BCCCAP00000000000000000001715

ESTABLISHMENT OF CAPUCIBN ORDER IN INDIA- II 507 Novices, Lector of Philosophy, Lector of Science and Church History, and local Parish Priest. The second House, where a four-year formation programme would be in course, was to be manned by: Guardian (also parish priest), Vicar (with Prefect of Studies' role), three Lectors of Theology and a Lay Brother. The Regular Superiors preferred that the Guardians, the Prefects and the Masters be selected from those friars already in India, and that both the Houses "ought to depend entirely upon the general superiors in Rome". They, moreover, requested that "the Superior of one of these Houses be appointed by Father General as the Chief Superior under him in India for these Houses". While each Mission was to pay for the maintenance of its own 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 repairs, improvements etc." It was also stipulated that "the Senior Cambridge or equivalent examination ought to be taken as a condition for entrance into the Novitiate to be established" and that such candidates be required to spend 1-2 years for a further course in Latin "at Sardhana, of course in a separate house from the Novitiate". The Regular Superiors foresaw the advantages of locating the Novitiate or the Theologate in ''Bandra, Bombay, Mangalore, Madras, or Calcutta", ''Damaun, Cochin, Myla– pore, Pondicherry ecc." where Catholic communities flourished. Such a step, it was observed, would also offer "a splendid recruiting ground for the Novitiate" and the contributions of the faithful ''would enable it to be self-supporting" 18 • The reply of the Regular Superiors reassured the general superiors that their idea of an Indian Novitiate had indeed hit the mark; and they immediately took up the question with the Provincials of the respective Missions, viz those of Tuscany, Bologna, Paris, Belgium and England. A copy of the report of the Meeting of the Regular Superiors too was forwarded to each of them 19 • The Provincials concerned individually gave their wholehearted blessing to the plan 20 • 18 Cf. AGCap G 68, II, Novizjato e Stud.to, "General Meeting of the Regular Superiors... held at Agra on the 8th and 9th February 1921". 19 AGCap G 68, II, Novizjato eStud.to, Rome 20 April 1921, Fr General to the Provincials of Tuscany/Bologna: "La preghiamo intanto di esaminare col suo Definitorio Provinciale il medesimo progetto (allegato N. 1) e di trasmetterci il giudizio che ne sara dato". 20 Eg, AGCap G 68, II, Noviz}ato eStud.to, the Provincial of Englli.nd to Fr General, Peck– ham 18 May 1921: "Propositiones de domibus tarn pro novitiis quam pro studentibus ut schemata superiorum regularium missionum indiarum, factae nobis optimae videntur". The Bolognese Provincial's letter of 17 May 1921 reads: "Noi siamo pienamente concordi nel riconoscere la necessita e la grande utilita di tale progetto, e percio facciamo voti che esso venga