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ESTABLISHMENT OF CAPUCHIN ORDER IN INDIA 243 But small wonder that after all that he had undergone to sustain the Novitiate of Mussoorie, Fr General had his own res~rvations about the wisdom of such a move .. In 1910 the Tuscan friars in Agra main– tained that it was then "inexpedient" to reopen Novitiate 147 • The ~ew General, Fr Pacificus, viva voce told Mgr Gramigna 148 during the lat– ter's visit to Rome that "since some time" he had been giving serious thought to reopening the Order's Novitiate in India. In 1912 Mgr Gramigna asked the General Secretary of Missions if there were reason– able grounds for hoping for the restart of the Novitiate. The situation was especially grave as he was in urgent need of more pastors and the Superiors had dissuaded him from augmenting the secular clergy 149 • Though this enquiry did not result in any concrete follow-up measure, it kept the interest in the project alive. A lot of water passed under the bridge before the question of reopening the Novitiate was again taken up. In 1916 Mgr Poli 150 , se– conded by the General Superiors, referred the matter to the Capuchin superiors, of Agra. Adding up the pros and the cons, the Capuchin authorities of Agra arrived at a consensus decision 151 • It must have 147 APCapTusc, Missione Indostan, Lettere dei Missionari, Fr Raphael to Fr Provin– cial, Mussoorie 23 June 1910: "Quando ero a Simla un giorno Monsignore [Gentili] mi domando, cosa avrebbe pensato il presente Generale riguardo a riaprire il Noviziato, soggiungendo l' altro Generale era contrarissimo. Io risposi che non sapevo niente. Le dico questo perche nel caso che scrivesse si possano regolare. Io non credo sia espediente". ApCapTusc, Missione Indostan, Adunanze, Adunanza Straordinaria tenuta in Meerut il 23 Febbraio 1916: "I] compianto Generale Rev.mo P. Bernardo da Andermatt richiesto altre vol– te de! permesso di riaprire Noviziato e Studio a Mussoorie si oppose sempre decisamente". 148 Petronius Gramigna of Castelbolognese (Prov. Bologna) became-~ishop of Alla– habad in 1904. The General Minister was Fr Pacificus of Seggian~ (Prov. Tii'scany). 149 AGCap H 6, II, Mgr Gramigna to the General Secretary of Missions, Allaha– bad 22 February 1912: "D'altronde, se non v'e speranza che Mussoorie venga di nuovo aperto tra breve tempo, allora sara necessario che io provveda alle nuove vocazioni col mandare tali giovani a Kandy [in Sri Lanka] oppure in Italia". The Bishop already had some good candidates. 150 · Angelo Poli of Casola Valsenio (Prov. Bologna): Coadjutor to Mgr Gramigna, in 1915; succeeded in 1917 as Bishop of Allahabad. . . 151 APCapTusc, Missione Indostan, Adunanze, "Adunanza... il 23 Febbraio 1916: " ... Senza parlare di altra difficoltlt, quel poco che si e detto ci porta naturalmente alla conclusione pratica che bilanciando le ragioni pro e contra, queste sorpassano quelle in modo da sconsigliare le riapertura del noviziato qui in India. Questa e la nostra candida opinione. La migliore cosa, almeno per ora sarebbe, a nostro parere, che ciascuna missione,