BCCCAP00000000000000000001715

ESTABLISHMENT OF CAPUCHIN ORDER IN INDIA - II 529 would cost him dear. In order to avoid a head-on confrontation, he begged the general superiors to instruct Fr Christopher not to hinder him from opening the Study in the Friary of Mussoorie. The project had become all too unmanageable now because of the incumbency of the new Regular Superior, whose clearing he had to procure before anything could be done in the Friary. When the project had been conceived and sanctioned, he himself was the Regular Superior of Agra. Now the situation had altered radically. His assurance that the Fathers of Agra would not be deprived of their summer resort even if the Capuchin clerics were to move in, failed to calm the agitated spirits. To vouch for his word, the Commissary went so far as to promise to get for the Study a professor of theology from Tuscany 83 • The muscle-flexing by Fr Christopher and his coterie was frowned upon by the other Regular Superiors. The Archbishop of Agra, himself a Tuscan, distan– ced himself from the blind opposition of Fr Christopher and his friars. When it concerns the common good of all the Capuchin Missions in India, the private good should give way, was his sagacious remark. Actually the Mission of Agra was not being asked to forgo anything; the general superiors intended to ac– commodate the clerics on the first floor that the missionaries had never once utilized. Mgr Jacopi had this Friary built for a Novitiate House and it had not been originally meant to be a summer resort. Since the Fathers could continue using the second floor as before, they had absolutely no grounds for lamenting. The Archbishop himself asked the Commissary to gain the upper hand by requesting the general superiors to order Fr Christopher not to obstruct the use of the Friary for the Study. Keeping a tight rein on Fr Christopher, the general superiors would only be helping him to shrug off the pressure exerted by his unrelenting friars 84 . 83 C£ APCapTusc, Missione Indostan, Fr Romuald of Subbiano to Fr Commissary, Cortona 5 July 1924. The Tuscan Provincial generously acceded to the Commissary's request for Fr Romuald's services; the lector was qualified to teach both Sacred Theology and Holy Scripture. 84 AGCap G 68, II, Noviziato eStud.to, Fr Commissary to General Procurator, Mussoorie 3 June 1924: "In un colloquia che ebbi l'altro ieri con Mgr. Arcivescovo intorno a questo affare, questi mi disse le seguenti testuali parole: 'A mio parere le obiezioni di questi Padri sono futili ed irragionevoli... Per finire la questione lei scriva al Revmo. P. Procuratore affinche si compiaccia di mandare al Superiore Regolare un ordine formulato presso a poco in questi termini: Vogliamo che ii primo piano de! convento sia adibito ad uso dello Studio e che l'ordine sia eseguito senz'altro. In questa maniera anche ii Superiore Regolare _si liberera dalle noie di coloro che in tutto vogliono opporsi"'.

RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NDA3MTIz