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ESTABLISHMENT OF CAPUCHIN ORDER IN INDIA 205 in India and from the orphanages and boardinghouses; 2. these candi– dates had the added advantage of knowing English and the indigenous language; 3. they, especially those from the orphanages and boarding– houses, were generally good-natured and loved the Catholic cult and devo– tional practices; and 4. the foundation appeared as a providential idea for supplying the many needs of the Mission, which with the passage of time seemed to become ever more acute due. to the paucity of personnel. He prayed that the new foundation be dispensed from the "common canonical disposition" of maintaining six solemnly professed friars in the Novitiate in order to make its functioning canonical 29 • The Propaganda accorded Fr General Commissary the requested au– thorization and dispensation though its decree of 18 March 1880 30 • The keen interest of the Propaganda in the welfare of this Capuchin initiative in India may be seen from the fact that the Novitiate was recommended to the Apostolic Vicar of Punjab. In the directives issued in connection with the entrusting of this jurisdiction to the Capuchin Order, a comprehensive scheme consisting of six priorities was spelt out, of which the first was to form an indigenous clergy, and the sixth to found a Capuchin Novitiate 31 • 29 AAAgra A.B.D. 8 n.5, is Mgr Jacopi's letter of 1886 to Fr General, wherein he quotes Fr ·General Commissary's petition to Propaganda: [Rome, Pre-Easter 1880] " .. .l'umile supplicante crede clover esporre all'Em.a V.a Rev.ma che secondo le comuni disposizioni canoniche, nel noviziato dovrian rimanervi abitualmente sei religiosi solennemente professi, per decidere sull'andamento dei novizi, e quindi votarne ogni quattro mesi o ii proseguimento e quindi I' accettazione ai voti semplici, oppure ii rigetto. In proposito lo ·stesso supplicante osserva al Em.a V.a R.ma che ii tener fissi al noviziato sei religiosi porterebbe non poco danno alla Missione, che sarian tolti dagli altri esercizi de! ministero, eppero supplica che sian ridotti al numero di quattro, compreso il P. Maestro dei Novizii". 30 AAAgra A.B.D. 8 n.5: "Ex audientia SSmi audientia habita die 18 Martii 1880 SSmus Dominus Noster Leo Divina Providentia PP. XIII, referente me infrascripto S.C. de Propaganda Fide Praefecto, benigne annuit pro gratia et R.P.D. Commissario Gen. Capp.norum necessarias et opportunas tribuit facultates pro erectione Novitiatus, de quo in _precibas, et cum dispensatione super numero religiosorum professorum, ita ut praeter magistrum novitiorum, tres alii tantum ibidem commorentur, servatis in reliquo de iure servandis. Contrariis quibuscumque minime obstantibus". The General Superiors also per– mitted the Bishop to reckon the friars of St George's College and the St Fidelis Orphana– ge School also as members of the Novitiate community in order to constitute the canonical number. 31 Cf. AGCap H 59, I, Propaganda to Fr General Commissary, Rome 12 October 1880.