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REFOCUSINGON MGR ANASTASIUS HARTMANN 485 Jesuits for a college he wished to found in Bombay. With the minutiae apatt, it would be the same story over again 28 • 5. Carme/ife missionaries make their bmv If it was too bitter a pili to swallow for the Catroelite missionaries to be reminded time and again that they were neither accredited educationalists nor native speakers of English, they were ever cognizant of the-fact that they had creditably exercised responsibility for the Bombay Vicariate for a century and a half and that they had, therefore, the perfect credentials for the job. They ar– gued that if in the days bygone their being raw hands did not in the least obsta– cle them in their rninistration, the ali-round practical experience and the lin– guistic proficiency they had acquired by then doubtlessly rendered them into still more capable nùssionaries. Even in the area of education the Carmelites had already proved their mettle. Not without reason they quescioned the wis– dom of going English and believed that it would not be to the best of interests of the Vicariate to aim at being fully in tune with the ruling British ambience in India. The Catholic youth were not interested in acquiring higher education in English. Time and time again the Carmelite Fathers said that their faithful in Bombay were not interested to go beyond the three R's and would easily settle for any odd clerical job. They, therefore, held on to the view that the estab– lishment of a university college in the Vicariate would not much alter the con– dition of its members. But others like Mgr Hartmann looked to the foundation of the college as the single panacea for the·Bombay Catholic community's ills, w:ithout, however, upsetting in any way the then status quo 29. 28 B. Vadakkekara, Cap11chitrs in the Bomb'!)'-Poona V icmiates: Their intra11ce a11d exit {1854- 1858), in Collectanea Fra11mca11a 62 (1992) 249-294, documents these events, which tell thei.t own tale. 29 Mon11mcnta A11astasia11a, I, 573-574, Mgr Hartmann to the Prefect of the Propaganda, Cardinal Fransoni, Bombay 3 August 1850: "Porro collegium mihi aliisque res quam maxime necessaria vidctur, tum, ut iuventuti bona ac scientifica educatio detur, tum, ne parentes cogantur, filios suos in ptotestantium collegia mittete. Collegium ac seminarium rev. Patribus Iesuitis traderem. Sed opus est ad evitandas omnes collisiones inter regulares diversi orclinis nimis frequentes, ut duo r.mi pp. Generales Cannelitanorum ac Iesuitarum bene combinent; et ut vicarius apostolicus seminarii ac collegii, sicut totius missionis, sit superior. Cum expe– rientia constet, nationalismum Hibemorum nimis quantum activitati sacerdotum alterius na– tionis obesse, satius rr. Pp. lesuitae ex Anglia, Gallia ve! Alemannia pro Bombaim destinar– entur".
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