith) were received as postulants. Francis (Thomas Joseph Whelan), Joseph (Joseph Francis Blacklock) were accepted as postulants on 8 April. Francis (Professor Alex Noronha ) began his postulancy on 27 May 1922 and Antony was promoted as novice on 13 June. Raymond quitted on 17 July. Lawrence's induction (Felix Colaço) as novice took place on 14 August. Joseph (Alexander Fernandez) joined as postulant on 8 September. Francis (Whelan) received the habit of the novice on 9 October, taking the name "Bernard". In the same way Joseph (Blacklock) changed his name into that of Pascal when he became a novice on 26 November. On the same day Joseph (Joseph Fernandez) too began his novitiate. On 30 November Fidelis, who had received the habit from Fr General, was dismissed. Crispin (Piedade Saldhana) was accepted as postulant on 10 February 1923 and Seraphin (John from Jelleycote) entered the novitiate on 18 February. The second of March 1923 was indeed a red-letter day at the Novitiate as it was on that day Br Fidelis made his simple profession and Fidelis (Deacon Joseph Gonsalvez) and Leonard (Dominic Fernandez) were vested with the novice's habit. During the while the Novitiate Fraternity too underwent some changes. Fr Cyril was replaced by Fr Symphorian. Fr Louis, and the newly-professed Br Felix were transferred to Mussoorie on 3 March 1923. Fr Oscar (Lahore) took over as Vice Master and Fr Pius Lyons (Simla) joined the community as parish priest.

While Fr General thanked God for the consoling news that was reaching him from Sardhana, he warned them against tempting providence. Even though the five members of the Fraternity hailed from different Provinces and each had his own cultural bag including the cheirshed traditions of his own Province, they were getting along fairly well and were pulling together in translating the project of implanting their Order in India's native soil. The General had been sending books for the students. He had also exempted the priests of the Novitiate from the obligation of offering Masses "ad mentem P. Ministri Generalis". The Novice Master got the green sign from the General to have Br Florian from Belgium as a member of the Fraternity. As soon as he returned to India from his visit to Europe, the Commissary visited the Novitiate and had the satisfaction of seeing everything in apple-pie order there. The restructuration of the building was still in course. But he felt that the financial onus of maintaining the House fell unequally on the Agra Mission and that it had already spent more than Rs 10,000 from its "Novitiate Fund" for the project. The monthly expense amounted to Rs 600 and the fixed income consisting of the offering of Re 1 per every celebration of Mass and the quota allotted for the students would suffice for the everyday expenses of the House. Since the novices were from either Agra or Lahore, the other Missions were not fully in the picture.

In order to find a way to meet the out of the ordinary ependitures, the Commissary and his Councillors had a meeting on 5 February 1923 at Sardhana "and agreed, in future, to share all expenses for extraordinary outlay". Thus the House would be in a financially viable and self-supporting, provided a rationalization of the expending was made. Meanwhile, in the absence of an alternative arrangement, the neo-professed moved from the living quarters reserved for the novices to another part of the Friary of Sardhana and began their academic formation. And the Commissary thought that, since the community was waxing in strength, the office of the Guardian should be separate from that of the Master. Fr Capistran was doing "excellently well" in his capacity as Novice Master. But the Regular Superior could not fall in line with the Master's policy of not testing the mettle of the novices by administering to them reprimands and corrections in public. According to the Master, it was not a constructive pedagogical approach. This differing viewpoint between the Novice Master and the Commissary had come up in the gathering of the Regular Superiors held on 5-7 February 1923 and the Superiors decided, "the present practice of the culpa shall be continued as in the past. The Superiors Regular will decide on the nature of any change to be made". The General found nothing wrong with the Master's method of avoiding publicly giving corrections to the novices before others, as was the wont in some of the Provinces in Europe. The Novitiate of Mussoorie had been often deplored because of this. The Regular Superior also had the impression that the Master was not suffiently vigilent in the use of money allotted for repairs and furnishings.

3. Nagging strains and growing pains

In their meeting of 8-9 February 1921 that took place at Agra the Regular Superiors had unanimously agreed upon Sardhana as the best suited place for the Novitiate; but they left pending the question of settling on the place for founding the Theologate. Through the General's good offices, the newly professed clerics got a lector of philosophy in the person of Fr Arsenius from the Allahabad Mission. This was a temporary arrangement and the Commissary had to find out a place for these clerics to do their studies for the priesthood. The Bishop of Allahabad, who had proffered the property and the buildings in Joelikote for being used as the Novitiate House, now when it was the question of opening the Study, appeared to have got cold feet. The fact that Mgr Poli of Allahabad and Fr Peter Maria, the Regular of Allahabad, were not seeing eye to eye about certain aspects of pastoral administration, had put a damper on the Bishop's enthusiasm for the Capuchin Study. From the thick correspondence that resulted from the issue of locating the Study in Joelikote, it merges that despite his first irritent refusal, the Bishop gradually softend his position and was no longer averse to the proposed Study of Joelikote. The Capuchin Regular Superiors had entrusted their counterpart in Allahabad to negotiate the deal with the Bishop. For the Regular Superior, an eventual intervention of the General at the Propaganda Fide would go far towards clinching the deal. But in the General's eyes this proposal held out little hope of success. However, some of the Regular Superiors still had their eye on the prospects of erecting the Study at Joelikote. They held that no other station in the Missions as as favourable for the Study as Joelikote precisely because of its climatic conditions.

Meanwhile Fr. General as well as Fr Master were on the look out for ways of financially bolstering up the project of implanting the Order in India. The General mentioned to the Commissary the various aspects to be considered before selecting the place for the Study. It was not merely the question of having a Study in India, but of making it the fruit of the co-operation of each and every one of the Capuchin Misssions there. He was not in a position to assure any financial help but he expressed his good will to do everything possible to make the scheme take off. The Commissary's letter of 9 July to the General presented a very attractive plan for getting out of the deadlocked question of the Study. In order to have full access to the buildings of Joelikote, it was incumbent upon the Order to pay back the Rs 5500 that the Sisters had expended there. And there would necessarily arise other expenses that would not be insignificant for converting the buildings into the Study. All these aspects were studied between the Commissary and Mgr Bernacchione, the Archbishop of Agra and the two come to the conclusion that the most feasible way to provide for the Study was to make available to the Students the first floor of the Friary of Mussoorie, just as it had been in 1880-88. This floor had ever since remained unused, since the Fathers had the second floor all to themselves. This locale would be enough for the Study as there were 14 serviceable rooms. The Friary's proximity to the two colleges, instead of being a minus point, may be viewed in favourable light. It could be a way of edifying the boys of the colleges and might occasion the birth of vocations to the Order. One of the boys had already joined the Capuchins.

Lest the past repeat itself, the Commissary proposed a series of practical measures to be adopted as regards the transfer of the Study to Mussoorie. Since the Fathers of Agra had been keeping a jealous eye on their Friary ever since its establishment by Mgr Jacopi, certain pre-emptive steps had to be taken to reassure these Friars that the collocation of the Study in Mussoorie would not deprive them of their "summer villa". Alienating the friars of Agra would be asking for trouble, as it had verified more than once in the past. Over and above this, it was also the official summer residence of the Archbishop of Agra, where he has the full liberty to play host to his clergy as and when he likes. And he would not like to stay at a place as a guest of someone else. Therefore, the Commissary insisted that the status quo be preserved at the Friary and that the Students and their Lectors form part of the local Fraternity. At least as a provisional arangement, this would, without incurring over-much money or energy, enable the Students to continue their studies without interruption. The General was already back from his American tour when this letter reached Rome.

The Commissary's letter crossed the one by the General and curiously, the contents too overlapped. While both concurred in the idea of translocating the Study to Mussoorie, they differed on the way of its execution. Contrary to the General's plan of placing the entire Friary of Mussoorie at the disposal of the Capuchin Students, the Commissary was of the opinion that the same Friary should also continue serving the missionaries of Agra as their resort. If the friars were to know that they had to give up their Friary in favour of the Students, there would be undesirable reaction on their part. Besides, buying a new house for the Fathers of Agra and keeping it open throughout the year would cost the earth. The house should be equipped for being both a summer villa as well as a sanatorium. It has to be, moreover, capacious enough as to accodomate the Guardian, the Archbishop, the chaplains to the various institutions, and the guests. Besides, there was also an economic aspect in having the Fathers maintain their residence at the Study. If the military chaplain of Landour were not a member of the Fraternity of the Study, his salary would not be available for the maintenance of the students. The Commissary was of the view that even if the Study had an independent administration, it should function at least "ad experimentum", in consonance with the rights of the Guardian.

It did not take long before the plan for the shifting of the Study to Mussoorie was in circulation and it was received by many with reservation.

There is much in favour of this move, yet I am not without fears for the future. In my opinion there are many objections against this step, the most serious being the different departments that are seeking shelter there. Besides His Grace, the Regular Superior, the Parish Priest, there will be a regular going and coming for 4 or 5 months during summer of Tuscan Fathers needing a rest. I am afraid the regular observance will suffer much. Moreover the comunity will be made up of priests of different natinalities. Do you think, Most Rev. Father, that this mixture of priests and nationalities will work? If they were all employed for the same purpose, ie, the training of the students, I may be made believe it may work. But in the case of Mussoorie where the end and purpose of the greater part of the priests will be quite different I seriously doubt it will ever work. I have one year and a half of experience and I can say it requires an amount of prudence and tactfulness to the direct a community of so many different elemetns, though we are all aiming at the same end. Should the Superior of Mussoorie not be a Tuscan it may make things worse still. In my opinion and in the opinion of all the Fathers of my community the Study House should be separate and exist by itself, and therefore, no better choice could be made than Joelikote.

The Master also forwarded another letter in the same tone to Fr Peter Mary, asking him to write to the General in support of Joelikote as the venue for the Study. "It is a thousand times better to make a few thousand rupees extra expenses than to destroy the work we so splendidly commenced". Fr Peter believed that a hilltop within the vicinity of Shampura was more ideally placed than even Joelikote. The General made it clear that the presence of the holidaying missionaries in the Study would be "inopportune" and "damaging" for the students. It was public knowledge that quite a few friars think that during holidays they are dispensed from the choral obligation; and exemplariness could not be expected to be the strong point of all the friars. While the Archbishop, the Regular Superior and the Military Chaplian could reside at the Study, some alternate arrangements had to be made for the holiday-makers. The General's position coincided with the Commissary's as regards making the Study independent, however, without detriment to the prerogatives of the Guardian and the properties of the Frairy. The General also assuaged the Master's fears by saying that he had directed the Regular Superior to "choose another house at Sardhana or in its surroundings as recreation house" for the holiday-makers.

The Commissary set about organzing the translocation of the Study to Mussoorie, which would take place only after the Novice Master's return from his holidays in Belgium. Fr Arsenius would substitute the Master in the latter's absence, which would of about eight months' duration. And it would be Fr Arsenius who would be moving to Mussoorie along with the students. The Commissary had already found an ideal house in Mussoorie to serve as the villa for the friars. It was close to St Emilian's Church. It could be bought for Rs 40,000, though initially the owners had insisted on Rs 42,000. The Mission Council and the Archbishop were under the impression that Fr General himself would pay the amount. The General was "not a little surprised" at being informed of the plan to acquire a house for the Fathers at such an enormous expense. What he had in mind was the refurnishing of one of the houses and not the buying of another one. The amount corresponding to S£ 10,000 from the "Opera Serafica" that had been sent to the Commissary could be used for the repairs and the adapting of the house that the General had already indicated; if it did not suffice, the rest could be taken from the proceeds of the sale of the building "Calidonia" at Dehra Dun. Besides, there was no urgency involved in readying a new house for the clerics who will be finishing their novitiate. Fr Master had left Mussoorie on 5 November and passed through Lahore en route for Bombay. Fr Arsenius who took over as acting Master of the Novices and Guardian saw every ground for being optimistic about the future of the Novitiate in India.

On 5 December the Commissary received the decree of 9 November 1923, re-confirming him in office; but he would no longer be the Regular Superior of Agra. Fr Christopher of Castel del Piano was elected Regular Superior of Agra. Since Fr Christopher would not accept the new charge and had written to the Superiors about it, the Commissary continued to act as Regular Superior, awaiting Rome's intervention. The Commissary expressed his willingness to be relieved of his charge in favour of the new Regular Superior But if he were to continue in office, he felt he might need some official documents that would strengthen his position while executing the plans that had already been agreed upon. He was afraid that his position had become more vulnerable, as he was no longer the Regular Superior of Agra and Mussoorie came under the jurisdiction of the Agra Mission. Later, however, Fr Christopher accepted the appointment and Fr. John Baptist continued being the General Commissary.

Fr. General insisted that the Commissary's office be distinct from that of the Regular Superior. From Brazil where he was on visit, he wrote to the General Procurator in unambiguous terms about this. In the same way the Commissary's appointment ipse facto empowered him to carry out his mission and so was not in need of any other documents to reinforce his position. To the Commissary's mortification, he was told to his face that he had no mandate to do any innovation in Mussoorie.

The Novitiate of Sardhana and the youg friars there remained ever close to the General's heart. Even when away from Rome he found time to write to the friars in India to remind them of their obligation to carry through the Church's directives on building up an indigenous clergy. And the General Superiors remained decidedly committed to the Novitiate of Sardhana and the Study of Mussoorie and they insisted that the Commissary implement the plans already agreed upon. Only in case they prove to be "absolutely" inoperative should an alternative be thought of. Bowing to this express directive from the General Superiors, the Commissary went ahead to open "ex experimentum" the "Study of Mussoorie" at the earliest possible opportunity. The Fathers felt sore at being criticised by the other Missionaries for their reluctance to leave the Friary of Mussoorie for the Study.

The Commissary's move to go ahead with opening the "Study of Mussoorie" was sounding the alarm and it stirred up a veritable hornet's nest. With crusading zeal the Regular Superior of Agra took up the cudgels on behalf of his aggrieved confreres and their "Sanatorium", declaring that he could not go against the united mind of his missionaries. Fr Christopher was quite succesful to mobilise public opinion in his favour even in Tuscany in Italy. He told the Provincial and Fr Remegius that all the missionaries "from the first to the last" were up in arms over the decision to start the Study at Mussoorie. The Provincial Superiors in Tuscany expressed their regret at having surrendered the House of Sardhana for the Novitiate.

The Commissary's was no enviable position, as he found himself constrained to take an open stand against the Friars of his own Province in his accepting to carry out faithfully his mission. Without a doubt he was duty-bound to obey his superiors and he resolved to do it no matter what the consequeneces were. He begged the General Superiors to instruct the Regular Superior of Agra to let him carry out the project approved by the General. The turn of events resulted from the fact that when project had been conceived and approved when he himself had been the Regular Superior. But the situation had altered radically with the incumbency of a new Superior and he himself now had to get the clearing from him before carrying out anything in the Friary of Mussoorie, which was part of the Agra Mission. In order to calm the agitated spirits the Commissary had even promised that he would get for the Study a professor of theology from Tuscany.

In this war of words the Archbishop of Agra thought that the opposition of the Regular Superior and his friars did not make sense. When it concerns the common good of all the Capuchin Missions in India, the private good should give way. Actually the Mission of Agra is not asked to make any sacrifice, as the General Superiors were asking only for the use of the first floor which Mgr Jacopi had expressly intended as a Novitiate House. As the Fathers would have the full second floor all to themselves, they had to begrudge and the first floor had not served them for anything at all. Hence, he wished that the Commissary himself take the initiative and suggest to the General Superiors to give precise orders to the Regular Superior of Agra regarding the use of the Friary for the Study. Such a step would as a matter of fact would enable the Regular Superior to easily shrug off the pressures exerted by the Missionaries.

The Commissary's letter of 1 October 1924 spoke of an undeclared truce, as he reported that three clerics and Fr Arsenius had already taken up quarters at the Friary of Mussoorie and that on that very day three others would be joining them. But he was uncertain whether the truce would hold on for long. When the Students reached Mussoorie the Guardian was away in Agra and he was not able to return to Mussoorie for three weeks on account of inundation. On reaching home, to his dismay he found that the Commissary was already in control there. For Fr Louis, the mandato from the General did not stand, and the Commissary was an usurper.

And forthwith came like a greased lightening Rome's intervention. Without mincing his words the General told the Regular Superior that neither he nor any of his Fathers should obstruct the Commissary from executing what had already been decided and that there was no question of reconsidering what had already been agreed upon. The Commissary's mandate was not limited to the Novitiate of Sardhana, the Regular Superior was warned. It took two months for Fr General's letter of 15 August to reach its destination. However, the Regular Superior, "with all trust and respect ever inspired by filial submission", begged leave to make some observations. He said that in May he had given his consent to the Commissary to take the Students to Mussoorie as a provisional measure. He could not, on his own authority, take a definitive decision against the mind of the entire Mission. His fighting words did not bode well for the nascent institution.

With the stationing of the clerics at Mussoorie the curtain came down on the first scene of the tug of war between the General Superiors and the Regular Superior of Agra on the question of turning a part of the Mission's House at as a Study for the young Indian Capuchins who were completing their one-year novitiate at Sardhana. It was with a tinge of nostalgia that Fr Arsenius looked back to the year he spent at Sardhana as the Acting Master of the Novices, as the Master was out of station. But Fr Arnold who was in the meanwhile came to assist him, proved to be a very good companion but could not enter into the rhythem of life in the community.

The period between 2 March 1923 when Br Felix of Sardhana made his profession and 18 September 1924 the day Fr Arsenius left for Mussoorie with 3 clerics, was indeed resultful. In these eighteen months eleven friars had graduated from the Novitiate of Sardhana: Brs Antony Ahmid, Lawrence Colaço, Bernard Whelan (lay br), Pascal Blacklock, Joseph Fernandez, Leonard Fernandez, Crispin Saldhana, Vincent Sathu from Sardhana, Fidelis Gonsalvez, Benedict Leo (Lahore) and Francis D'Silva. On 15 March 1923 Fr Symphorian was appointed Vicar of the Fraternity. On 12 April Fr Oscar returned to Lahore and Fr Arsenius became the Vice Master on 4 May. Among these, Lawrence, Leonard, Vincent and Bonaventure were assigned for Agra; Antony, Pascal, Joseph and Bendict for Lahore; Bernard and Raphael for Allahabad; Crispin for Simla; Francis for Bombay, and Fidelis for Ajmer. When on 5 November 1923 Fr John Capistran left for Belgium, Fr Arsenius took his place and Fr Arnold from Lahore reached Sardhana as Vice Master. Br Florentine from Belgium joined the community on 3 May 1924.

4. "Study of Mussoorie" - treading a tightrope

The Regular Superiors in their annual assembly at Agra on 10 February 1925, were given the facts and figures regarding the Novitiate and the Study.

The Commissary General reported that as a result of three years' work, there were now six Students in Mussoorie, 4 in Philosophy and 2 in Theology, and one professed Cleric was waiting in Sardhana, coaching in Latin before proceeding to Philosophy. Four Lay-Brothers professed were working in their respective Missions, giving satisfaction, while one Cleric, who entered the Novitiate as a Deacon, was already ordained Priest at Ajmer the 24th of last month, and is doing very good work in the school there. In the Novitiate there were one Cleric novice and one Lay Brother, and two postulants. By the end of the year it was hoped to have 7 or 8 more novices. During these three years 23 were admitted in the Novitiate, out of which number Professor Noronha and Bro. Seraphin died. Four were dismissed and one left of his own accord.

The Commissary was far from crying wolf when he expressed his fears to the General Secretary that on account of the new Regular Superior's intransigence various problems would crop up in the day-to-day running of the Study. The Guardian, who was a nominee of the Regular Superior, had already made it known that he would take orders only from the Regular Superior and that everyone else in the House was expected to be under his immediate direction. The fact that the permission given to the Commissary to accommodate the clerics in the Friary of Mussoorie was only a "provisional" measure, signified that the Regular Superior was declaredly unprepared to bury the hatchet. The temporary concession was a mere exercise in papering over the cracks. His letter of 30 October to the General was, to say the least, a remonstrance against the General's decision to house the Study at Mussoorie; he would not take the Commissary's interference lying down.

The hapless Commissary now found himself in a fix; lest he should create a scene before the students, he adopted a low profile and let the "young superior" have everything in his own way, even though canonically it was irregular. The Commissary's remonstrance to the Regular Superior against the directive to pay ahead of the month Rs 50 per every cleric and Lay Brother, fell on deaf ears. The only concession that the Regular Superior was prepared to make was in allowing him to do the payment at the end of the month. In return for the money the Guardian would only board the students and it was up to the Commmissary to see to all the other sundry expenses. He was curtly told that he had no right to know how the fees of the students were expended. The situation was especially mortifying for the other friars from other provinces and nations. The Commissary was at loggerheads with the friars of his own Mission because he had obeyed the General and now pleaded with the General Superiors for a more decisive intervention. The Regular Superior was more intent on buying time and retaining everything under his thumb than on being concerned with the welfare of the Order. The Commissary's request for being equipped with papers to strengthen his position vis-a-vis the Regulat Superior of Agra, was found irrelevant as by the fact of his appointment he had been invested with all the necessary powers. Fr Arsenius, the Director of the Study, too gave a picture of the sad mood that prevailed within the House. They were like guests overstaying their welcome. He totally ignored the Commissary and his comportment especially in a religious house of formation left something to be desired.

As pre-informed, the Regular Superior convoked the Mission Council to deliberate on the question of assigning a part of the Friary of Mussoorie for the Capuchin clerics. The meeting took place on 23 January 1925 at Agra and it was decided in one accord to request the General to translocate the Study to another place and leave the whole Friary for the Fathers of Agra. This decision was not in any way to be misinterpreted as a sign of the disinterestedness of the Agra Mission in the forming of indigenous friars. The General's argument that the issue was no longer open for discussion because the decision had already been taken, was not favourably seen by the Fathers. The question was of such vital import to the Mission, that the decision needed to be reviewed.

It was from Brazil that the General finally made his decided voice heard in Agra. There was also a veiled threat in it. It was enough for the Regular Superior to say clearly if he was prepared or not to fall in line with the dispositions of the General Superiors, and for the rest, the Superiors themselves would see to that. Fr Christopher was all convinced that it was a godsend to act martyr for the cause of the Mission. After all he hd served the Mission for thirty-two years and wished to retire to private life. But Fr Remegius, while sympathising with him, counselled his interlocutor to have patience for a few more months; what he had in mind was the Order's forthcoming General Chapter. The Provincial and the Archbishop too wrote to Fr Christopher recommending caution and patience.

Even though the Order's highest authority had pronounced on the point at issue, it just could not induce the Regular Superior and his nominee Fr Louis at Mussoorie to take this long-distance intervention lying down. While they had no second thoughts about the inalienable right of the Agra Mission to the full use of the Friary of Mussoorie, they thought that the General was twisting their arms, when ordering them to bow to the wishes of the Commissary. As far as the Commissary was concerned, the anomalous situation remained unchanged at Mussoorie. The forceful intervention from Rome had been like water off a duck's back. The Regular Superior of Agra expected the Commissary himself to give the good example to his students by obeying the Local Superior. Before this unyielding defiance, the Commissary who had himself been the Regular of Agra, had no other go than draw in his horns and the two sides agreed on a policy of non-belligerence. In order to circumvent the situations of confrontation, the Commissary and the Regular Superior together arrived at the pragmatic solution that the Director and the Students would have their own kitchen and dining hall. However, the cold war atmosphere hung heavily in the house.

The Meeting of the Regular Superiors held in February 1925 had taken the decision to open a Seraphic College in view of fostering vocations to the Order. The Archbishop of Agra had permitted the use of the church and palace in Tajpur in the District of Bijnnor, that had been constructed by the Rajah of Tajpur in 1913. "Tajpur had a salaried Priest and a house, and the Archbishop of Agra agreed to let V.R.Fr Commissary appoint a Father, who would draw the emolument and be the head of the School". But it could not be begun because of opposition. Knowing that the General was back in Rome, the Commissary forwarded to him a lengthy letter. Both the Novitiate and the Study were taking their course. The Archbishop of Simla went to Mussoorie to confer the Minor Orders to two of the clerics. It was the turn of the Commissary to be the Administrator of the Archdiocese of Agra in the absence of Mgr Bernacchione, who had gone to Italy. The Vicar General had refused to accept the office. The presence of the Archbishop in Rome was a help for the General Superiors to have their finger on the pulse as regards the Order's Novitiate and Study in India. While there was no need for the Commissary to fret about money matters, he was to strain every nerve to accomplish his mission. It was regrettable that very few friars in India were collaborating wholeheartedly for the realization of such a noble cause. For all their pains, they were seeing their own friars in India putting a spoke in their wheel. Much to the Commissary's chagrin, from Florence the Archbishop informed the Commissary that he could see no other way of restoring peace and cordiality among his missionaries than the one of leaving the entire Friary of Mussoorie for them and moving the Study to another location.

Eight months after his arrival in Mussoorie with the clerics, Fr Arnold sent a report on the Study of Mussoorie. The list of marks secured by the students in the previous examinations was also included. Fr Louis da Seggiano, the Guardian and parish priest, began teaching Latin. Fr Arsenius was the Lector of philosophy, moral theology, canon law and catechetics. Over above this he was also the Director of the Students. Fr Romuald of Subbiano, who was not able to teach in English, was teaching in Latin Holy Scripture and dogmatics. He was fully satisfied with the ambience at Mussoorie and the quality of the students. Everything held out much hope that the project of implanting of implanting the Order was going strong. He enclosed a list of books that he desired to get for the Study. In his reply the General thanked Fr Arsenius for the precious service he was rendering for laying the foundation for the Order in India and said that the requested books would be sent to Mussoorie at the earliest. Fr Master's letter too contained communicated good tidings.

The General expressed his happiness over the way the Novitiate and the Study functioned. The Capuchin Curia in Rome had already taken up with the Sacred Congregation for the Oriental Churches the case of accepting into the Capuchin Order candidates from the Syro-Malabar Church. The first candidate from the Syro-Malabar Church to seek admission in the Capuchin Order was J. John Elapunkal of the Diocese of Changanacherry. He was accepted as cleric-postulant on 27 October 1926 and inside a fortnight, viz on 9 November, received the habit of the Capuchin novice. On 4 November 1925 the Commissary forwarded the nulla osta of the Ordinary of Changanacherry to Rome; and on the day it reached the Capuchin Curia, a formal petition dated 23 November 1926 was submitted to the Sacred Congregation for the Oriental Churches for getting the indult for the "accomodamento al rito latino". J. John Elapunkal's religious name was Br Philip of Changanacherry. But he did not stay on to make his profession.

The enforced peace could not hold on for long in Mussoorie. It was like the calm before the storm. From April 1926 the Students and their Director formed into a separate community. It was only in the choir that the two sides assembled together. Here too the Guardian found the anomaly because he held that the Students could legitimately accuse themselves of their faults only before him their Guardian. On the election of the new General Minister the Students of Mussoorie sent a letter of felicitation to the newly elected.

At present we are ten students all told. Four of us are doing the course of Philosophy and six that of Theology. We are sincerely grateful to our Superiors who hit upon this place for the House of Studies, since its fresh climate is very conducive to good health and study, which benefits we enjoy to the full. We are glad to say that our number is ever on the increase and we pray God for all our Superiors, that as He has hitherto always come to their aid, will always assist them. We do not doubt that you will do all in your power to enable many more Indian youths to enter the militia of St Francis, who will, by example andby labour, bring the light of the Gospel to our dear Mother Country that sits in the darkness of idolatry and superstition. We assure you, Very Rev. Father, that this, after our own sanctification, is what we have at heart, namely, to bring India to Christ through St Francis. Thus following int he footsteps of our early fathers who were practically the pioneers of missionary work in India after the great Apostle St Thomas.

The Commissary was reminded of his duty to see that the strength of the Novitiate Fraternity did not fall below the canonical number. In the same way it fell to the Commissary to duly conduct the Evaluations before the novices are admitted for profession. The General was eager to know the real economic state in which the two Capuchin institutions in India found themselves. So far the Commissary had not sent to him the accounts of the two Houses. He also wished to know why only two of the nine novices then in the Novitiate were being paid their monthly quota of Rs 50 each. But the Commissary was not to be unduly worried about finding the wherewithall for maintaining the Novitiate and the Study. The Master had fallen ill and had retired to Lahore. He was place was taken by Fr Symphorian of Paris. Frs Hilary and Fr Albert were appointed as Vice Masters. Fr Hilay was made "the ordinary confessor of the novices" and Br Florian was put in charge of the infirmary.

5. At the slippery slope

There was a marked cooling down of enthusiasm for the Novitiate and the Study widespread among the Capuchin missionaries in India. This mounting indifference at times grew into veiled opposition which got condensed into depreciatory comments and open reluctance in collaborating. The rumour that the Students would have to quit the Friary of Mussoorie with the approaching election of new General Superiors, was intended to take the wind out of the Commissary's sails. Though in terms of numbers the Novitiate of Sardhana and the Study of Mussoorie did come up with the goods, the symptoms were too evident to be ignored that the project of establishing the Order in India had come under the grip of a mysteriously debilitating malaise. This was a home truth for everyone concerned. Therefore, without the least intention to question of validity of the enterprise, the new team of General Superiors decided to carry out an diagnostic investigation. All those who had been, in one way or the other involved directly in the unfolding of the project, were solicited to make for the General Superiors a critical evaluation of their own experience and propose concrete ways and means for making good the failures and put the Indian foundation on the right track. The interventors were: Frs John Baptist Tirrinanzi (General Commissary for the Novitiate and the Study), Regular Superiors Armond (Ajmer), Felix of Anvers (Lahore), Sylvester (Simla), Christopher (Agra), Leo (Bombay), Mgr Raphael Bernachioni (Agra) Mgr Angelo Poli (Allahabad), Frs Symphorian of Paris (Guardian and Novice Master, Sardhana), Andrew of Cospiena (Maltese and member of Sardhana Fraternity), Albert of Borgo S. Lorenzo (Vice Master), Hilary of Arezzo (Sardhana), Louis of Seggiano (Guardian, Mussoorie), Arsenius of St Agatha (Director of Students, Mussoorie). Fr Callixtus had tabulated these reports and had them condensed into a five-page "Memorandum" with another five-page "Annesso".

In the light of his five-year long experience at Sardhana and Mussoorie, Fr Arsenius thought of making the Superiors in Rome visualise what it was like running the Novitiate and the Study in India. They only needed to immagine the complexity of the Capuchin reality of Italy, with the Novitiate at Cesena and the Study at Porretta, a Roman as Provincial and a Venetian, a Sicilian, a Sardinian and a Genoese as Definitors, none of whom having lived in a Fraternity for the last 20-30 years, while each overburdened with the respective cultural baggage of his provenance. The institutional cumbursomeness alone explained why it was heavy going at the Indian Novitiate and the Study. Each friar upheld the sacrosanct traditions of his own Province so much so that it was impossible even to uniformize the colour and the cut of the religious habit. To confound the confusion, practically everyone of these friars had been for years a lone wolf in his Mission.

The Memorandum dated 8 October 1926 was inequivocl in recommending that the Bombay (= Damaun) Mission which was about to be abandoned by the five Maltese Capuchins, be taken over by their counterparts in India. On 6 August 1926 the Maltese had been issued the Obedience for leaving Damaun for Allahabad. The Province of Alsazia was in a position to man this Mission adequately. Having a firm foothold in Damao was a must because it alone provided the effective means for locally tapping the vocational potential in South India. By way of corraboration he laid forth facts and figures of other religious Orders in India. That the Capuchin Damaun Mission was strategic for the unfolding of the plan for the establishment of the Order was vouched for by the members of the Third Order of St Francis of Assisi. The officials of the Third of Fraternities in Damaun sent a joint-petition to the Capuchin General Minister, expressing their "pain and regret that the Capuchin Fathers are to be removed from Bombay". The letter went on to say that "within the three years that the good Capuchin Fathers are with us three Congregations were formed viz, Andheri, Bandra and Byculla with the total membership of 401". As a result of the ministry of these friars "3 have entered the Novitiate at Sardhana, about 12 are preparing for the same and we are sanguine enough to hope for a growing number of vocations as our Order becomes better known and better understood". With reference to the problem of vocations to the Order strangley, the boot seemed to be on the other foot. To their painful surprise, the General Superiors realized that the Regular Superiors in India were trying to economise at the expense of the Order's development, and so they strongly remonstrated with the Regular Superiors against it.

According to Fr Callixtus, the Superiors had every right to make use of the whole of the Friary of Mussoorie as the Study and the Agra Mission could not object to it. Therefore, the question of compensating the Mission of Agra for the use of the Study just did not stand. The Memorandum was scathing about the Commissary's ineptitude at doing the job and the bulk of the blame for the malfunctioning of the Novitiate and the Study was laid at his door. Fr Callixtus proposed the nomination of a General Visitor to take the appropriate decisions on the spot. Fr John Baptist's term of office as General Commissary was drawing to close, Fr Calixtus proposed the names of Frs Pius of Lorient, Armond of Vannes and Arsenius of S. Agatha as fitting candidates for being nominated for the post.

The Memorandum with its Annesso was intended to serve the General Superiors as facilitator. The Commissary wanted that the status quo be maintained and and an amount of Rs 30,000 be given to the Mission of Agra by way of compensation; it would be one half of the cost for putting up a summer villa for the missionaries. The Regular Superior of Agra pressed for the shifting of the Study from Mussoorie to Neemuch in the Diocese of Ajmer. The Regular Superior of Bombay thought that Nasik, where enough land could be available as a gift, would be suitable for stationing the Capuchin Study. For Mgr Poli, there was little hope of getting Joelikote for the Capuchins. Therefore he suggested that they think of opening their Study at Almora, a place considered as a real sanatorium.

While the Regular Superior of Simla had no proposals to make, the majority preferred to leave the Study at Mussoorie and to retain the Capuchin presence in the Mission of Damau as a contact point for getting vocations. Fr Symphorian of Paris saw the imperative need for reorienting the whole project in view of giving origin to a Province of Indian Capuchins. Since it was the South of the country that promises to be the source of vocations, maintaining the Novitiate in Sardhana would be only creating unnecessary problems for the candidates. Besides, climatically Mussoorie was proving to be hazardous for some of the students. Br Pascal was allowed to go to the Seminary of Allahabad for his four-year course of theology. The Commissary had the belief that the Friary of Mussoorie was destined to serve the birth and growth of the Order in India. The first floor which had never been used by the Fathers of Agra, sufficed for the Study. It could be expanded as called for.

The feedback from the missionaries helped to identify a number of problems plaguing the Novitiate and the Study. The Regular Superiors were reluctant to spare hands for the joint venture. The unwillingness, or in some cases, the inability to follow a life of regular observance disqualified many a good missionary from being placed in the houses of formation. Adequate attention was not being paid to imparting to the Lay Brothers a solid religious formation. The Regular Superiors had decided in their meeting that took place on 5-7 February 1923 that "it will be optional for the Superiors Regular to leave their Lay-Brothers in the house of the Novitiate after simple profession". The decision was motivated by the preoccupation to cut down on the expenses. Since maintaining the friars in the formation house costed the Missions in terms of money, there was the temptation for the Regular Superior to recall the Lay Brothers to the Missions as soon as they finished their one-year Novitiate. And thereafter each of them would be left to fend for himself as he would get caught up in the hectic activities of the Mission. In order to make the training less expensive, the Regular Superiors had earlier "suggested that less should be paid for a Lay Brother than for a cleric novice".

Worldly-wise policies were also adopted as regards accepting candidates for becoming Lay Capuchins.

It was decided that only those should be received as Lay Brothers whom the various Regular Superiors should send. Others should be received only so far as might be necessary to maintain a supply for the Novitiate and for the House of Studies. If a Mission needs a Lay Brother for whom no payment has been made, the Regular Superior shall give an alms to the Commissary on his transfer.

Fr. Arsenius, who had the reputation of being the only one friar to stick on at the Novitiate against all the odds ever since its inception, saw a good future for the Capuchin Order in India. But it would be on the rocks unless appropriate measures were taken to redeem it. The practical wisdom demonstrated by the Regular Superior in order to steer clear of the collision course between the friars of the Study and the Guardian of the Friary, had not in resulted in creating an atmosphere of reciprocal trust and cordiality. What was unnerving the friars of the Mission of Agra was the fact that no serious effort was made to find a way out of cul-de-sac ever since the time the Students arrived there five years ago. Meanwhile a lot of water flowed under the bridge and the presence of the Students and the Staff became a thorn in the side as far as the friars of Agra were concerned. And the floor where the students were staying became overcrowded.

Mgr. Bernacchioni saw the whole problem from a different perspective. Since North India was in every way an expanse dotted with peoples among whom the Good News had never been announced, Fr General had acted with wisdom in opening the Mission in North India. The whole problem has turned out thorny because the Capuchin Missionaries are too much preoccupied with the idea of opening their Houses on the hills, disregarding the reality that such areas are sparsely populated and life is all too costly there. Since the future missionaries have to be trained in situ the Capuchins need to open the Houses of Formation in the plains where the people live. He put his finger on the flaw in the arguments of those who were looking out for hill-stations or were eager to move to South India, when he pointed out that the Diocesan seminaries in the plains in North India fared well and the clerics were able to do their studies. He saw the issue from the point of view of the people to be evangelized and the candidates to be trained and not from those of the Friars from Europe.

To have a steady flow of vocations to their Order, the Capuchins needed to get established in the areas where Catholic communities flourished.

If our Father General is in real earnest of success, if he wishes to establish the Order in India, he cannot confine himself within the sphere of Capuchin Missions, where Catholics are few and conversions scanty; but he should establish monasteries in such places where Christianity flourishes and is firmly established and where there is real prospect for a big number of recruits for the priesthood and religious vocations.

Besides, any arrangement that did not provide for the transfer of the Study lock, stock and barrel from the Friary of Mussoorie will have only a cosmetic effect. At the same time nothing can be far from the truth than to put the rumour into circulation that the Fathers of the Mission of Agra are against the Novitiate and the Study in India. As a matter of fact no Mission in India has made as much a sacrifice for the nascent instituion than the Fathers of Agra.

The suspense arising from the uncertain future of the Novitiate and the Study had tellingly a demoralising effect on the students as well. It was difficult to say if the rumours in the air had some basis or they resulted from the kite-flying exercise of some friars.

We suffer much on reason of the uncertainty of the aim we have to intend; and this uncertainty has a bad effect on the minds of our pupils. Some missionaries speak in one way, others in another; and I experienced myself during the year that our Students get troubled for it.

The General Commissary tearfully confessed that he had been labouring under trying conditions especially when it came to getting suitable hands for the Novitiate and the Study. It was difficult to find among the missionaries many friars disposed to live the life in the community. Some of the Regular Superiors would keep insisting on recalling one or the other of the friars to their Missions, even during the course of the academic year. Since the Regular Superiors were distantly stationed, it was practically impossible for the Commissary to consult them on important issues that needed urgent consultation. In order to impart an adequate religious training to the Lay Brothers, it was necessary to make a three-year course mandatory for all the Lay Brothers once they terminated their Novitiate. During these years they should be under the jurisdiction of the Commissary. Over above these problems, the financial side of the Novitiate and the Study, always appeared to a difficult one. The Commissary was finding himself at the receiving from all sides; the neo-professed had to stay on at Sardhana, because the space allotted for the Study at Mussoorie had become overcrowded. And the same fate was fast overtaking Sardhana and the Novice Master was at the end of his tether, and he wanted to create accommodation for the clerics who were now students of philosophy. An air of uneasiness hung heavily over Sardhana and Mussoorie. Even years later the Commissary believed that with a dose of goodwill the Friary of Mussoorie would have suited the Missionaries of Agra and the clerics for their Study.

The Commissary remained not a little surprised that his letters to Rome had drawing blank since some time. Taking the hint that the General was reluctant to get the Order into the red especially as his term of office was drawing to a close, the Commissary thought of finding a way out of the cul-de-sac. He had his own share of his patrimony in Florence, amounting to Rs 14,000 sent to India. With this amount he wanted to have a separate House of Study constructed in the vast grounds of the Friary of Mussoorie. The Superior of Mussoorie was accorded with this plan and they together selected the spot for the envisaged Study. The Superior who was himself an adpet in construction works, had assured that the amount sufficed for the scheme and that he would himself undertake the operation. But by the time the liquid cash arrived, the Commissary's own position was radically altered and so the amount was sent back to Florence. Finally, to his five previous missives he got in an unsealed envelope a letter dated 14 December 1926, thanking him for "the sacrifices borne, the hardships sustained and the good promoted". The new Regular Superior of Agra, Fr Haycinth of Leghorn, was appointed ad interim General Commissary for the Novitiate and the Study till a definitive arrangement would be worked out for both the institutions of the Order.

6. Taking Soundings in Damaun, Mylapore and Mangalore

The arrival of the Maltese Capuchins in the Diocese of Damaun, near Bombay, appear to have much prospects for the Capuchins in India. There was growing collaboration between them and the other Capuchin missionaries in India. Fr Leo was present on the occasion of the inauguration of the Novitiate of Sardhana. It was through the interest of these friars that candidates were being selected for the Order, four of whom were already in the Novitiate. A benefactor had already eight acres of land to the Capuchins, on the one condition that the Capuchins would have a House of theirs erected there. In their annual session of 7 February 1924, the Regular Superiors on one accord agreed to accept this generous offer presented through the Maltese frairs. The proposed House in Bombay (Damaun) was immediately to serve as the House of Philosophy and eventually the House to be had in Madras (Mylapore) was to be the House of Theology. But the Regular Superior of Allahad had his own doubts if their new poposal would find favour with the General Superiors in Rome. It did not take more than a day before the Commissary began acting like a weathercock as regards transferring the Study from Mussoorie. He wrote to the General to say that he preferred the opening of the Study at Mussoorie where everything was in readiness than at Bombay where they had to start everything from scratch. And Bombay may not guarantee the "necessary freedom and privacy" for the Study. Apart from the enormous expenses involved, it would need a temporary accommodation of one to two years before the new Study could be constracted and made habitable. The Superiors in Rome wanted the Commissary to execute the plan already agreed upon of beginning the Study in the existing Friary of Mussoorie. This communication from Rome forestalled the execution of the Regular Superiors' decision to find out an alternate location for the Study other than the House of Mussoorie.

It was to the Capuchins in Damaun that Mgr Teixeira (later Bp), the Administrator of the Diocese of Mylapore, extended the invitation to assume the chaplaincy of the Franciscan Sisters of Mary "who are very numerous there". They were offered a house with "two halls, a dining room and ten rooms and extensive land around and near with cajuarina plantations". The place was on the seachore "at Kovelong some 15 miles south of Mylapore and within easy reach of Madras". There were already some young Brahmin converts desirous of joining the Order. If needed "other lands fit for cultivation" and the "Luz Church" (built in 1516) in Mylapore could be handed over to the friars. They would prefer Maltese or German friars and the Administrator promises to "pay tha passages from Malta and Germany of the Fathers and Brothers and give them maintenance ultil such time as they are to support themselves". Accordingly the negotiations were initiated. If Mylapore was not intended to be a formation House, it is either the Regular Superior or the Provincial and not the Commissary for the Novitiate who should be occupying himself in it. The Order could not spare personnel for a new undertaking in India. Meanwhile the Administrator asked the Commissary to suspend the negotiations because Friars Minor were ready to accept the offer.

About the decision of the General not to proceed with the negotiations for accepting the offer of the house in Mangalore. An added reason for opening a House in Mangalore was the possibility of getting well-disposed candidates for the Order. In a long letter of 24 June 1926 addressed to the newly elected General Minister, the Commissary recounts the ups and downs of the attempt of the Capuchins to open a base in Mangalore, which abounds in potential candidates to religious life and priesthood. Mons Paul Perini SJ had "about twelve years ago" invited Fr Romulus of Pistoia to take possession of "the remains of a Franciscan House that had existed seventy-five years previously" at Monte Mariano, a hillock "eleven miles" away from Mangalore. A two-way railway ticket "by second class amounts to at least Rs 300" from Sardhana to Mangalore. Again 1922 Mgr Perini had personally extended a renewed invitation to the Capuchin General to begin a House at Monte Mariano. But the invitation could not be accepted precisely because of the position taken by the then Apostolic Delegate that on a priority basis it was in North India and not in the South that the Capuchins should be establishing their foundations.

The Commissary, referring to Fr Leo as "Very Rev. Father Superior of Bombay under instruction of the last Father General", said that had taken up the issue again with Mgr Perini whether the Bishop's offer of Monte Mariano still stood. He was told that the invitation to the Capuchin General to convert "the St Francis Church and Friary" into a Capuchin Novitiate or Study or any other instituion, was still valid. But in the meantime as Mgr Perini had been made Bishop of Calicut, he in his capacity as Apostolic Administrator of Mangalore, wanted to sound out the Diocesan Consultors on this proposal of his. Getting the green light from the Consultors, Mgr expressed his hope that if the Capuchins would take over Monte Mariano, for Mangalore it would be an excellent commemoration of the Seventh Centennial of death of St Francis. The proposal to shift the Study to Mangalore evoked a mixed reaction among the missionaries. While the majority welcomed it, some along with Mgr Bernacchione looked at it rather askance. The General Superiors looked forward to getting more details of the scenario floated.

But "receiving urgent stimuli from every part to conclude the deal at the earliest", around 9 April 1926 the Commissary along with the Regular Superior of Agra went to Mangalore to inspect the spot. They then proceeded on their southward journey to Calicut to meet Mgr Perini. The local papers of Mangalore too took interest in this move of the Capuchins. The Regular Superior of Allahabad agreed to send a Father to revamp the Friary and the Commissary intended to open the Friary of Monte Mariano in October 1926 itself. Meanwhile some of the diocesan clergy thought that Monte Mariano would be inconvenient for the Capuchins, as it was too outlying for their clerics to frequent the St Joseph's Seminary. Hence they proposed other sites within the proximity of the Seminary and Commission Agents too joined the fray with attractive prices. Confessing the unpreparedness to buy a house or land, the Commissary wrote "we shall, therefore, do the best we can at Monte Mariano, and afterwards, Dio volente, we shall see whatever we can in the town".

Another press report put a damper on the dream of the Capuchin House of Monte Mariano. The press reported the say-so that the final decision on the transferring of the Monte Mariano to the Capuchins would be taken only the new Bishop of Managalore took charge. Even though the authorities of Nangalore had the Commissary's word for it that the Capuchins would open a House at Monte Mariano, the Study was to remain at Mussoorie, where without incurring heavy expenses, additional facilities could be made for the growing number of clerics. Mangalore could be staffed by two Fathers and a Lay Brother with an eye to recruiting candidates for the Order.

The Secretary of Missions' letter of 14 June 1926 was a great blow to the Commissary. He was stiffly reprimanded for having accepted Monte Mariano without even seeking the permission of the General Superiors, let alone getting the authorisation from them. He was therefore asked to retract his steps and explain to Mgr Perini why he was doing so. The Commissary promptly obliged by writing to Mgr Perini in Calicut and the Acting Administrator of the Mangalore Diocese, taking back his word of accepting the offer of Monte Mariano. While for Mgr Perini the Commissary'e letter was like "bucketful of cold water on the head of someone wishing for a hot bath, and he agreed with the Commissary that such experiences "have to be taken in holy peace for love of God". Fr D'Souza was thoroughly disappointed and returned the Rs 200 that the Commissary had entrusted him with for completing the transfer deeds.

It was the first time that after he had assumed charge as General Commissary that the Secretary of the Missions was writing to him. Till then it had been the General himself who had corresponded with him. It was in effect rubbing salt into his wounds because he was not only given the sack but all that he had done with the consent of the former General for finding out an alternative location for the Study, was being brushed aside without much ado. The reasons adduced for making the plan of transferring the Study to Mangalore appear an object ridicule were the verbatim ones he used to hear in Agra. And it was not difficult for him to put two and two together and conclude that vested interests were settling an old score, in getting that letter sent to him.

While the General Superiors' incisive intervention evoked relief in some of the friars in India, it created consternation in some others. Some of the missionaries still recognized the urgency of opening houses in South India. In case some of them faced insurmountable difficulties in the Missions, they would have somewhere to fall back on, as the friars from Europe could go back to their Provinces in Europe in such eventualities. In the long run some of the Indian friars might succumb to the temptation to leave the Order and become diocesan priests just to be able to work among their own people. Such a costly risk for the Order may be anticipatively aborted if the Order had Houses in the South also. The General Superiors' ad hoc decision to nominate a caretaker at the helm, was a clear indication that they wanted to reformulate the entire project of establishing a Province for the Indian Capuchins in such a way as to make it stay its course.

Tailend: In the history of the establishment of the Capuchin Order in India the Novitiate of Sarhana (1922) marks a quantum leap forward from its namesake of Mussoorie (1880) inasmuch as the former had been exclusive to the natives while the latter was racially open. Despite this avowed openness, the priority to ministring to the European population tipped the balance in favour of introducing "the European way of living" in the Novitiate of Sardhana. It was specified that the Indian Capuchins were to be mentally open to working among their compatriots also. "However, novices ought to be well taught that when they will be in the Indian missions, they must be ready to follow the Indian way of living, according to the conditions and circumstances in which they will find themselves". There was no blinking the fact that the preoccupation to create a "European way of living" through the adoption of statusful adjuncts, took its toll of the meagre funds of the Missions. In 1926 maintaing a cleric in Sardhana/Mussoorie costed annually Rs 600, an amount in stark contrast with the annual Rs 210 needed for training a Capuchin cleric in Europe (1 Indian Ruppee = 10 Italian Lire). Independently of the wrangle over the use of the Friary of Mussoorie, the project's combersomess itself would have drastically cut short its life-span. Thus, structually it was ill-starred as the Capuchin Missions were not in a position to take the strain of upkeeping this white elephant. The interregnum that prevailed in the wake of Fr John Baptist's term of office, gave the Capuchin General Superiors the breathing-space for reviewing the entire project in order to make it functionally feasible and qualitatively productive.