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220 BENEDICT VADAKKEKARA period. Mgr Jacopi had to guarantee the availability of a house suited to leading a life according to the canonical norms, if he wished to have the Novitiate reopened. He had also to have suitable regulations drawn up both for the Novitiate and the Study and get them approved by the General Superiors 64 • Fr General could not but deplore the Bishop's demand for the recall of the Lector at a time when the fledgling Study of Mussoorie was badly in need of stability and order. The Bishop could rest assured that the Lector had been ordered to apologise but Mgr Jacopi had to set his own house in order by faithfully implementing the guidelines issued by the Propaganda 65 • The Bishop responded by bewailing "with great affliction" the sad fate of his Novitiate. And forthwith came Fr General's reply. His Excellency should feel afflicted not so much on ac– count of the suspension of his Novitiate as the bleak situation that prevailed within the Order. Fr General had been doing his utmost for the missions. While the Order could spare on the average only 4 missionaries annually during the 13 years that preceded his administration, he had already sent to the missions 26 friars in the past 16 months. But in the same period 30 missionaries had died or had returned to the Provinces. While promising to send back to Agra the two friars stu– dying at Viterbo, he told Mgr Jacopi that certain hard facts had forced his hand to suspend the Novitiate. Finally, without mincing words he set forth the sine qua non for having the Novitiate reopened 66 • · 64 AAAgra, D.D. 10 n. 55: Fr General to Mgr Jacopi, Rome 26 July 1886: "Quin– di se si vuole, che il noviziato vada avanti, bisogna provvedere che esso sia posto in tutto la regolarita voluta dai Sacri Canoni e dal Rescritto de erezione. Percio - 1. Sospenda il noviziato subito dopo la professione de! novizio che ora vi e; e non la riapra senza il nostro permesso. - 2. Se potra avere i Padri necessari, intanto potrebbe fab– bricare il noviziato con clausura regolare, e in luogo ritirato, come dice V. Ecc. R.ma. - 3. D'accordo col P. Maestro dei novizi componga un Regolamento speciale pel noviziato e per lo studio secondo le circostanze di cotesti luoghi e persone, e poi ce lo mandi per I' approvazione". 65 Cf AAAgra, D.D. 10 ~- 55: Fr General to Mgr Jacopi, Rome 26 July 1886. 66 AAAgra, A.D. D.10 n. 45, Fr General to Mgr Jacopi, Rome 26 September 1886: "E siccome da informazioni ricevute da varie parti sono venuto a conoscere che nel detto Noviziato vi sono state alcune irregolarita, era mio dovere sospenderlo, finche non fosse a tutto provveduto. Le irregolarita poi sono queste. I. Condizione de! Convento. 1. Non e cinto da clausura nondimeno il giardino di recreazione dei novizi. 2. I novizi hanno dovuto andar sempre al refettorio dell'Orfanatrofio. 3. Le celle dei novizi sono cosf disposte, che essi stando in cella, sono esposti alla vista dei collegiali di S. Georgia.