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480 BENEDICT VADAKKEKARA landed in Bombay on 15 March 1843 but three years later sailed back to Ireland on reportedly sick-leave. What is known for certain is that from the start he had found himself at loggerheads with Mgr Fortini and the other Carmelites. He had decided to bide his time, as would the later events suggest. Following Mgr Fortini's death in January 1848, the auxiliary made his reappearance in Bombay on 5 November 1848. However, this was soon to upset the applecart and bring on its heel an imprevisible course of events. Mgr Whelan viewed the measures adopted by his Italian confreres for meeting the new challenges as being inadequate and even as an absolute non– starter. To his mind, the Vicariate had no future unless it fell in line with those of Madras and Calcutta which were manned by English-speaking clergy. With this aim in mind, right from the time he had set his foot in India in 1843 Mgr Whelan distanced himself both from his Italian confreres and his immediate superior Mgr Fortini and identified himself more and more with his fellow-Irishmen. After his return to India in 1948, sure enough Mgr Whelan did not go out of his way to smooth his confreres' ruffled feathers. The Italian missionaries who had seen many a summer in India were unable to perceive and appreciate Mgr Whelan's conduct and openly faulted him for excessive nationalism. Since Mgr Whelan's project did not fully coincide with the policies of the Propaganda Fide, the Roman authorities were not able to mediate. Mgr Whelan was so convinced of the soundness of his approach that he saw no room for a half-way house and consequently the missionaries saw themselves ever more estranged from their Apostolic Vicar. And furthermore, his acute problem of alcoholism, which reportedly was past cure, only made matters worse for him 20 • And reading the situation as a point of no return, the authorities of the Propaganda Fide recalled Mgr Whelan to Rome. He tendered his resignation in August 1850 and retired to a monastery of his Order in Dublin. mostly Irish, turned against the Italian Carmelites. They claimed that the spiritual needs of the Catholic Irish soldiers in the service of the Company were not properly looked after. The Italian Carmelites, they said, did not know English, they were not able to give advice, to preach sermons, to hear confessions". Mgr Fortini, therefore, had requested Propaganda for a coarfjutor missionari1ts who knew English. And Rome chose his confrere Whelan, the Provin– cial of the Order's Irish Province. 20 Archivum s. Congregationis de Propaganda Fide, Rome, Acta 212, f. 601v-602r: Fr Patrick Sheehan SJ, a fellow-Irishman, was the General Vicar and confidant of Mgr Whelan. He reported to the Propaganda sub rosa the pathetic condition of his superior, who had be– come all too dependent on tipple, and manifestly suffered from its after-effects: "Lo stato