When Carreño arrived in 1933, most of the Indian subcontinent had been under British rule since 1858. There were also small parts on the west coast that were ruled by the Portuguese: the Estado da Índia or Índia Portuguesa consisted of Goa and the tiny territories of Daman, Diu, Dadra and Nagar Haveli to the north of Bombay.

Within the Catholic Church there were three rites at this time: the Syro-Malabar rite with origins in the mission of St Thomas the Apostle, the Latin rite brought by Dominican and Franciscan missionaries in the 13^th century and in a big way by missionaries associated with the Portuguese colonial exploits in India in the 16^th century, and the Syro-Malankara rite established in 1930 when a part of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church entered into communion with the Catholic Church. In the 1930s, the two Oriental rites were present mainly in the Kingdoms of Cochin and Travancore – which are today the Indian state of Kerala.

The historical presence of the Portuguese in Goa and in other parts of India meant that there were two jurisdictions in the Latin rite of the Catholic Church in India, usually referred to as Padroado and Propaganda, with Portugal enjoying patronal rights over the whole of India, and Propaganda representing direct jurisdiction of the Holy See through the Propaganda Fide (Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples). Double jurisdiction was abolished by an agreement between Rome and Portugal in 1928. It was only in 1950, however, that, in the new context of Indian independence, Padroado was restricted to the Portuguese enclaves in the Indian sub-continent.⁵⁰

The Salesians were welcomed to India by the Padroado diocese of Mylapore in South India, in the present state of Tamil Nadu. They arrived in 1906, taking up a work in Tanjore (Thanjavur) in that year and in Mylapore near Madras in 1909, but withdrew from this diocese in 1928 for reasons that have been ably presented by Thekkedath. By this time, they had accepted the mission of Assam and had begun the work there in 1922, coming in this way also under the jurisdiction of Propaganda.⁵¹

According to the Salesian Historical Database, the first Salesian province in India was set up in 1926. Louis Mathias (1887-1965) had been appointed prefect apostolic of Assam in 1922,⁵² and was de facto provincial up to his transfer to the see of Madras in 1935.⁵³ The ‘South’ was made into a vice province in 1932 or 1933, with Fr Eligio Cinato being named as superior. In 1934, South India became a province under the patronage of St Thomas the Apostle, with Cinato as the first provincial.⁵⁴ On the ecclesiastical front, in 1928 Eugene Mederlet (1867-1934) had been appointed archbishop of the Propaganda archdiocese of Madras. Mederlet died in 1934, and Mathias took over in 1935. The present-day Archdiocese of Madras and Mylapore was formed in 1952 by the merging of the earlier Propaganda and Padroado dioceses.

It was into this complex political and ecclesiastical scenario that Carreño arrived. He was initially deputed to be catechist or socius in the new novitiate in South India, while a colleague, Amanzio Andrei (1897-1962), was to be novice master.⁵⁵ Carreño and Andrei spent a year (1932-1933) at Cowley, Oxford in the United Kingdom, learning English. Trouble began, however, already while crossing the English Channel: “Hardly did we begin crossing the English Channel in order to spend some months in England and begin babbling in English, when my companion became seasick… and began to tremble at the very thought of the great sea voyage that awaited him.” Still, the brave Fr Amanzio set about learning English with great determination, even to the point of studying the dictionary by heart and, in the process, causing some damage to the self-esteem of his companion: “And I, who have always been incorrigibly disordered, and who have always had a superstitious admiration for the tenaciously methodical types, felt very small at that moment and chose to maintain a reverent silence.” By the time the two would-be missionaries reached Genoa, however, Fr Amanzio’s missionary dream had vanished. “And so it happened that the mantle fell on my shoulders, and it was I who was stuck with our first Seminary in South India.”⁵⁶ And that is how the prophecy of Fr Calasanz began coming true.⁵⁷

Carreño set sail from Genoa and landed in Bombay in June 1933.⁵⁸ As we have pointed out already, South India had just been constituted into a vice province, with Eligio Cinato (1898-1964) as superior. Carreño would have liked to go directly to Madras, but Mathias wanted him to visit Shillong first, and that is where he went. The time was spent studying Tamil and preparing for the confession examination. This is when a letter arrived from the Prefect General, Fr Pietro Berruti (1885-1950), asking Carreño to taking over as novice master in the South. He was not yet 28 years old, and since the required age for a novice master was 35, an apostolic indult had to be obtained.⁵⁹

The first Salesian novitiate in South India began at Tirupattur in December 1933. We know that Carreño, accompanied by Cinato, reached Tirupattur on 2 December 1933, with the novices arriving about a week later. The novitiate was canonically established, however, only on 2 February 1934, and so the profession of the first batch of novices took place on 29 January 1935, as Thekkedath explains.⁶⁰

The novices were mostly fresh missionaries from different European countries. The first batch consisted of 10 novices, with 6 Europeans and 4 Indians.⁶¹ Life was not easy: Fr Cinato noted that there was “grinding poverty, not to say misery, in the house; but in compensation, much good spirit and holy cheerfulness.”⁶² The good spirit, he said, was due in great measure to Fr Carreño. He was able to make his novices “fall in love with the Heart of Jesus and… to give themselves completely to him.”⁶³

“He cared for us as a father,” remembers Msgr Hubert D’Rosario (1919-1994). “We felt attracted to him and tried to imitate him. He inculcated in us lasting values… He was a brilliant teacher, a convincing preacher… We were always eager to listen to his lectures, the conferences that he used to prepare so well. We were won over by his fatherly heart. Joy, love, peace and hope were the things one breathed in that house… That house was like heaven.”⁶⁴

Hubert was the son of the station master of Tirupattur. Upon learning that Carreño was in the process of setting up the mission, Mr Rosario had promised to send ‘two soldiers.’ The two soldiers turned out to be his two sons, Hubert and Mervin, and Fr Carreño wisely decided to let them play football. The boys became fast friends of the missionary. When Hubert was ready to go to university, he came to Carreño asking for help to learn French. Carreño obliged with lessons, but soon turned to the topic of Latin, and then to the question of the priesthood: What is the use of studying Latin if you don’t become a priest? Hardly had Hubert said yes, when Carreño put him on his motorbike and dashed over to get his father’s permission. “We did not require much time to persuade his father, who was a wonderful Catholic, that God could not bless his family with a greater gift.”⁶⁵ Hubert D’Rosario eventually became bishop of Dibrugarh (1966-1969) and archbishop of Shillong-Gauhati (1969-1994). He is the founder of the Visitation Sisters of Don Bosco (VSDB), one of the member groups of the Salesian Family.

Carreño’s goodness is proverbial. Fr Joseph Vaz would often narrate to me how his novice master had noticed him shivering during one of the daily conferences.⁶⁶ “Wait a moment, hombre,” Carreño said, and went out. A little later he returned with a blue sweater for Joe, who noticed that it was strangely warm. Then he remembered that his novice master had been wearing a blue sweater under his cassock. It was now no longer there. Carreño had given him his own sweater. Bro. Miguel Blanco’s example had gone deep into the heart.

Another story is narrated by an Indian confrere:

There are many testimonies making the rounds of the Provinces of South India, especially among the older generations, which amply illustrate the goodness, kindness and deep religious spirit of Fr. Carreño. One such story regards a Brahmin: the old Brahmin was travelling by a crowded third class railway carriage in mid summer. When the train stopped at an important station, people would rush out and have some water or cool drinks and some eatables. The Brahmin who could not move about freely was sitting in a corner of the coach, unable to elbow his way out and return fast after a hurried snack. Hence, he was hungry and very thirsty. At a particular station, Fr. Carreño pushed his way through and got a tender coconut for the old man. The aged Brahmin was so happy that he said to the foreign priest, ‘You are a true follower of Jesus Christ.’ Fr. Carreño treasured this eulogy of the Brahmin, as the greatest praise he had ever received!⁶⁷

Luigi Di Fiore, (1921-1989) another of Carreño’s novices and later provincial of Madras, says: "Without a doubt the most precious legacy that Fr. Carreño handed on to us was the Salesian spirit in its essential characteristics: thirst for souls, fraternal charity, family spirit built on prayer, work, cheerfulness, healthy optimism, hospitality."⁶⁸ The historian Fr Thekkedath writes: “[Carreño] was the heart and soul of that house which became also a house for students of philosophy as soon as the novices professed early in 1935.”⁶⁹ Fr Berruti, Prefect General, wrote after a visit in 1937 that the house of Tirupattur was extremely poor but full of gaiety and joy, and that the soul of the house was the young Rector, Fr Carreño – happy, intelligent and extremely active. Fr Antoine Candela (1878-1961), councillor for professional schools, did not hesitate to call Fr Carreño a treasure.⁷⁰

We have noted already that in 1934 a second Salesian province was set up in India, with its provincial house at Vellore, Fr Eligio Cinato as provincial, and a handful of houses and presences: the canonically erected houses of Madras, Vellore and Bombay, and other presences, parishes and mission stations in Madras and in North Arcot.⁷¹ When Archbishop Eugène Mederlet died suddenly in 1934, Louis Mathias was named archbishop of Madras in his place.

In 1939, British India began feeling the echoes of World War II. By 1942, all foreigners, including missionaries, who belonged to countries at war with Great Britain, had been interned in camps in different parts of the country.⁷² Since Carreño belonged to a neutral country he was not disturbed, and was even able to mediate for his fellow Salesians before the authorities. In 1943 he received a message over the Vatican Radio that he was to take the place of Cinato, who had been interned, as provincial of the Southern province.⁷³ At the same time, Archbishop Mathias invited him to be his Vicar General, conferring on him the title ‘Monsignor’ according to the practice at the time.⁷⁴

In 1945 Carreño was officially appointed provincial,⁷⁵ an office he exercised from 1945 to 1951. One of his very first acts was to consecrate the province to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Many Salesians were convinced that the extraordinary growth of the Southern Province was due to this act.⁷⁶

The Salesian centres doubled under the leadership of Fr Carreño: formation houses in Kotagiri (1946, novitiate and philosophate) and Poonamallee (1947, diocesan seminary); works for poor youth in Nagercoil (1947, boarding school), Panjim – Goa (1947, orphanage and technical school), Valpoi – Goa (1948, parish, oratory and technical school⁷⁷), Madras (1950, technical school), Uriurkuppam (1950, agricultural school), and Yercaud (1950). ⁷⁸ One of Carreño’s most far-reaching acts was to begin a university college in the remote Dalit village of Tirupattur.⁷⁹ Sacred Heart College went on to transform the whole district. On the other hand, he also had to withdraw from two new openings – Carmel High School, Nagercoil (1947-1950) and St Joseph’s English High School, Trivandrum – perhaps because of the haste with which he had accepted them in the first place, as Di Fiore suggests.⁸⁰

Carreño was a gifted fund raiser. During his time as provincial and also later, he travelled several times to Europe, communicating his message in song and verse and appealing for help for his apostolic works.⁸¹

Fr Thomas Panakezham (1930-), general councillor for the Asia region from 1977 to 1996, remembers Carreño’s love for the poor: “When he used to return to Provincial House from some visit, it was interesting to see how the boys would run to meet him. He would always pull out something from his pockets to give them, sweets, stamps, medals.”⁸²

As provincial, Fr Carreño participated in the 16^th Salesian General Chapter (1947) which was held in Valdocco, Turin. Here he made a memorable intervention: “We have diminished Don Bosco…. Our works no longer serve the most needy young people; we calculate too much; we do not trust in Providence like Don Bosco….” His words had an impact. The Rector Major, Fr Ricaldone, asked all provincials to send him a report on the matter.⁸³

One of Carreño’s gifts was his ability to get Salesians to volunteer for the missions. We get a little glimpse of his charm from what Orlando González González writes:

In 1944, the 46 philosophy students [of the house of Gerona] wrote to the already famous missionary from India, and then Vicar General of Madras, Don José Luis Carreño; and I would like to share with you a magnificent fragment of the answer he gave them, with the freshness that always characterized him:

‘You are 46! When will I receive a group of you?

And now, between us: Have you taken this mission thing seriously? Because if you have, I will wait for some of you here.

If your superiors allow you to correspond with me, it must be clear right away that my correspondence will be subversive.

But let it be known that those who come here must be boys with an apostolic heart (no adventures, no dreams, no sentimentality), with a great desire to make Our Lord Jesus Christ triumph – and well prepared, because we have to deal with an ancient civilization, with Brahmans who are very intelligent and highly cultured, with complicated languages and a very rich literature – and strong and humble as Our Lady wanted in the first dream of Don Bosco.⁸⁴

Among those drawn by Carreño’s infectious zeal and passion were Josip María Zubizarreta Aramendi (1930-2012), Ignacio Rubio Moreno (1921-1983), José María Armiñana Pascual (1929-1987), José María Dieste Lopez (1926-1986), Jesús Jiménez, Manuel Albizuri Arocena (1925-1982), Jaime Aguilar Valenciano (1925-1971), Eugenio Ojer Buil (1926-) and Alfredo Marzo Remirez (1935-).⁸⁵ Here is the testimony of Marzo, who has been in India since 1953:

[E]ven though not physically present, for the people of Madras, Fr. Carreño (Carreño swamy, as the people used to call him) was present on the lips and in the hearts of the poor people. The school at Basin Bridge, St Joseph’s Technical School of Madras, and the other schools and colleges in the main cities of S. India, bear witness to the prophetic vision of that man of God who was bubbling with joy, enthusiasm and vitality in the whole of the South. Humble with the humble, always ready to devise ways, at the initial stages of the Salesian Province of Madras, he laid the foundation for progressive expansion and spiritual fecundity, in the midst of many and not so small, difficulties. Fr. José-Luis Carreño was guided by the Spirit, and ebullient with humanity. He was that ‘man,’ who, as he passed through Spain, between the years 1940 and 1950, touched the small ones and the big ones, all without exception, and filled them with enthusiasm through his smile and his irresistible ways. His songs, poems, conferences, his cheerfulness and enthusiasm, were all like a river rushing down, and carrying with it everything that it met on its way…. That rushing river, that incomparable torrent, lifted me, and many others like me, to Mission lands, to thousand-year-old India, to work with Fr. Carreño for the poor and the more needy youth, and to help them to live a life more dignified and human. Fr. José-Luis Carreño, just like Don Bosco, was at home with the youth, even those with dark skin; he spoke their language, and understood perfectly their manner of being and behaving. It was this that he sought to sing and propagate, by composing the hymn to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, praying for vocations: Cor Iesu Sacratissimum, ut bonos et dignos operarios piae Salesianorum Societati mittere et in ea conservare digneris. (Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, deign to send to the pious Salesian Society good and worthy labourers and preserve them in it.) It is for this reason that he searched through the country-sides to contact, call, receive and form new youths who were self-possessed, and who could, little by little, assimilate the tenets of the Congregation, and become well-beloved members in the Salesian Garden.⁸⁶

As Marzo has noted, it was Carreño who was largely responsible for ‘Indianizing’ the face of the Salesians in India, by searching for local recruits instead of relying solely on missionaries. This was a bold move. Most other international congregations had taken years if not centuries to begin accepting local vocations.⁸⁷

In 1943, when Carreño took charge of the province, there were only about a dozen Indian Salesians. Among those in initial formation there were 20 students of theology in Tirupattur, 5 students of philosophy and no novices.⁸⁸ With the start of World War II in 1939 and the blockade of the Suez Canal, the flow of missionaries from Europe ceased. What could be done? Carreño hit upon the brilliant idea of going to Kerala in search of vocations. Kerala had a long Christian tradition, strong faith and wonderful Catholic families, and it was here that the net had to be cast. “Today,” the good missionary writes in 1965, “the number [of Indian Salesians] has grown to some five hundred; and if we count also those in the minor seminaries [aspirantates], the total goes up to about a thousand.” He began visiting parishes and schools, speaking about Don Bosco and about the need to save souls, attracting with his simplicity and joy, his cheerful presence and music. “In this way that unusual emigration began: a trickle at first, then a torrent, and later a real sea. At the present moment [1965] we have about TWO DOZEN SALESIAN SEMINARIES IN INDIA.”⁸⁹

Not everyone agreed with Carreño’s ideas, but his move to seek local vocations proved to be providential. Not only did the flow of European missionaries cease during World War II, but also 136 Salesians belonging to nations at war with Great Britain were put into internment camps,⁹⁰ leaving only about 6 in the field. And when in 1947 India attained independence, the new government quickly adopted the policy of not granting visas to new foreign missionaries.⁹¹

Carreño’s drive for local vocations is, according to Thekkedath, his most lasting contribution to Salesian India. He had begun the aspirantate at Tirupattur in 1943. At the beginning the aspirants were all post-SSLC students, but the number never reached forty for several years. In 1945-46 Carreño began recruiting younger boys who were still in high school, and the number soon went up to 200. Criticism was not lacking, but Carreño stuck to his idea, with the help of Fr John Med (1916-2011), Rector of the aspirants, and the financial help coming through Fr Aurelio Maschio (1909-1996).⁹² “If the Salesians in India today number more than two thousand, the merit of that growth goes to the policies started by Fr Carreño.”⁹³

Fr Carreño’s letters to the Superiors in Rome reveal a filial attachment to the centre of the Congregation. The province itself enjoyed a period of peace and union of hearts. In their letters to Rome, Archbishop Louis Mathias, Fr Maschio, Fr Vincenzo Scuderi (1902-1982) and others had no hesitation in attributing this state of affairs to the work of Fr Carreño.⁹⁴

In the local Church also there was appreciation. Carreño was deputed by Mathias to help as secretary in the 1950 Synod of the Church in India, Burma and Ceylon.⁹⁵ Fr Archimede Pianazzi (1906-2000) reports that he won the admiration of many for his “Ciceronian Latin.”⁹⁶

The differences between Mathias and Carreño have been documented to some extent by Thekkedath. The major disagreements seem to have arisen especially in the last year of Carreño’s provincialship. One of these concerned the way of dealing with Salesian religious discipline. “Mgr Mathias stood for harsh and humiliating punishments for those guilty of serious misbehaviour, while Fr Carreño advocated a milder procedure. Some of the canonical penalties proposed by the archbishop did not even seem to be legally tenable. In one case Fr Carreño warned that if the person concerned were to appeal to Rome, the penalty was likely to be declared illegal.” This, in fact, is what happened in the case of a diocesan priest: the archbishop was forced to retract.⁹⁷

According to Pianazzi, the breaking point was when Carreño as Vicar General solemnly celebrated, in the cathedral, the nuptials of a Salesian Brother who had left the Congregation: after this Msgr Mathias no longer wanted to have Carreño as his Vicar General.⁹⁸

I have also heard the story told of a Salesian priest in Chennai who had left the Congregation. Fr Carreño came to know where he was living and went to meet him. Seeing that there was no one at home, he hid himself near the door and waited. After a while the priest did turn up, but no sooner did he hear Carreño calling out his name, he dashed into his house and shut the door. Fr Carreño went up to the door and said: “You can close the door to Fr Carreño, but you cannot close it to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.” It is said that eventually the priest found his way to Australia, where he returned to the exercise of the ministry and died a priest.

Mathias and Carreño were completely different in character, Fr Pianazzi notes,⁹⁹ and the archbishop was not one to take things lying down. One of fallouts was his “decisive opposition” to the setting up of a separate school for Brothers at Lu Ville in Madras. The vocation of the Salesian Brother was a theme very close to the heart of Fr Carreño. In a circular letter of 1948, he insisted that the vocation of the Brother be cultivated with as much zeal and care as that of aspirants to the priesthood. He began the school for Salesian Brothers in Tirupattur in 1948-49, and in 1950-51 wanted to transfer it to Lu Ville in Madras. The plan, however, met with opposition from Archbishop Mathias, who insisted that the Brother-aspirants be sent along with other boys to Basin Bridge. In the end the project itself collapsed.¹⁰⁰

It is not unlikely that there was also a kind of overlap between the authority of the provincial and that of the Salesian archbishop. It would appear also that the superiors in Turin agreed at least in some way with the archbishop. Fr Albino Fedrigotti (1902-1986) who visited the South India province in the name of the Rector Major in 1949-1950 wrote that Fr Carreño was “an excellent religious, a man with a great heart, but a bit too much of a poet. He would like to save the whole of India in an instant. He was able to infuse enthusiasm into everyone and in everything, but was less careful about organization and discipline. He made too many changes of personnel and was too indulgent in the selection of candidates and in admitting people to profession and to orders.” However, the visitor also seems to have added that “the spirit of the province was very good and observance was flourishing.”¹⁰¹

It was not that Msgr Mathias did not appreciate Fr Carreño. In his correspondence, for example, we find him telling Carreño how much he loved to read his letters full of optimism and enthusiasm. After the fallout, however, there seem to have been harsh letters from the archbishop, to which the provincial replied with humility, as Thekkedath notes.¹⁰² Carreño’s book, Singladuras indias, contains a chapter on Msgr Mathias entitled “El Capitán,” which reveals a sincere and deep esteem for the archbishop.¹⁰³

The allegation about being a poor administrator seems to have stuck – Carreño still speaks about it with gentle humour in his last autobiographical writings¹⁰⁴ – but was strongly denied by a man like Fr Maschio, whom no one could accuse of being a poor administrator.¹⁰⁵ There is no doubt, however, that Carreño was a visionary and an innovator who tended to be ahead of his time. Some of his ideas – like that of bringing non-Salesian volunteers to mission lands – were frowned upon by the central authorities of the Congregation at the time, but are now being actively promoted by everyone.¹⁰⁶

At the end of his official 6 year term as provincial (1945-1951), Carreño was asked to end his service and to return to Spain to look after the Salesian Cooperators. Was this the real reason for being asked to leave India after 18 years? Rico – who at the time of writing was general councillor for the Iberian Region – does not attempt to answer this question in his obituary letter, though he does admit that the new obedience was difficult.¹⁰⁷ Thekkedath, instead, does give us an answer. It is clear that Archbishop Mathias had written to Turin saying that Carreño should not continue as provincial, on the grounds of weakness in dealing with religious indiscipline and of having loaded the province with debts, and suggesting that Carreño be sent to replace Scuderi in Goa.¹⁰⁸ In the end, Ricaldone and his council accepted the archbishop’s suggestions, decided to appoint Pianazzi as provincial, and to ask Carreño to take care of the Cooperators in Spain for a few years, before returning to the missions.¹⁰⁹ “The news that Fr Carreño was not going to continue as the provincial of South India was a shock to the [provincial] council,” says Thekkedath, and resulted in a flurry of letters from some of them to the Rector Major.¹¹⁰ As for the archbishop himself, Thekkedath speaks of “one or two sharp letters” even towards the end of July 1951, Carreño’s humble reply, and Mathias’ profession of his love and esteem for him: “Be sure that I always love you, even if I bark.” It is difficult to interpret, however, another letter from Mathias to Carreño, this time when Carreño is already on his way to Bombay en route to Europe: “Madras seems to be deserted… It does not seem true to me that they could have robbed you from us.” The archbishop was aware that Carreño’s transfer “had caused a great impression” and that Carreño himself “felt very much to have to leave India.” He takes pains to deny that he had been responsible for the transfer: “You know very well that I have had nothing to do or to say about his new obedience.”

With the undeniable appreciation for Carreño’s personal capacities, it would still be true to say, therefore, that he had been ‘removed’ from India in 1951. On his part, he had cheerfully and happily accepted to obey, going by what the Rector Major himself wrote to Mathias.¹¹¹ From Alfredo Marzo, however, we have the suggestion of also another motive: “Over the years, Fr Carreño realized that his image as Provincial Superior of the Salesian Congregation and his fatherly ways were putting Mgr. Mathias in the shade, and so he [Carreño] opted for the evangelical dictum, ‘He must increase; and I must decrease’.” I am unable to weigh the validity of this suggestion. What we do know is that, in Singladuras indias, Carreño offers a warm tribute to Msgr Mathias.¹¹²

A report sent by Armando da Costa Monteiro, provincial of Portugal, to the Rector Major, Renato Ziggiotti, provides vital information for understanding the Salesian presence in Goa.¹⁴¹

Monteiro begins by mentioning the good work and spirit among the Salesians, naming them all and most especially “the active and dynamic Fr Carreño, lightning rod [parafulmine] of the Salesian Work in that State.” The patriarch, he reports, has praised the work of the Salesians, saying that it alone enjoyed the esteem of all the people of Goa.

The provincial goes on to speak of the 1940 Concordat and Missionary Agreement between the Holy See and the Portuguese government. Under the latter, the Portuguese province had been recognized as a Missionary Corporation, with all the rights to subsidies for formation and for the travels of missionaries. This also meant, however, that all mission houses in the overseas territories of Portugal had to depend on the provincial in Lisbon, and that the superior of the mission houses had to be a Portuguese national. The presence of Salesians depending on the provincial of Madras was, therefore, a problem – as also, perhaps, the nationality of the Rector, though Monteiro does not say so.¹⁴²

Monteiro then expresses his own opinion as provincial. Much of what he says is based on what was told him in confidence by the civil and ecclesiastical authorities in Goa, and which, out of delicacy, had not been said to the non-Portuguese superiors. The latter, therefore, could have only a partial view of the situation. Besides, they had not been careful to keep in touch with the authorities, had neglected certain formalities, and had even said “that they had nothing to do with these authorities.” In the light of certain criticisms, oral and written, the patriarch had been questioned more than once by the Minister for the Overseas Territories about the suitability of the Salesians. This Ministry had even gone to the extent of calling the Salesians “the greatest enemies of the Portuguese in Goa.” Especially after the tensions of 1954 (when the Portuguese enclaves of Dadra and Nagar Haveli had been invaded by the Indian Union), the government was not happy that Indian Salesians were being sent to Goa. Given the seriousness of the situation, therefore, the patriarch recommended the sending of Portuguese personnel and the incorporation of Goa into the province of Portugal, following the example of the Jesuits. Likewise, the governor general had also expressed to Monteiro his hope that Goa would be integrated into the Portuguese province in the spirit of the Concordat.

During his visit, Monteiro seems to have met also John Med, provincial of Madras. Med, he reports, was offended by the visit of the Portuguese provincial, and did not understand the situation of Goa and the problems it was causing to the Portuguese province. When counselled to send Goan Salesians to Goa rather than Indians, he retorted that it was he who gave the orders. When Monteiro hinted that the Superiors might decide to attach Goa to the Portuguese province, Med’s reply was categorical: “I cannot allow my province to be cut up like this.”¹⁴³

Monteiro’s report makes it clear that, as long as the Salesian Work in Goa remained under the jurisdiction of the South India province, it was in an anomalous position. In the light of this it is not surprising to find, already in 1949, a letter from the General Director of Education (in the Colonies) asking the provincial of the Portuguese province to regularize the situation of the Salesian works in Goa by integrating them into the Portuguese province.

We need to note that Agenor Vieira Pontes (1895-1985), who preceded Monteiro as provincial, had already taken up the matter with Carreño. In his letter, Pontes suggests that Goan clerics be sent to Portugal for the study of philosophy, and perhaps also some Goan priests for a few months; this would be looked upon favourably by the Overseas Ministry. He notes that the Concordat did not envisage that the superiors in the missions be foreigners. He asks Carreño for a list of activities so that he could send the obligatory annual report to the Ministry. He does not, however, go so far as to suggest the integration of Goa into the Portuguese province, because of questions of distance and dispersion. If Goa could accept some Portuguese confreres, however, it would help. He says he had spoken to Pianazzi, the provincial of South India, in Turin, about the matter, but without any concrete results.

Now, in response to Monteiro’s report, Turin decided to accept the proposal to appoint a Portuguese Rector in Goa, but did not as yet feel the need to integrate Goa into the Portuguese province. “The Superiors feel that for now this first step will suffice; the authorities will be happy to have a Portuguese superior and many difficulties will thus be avoided.”¹⁴⁴

What follows is a kind of comedy of errors. Manuel Julio Pinho de Bastos was appointed as Rector of Panjim.¹⁴⁵ On 24 March 1960 Monteiro writes to Fedrigotti, thanking him for the letter of appointment of Pinho, and for that of Fr Puddu communicating the decision of the Superiors to pass Goa to his province – although he had not expected such a quick decision.¹⁴⁶ On the same day Monteiro communicates the news also to Carreño in Goa. He says that Carreño could proceed for his holidays in Spain after the new Rector’s arrival, and that upon his return he could take charge of the aspirantate in Goa.¹⁴⁷ On 29 March 1960, however, Fedrigotti responds post haste to Monteiro, denying that Goa had been passed to Portugal:

I don’t know what might have given you the impression that Goa was to pass to your Province; perhaps Fr Puddu misunderstood a discussion we had on the matter. But I want to assure you that for now the Superiors want that Goa continue under the jurisdiction of the Provincial of India. You yourself can easily understand the reasons: the change of Rector is already a big move. Besides, in those two houses there are many confreres belonging to the province of South India who naturally still have ties to their province of origin, at least as a matter of feeling. We must therefore go slowly.¹⁴⁸

Carreño, who had no way of knowing about this clarification, replies with great joy to Monteiro. In particular he had been pained, he says, about Fedrigotti’s suggestion to shift the aspirantate to Bombay, but is now very happy about Monteiro’s concern for the aspirantate, and will accept the request to be in charge of it.¹⁴⁹

Monteiro, instead, replies to Fedrigotti saying that his letter had disturbed him very much. Puddu had not only talked about the Superiors’ decision to place Goa under the Portuguese province, but also had referred, in Pinho’s letter of appointment, to the house of Goa as belonging to the “Provincia Lusitaniensis.” Fr Borra,¹⁵⁰ on a canonical visit to the province, had himself confirmed the news, and so he and his council had communicated it to the province and to Carreño and the confreres in Goa. However, the most serious thing was that the governor of Goa, the patriarch and the Portuguese government had come to know about it. It was not now possible to speak of a mistake on the part of the Superiors; the matter could even reach up to the Holy See. He hopes, therefore, that the Superiors will revise their decision and confirm what Puddu had written.¹⁵¹

Did Turin in fact confirm what Puddu had written, and therefore officially authorize the passage of the Work in Goa to the Portuguese province? It would seem so, even though the evidence I have is only indirect. One indication is that Carreño writes to Monteiro on 29 July 1961 from Los Angeles, asking permission to extend his stay in the USA, and inquiring whether he had decided where to place the new aspirantate, in Betim or in Vasco da Gama, etc.¹⁵² Another is that Caetano Lobo, in his “Goa Salesiana,” speaks of the “unexpected news” that Goa had been integrated into the province of Portugal, something that Med, the provincial of Madras, found very difficult to accept.¹⁵³ Yet again, Monteiro writes to Patriarch José Alvernaz: “As everyone was hoping, the Salesian works of Portuguese India have been integrated into this province not only officially but also in a Salesian way.”¹⁵⁴ Finally, the Panjim chronicles of 1959-60 are signed by “visto Armando Monteiro, Prov[incial]” on 6 June 1960.¹⁵⁵ At some time in 1960, therefore, the Salesian Work in Goa came under the jurisdiction of the Portuguese province, thus bringing it within the terms and spirit of the Concordat and Missionary Agreement, with obvious and concrete benefits, not in the least material.

If the Salesian Work in Goa found itself between the province of South India and the Portuguese province, Carreño at one point found himself between the Indian Union and Índia Portuguesa, “between Nehru and Salazar,” as a journalist put it,¹⁵⁶ and this is another interesting point in his biography.

Rico reports that in 1960 the Portuguese government honoured Carreño with a Commendation.¹⁵⁷ He is probably referring to an ordinance published by the Governor General Manuel António Vassalo e Silva in the Boletim Oficial praising the work done by Carreño.¹⁵⁸ Caetano Lobo comments that Carreño was persona grata to both Portugal and India because, in the absence of the consul, he had taken interest in the satyagrahi prisoners during the period 1955-59.¹⁵⁹ Rico himself reports that when the Indian Government broke diplomatic relations with Portugal over the issue of Goa, Carreño was called by the Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, to act as an intermediary in the liberation of Indian prisoners in Goa.¹⁶⁰

A few more details about this affair are available thanks to a Portuguese newspaper of 1977 that published excerpts from what was up to then a classified secret: Carreño’s own report to the Governor General of Goa about his meeting with Nehru.¹⁶¹

In August 1947, India had attained independence from Great Britain, and in January 1950 it had promulgated its Constitution and declared itself a republic. Several of the princely states had by then acceded to the Indian Union, but there remained the question of the Portuguese territories in the Indian subcontinent. In August 1954, hundreds of Indian satyagrahis had entered Goa at various points, as part of an ongoing movement for the integration of Goa into the Indian Union. According to R.N. Sakshena, many of these were killed by the Portuguese armed forces.¹⁶² It would appear, however, that a far larger number was imprisoned in Goa.¹⁶³ India cut off diplomatic relationships and imposed an economic blockade, freezing Portuguese funds in India and making financial transactions impossible.¹⁶⁴

Carreño was, as we have said, deeply involved in caring for the satyagrahis held in Goa, to the point of establishing close friendships with some of them.¹⁶⁵ He was, however, also disturbed about the effects of the economic blockade on the ordinary people of Goa. In his report of 13 November 1956 he writes:

A few months ago, using the little authority I had from the fact of being in charge of Indian political prisoners, I had written a rather strong letter to Mr Ashok Mehta of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Government of India (but resident in Bombay), protesting against the injustices caused by the economic blockade of Goa and, above all, the unjust withholding of pensions for thousands of Goans.¹⁶⁶

The minister replied by inviting Carreño to Bombay and then to Delhi, where, as it happened, Nehru himself asked to see him. The day was 29 October 1956. According to Pianazzi, the fact that Carreño had taken Indian citizenship gave him a special position before Nehru, who had great esteem for him.¹⁶⁷ Nehru expressed gratitude for all that Carreño was doing for the Indian political prisoners. He was sorry that the Portuguese government had not appreciated his [Nehru’s] efforts to stop the satyagraha movement at the cost of becoming unpopular with his own people. But he was interested in securing the release of the Indian satyagrahis. Carreño indicated that what was not possible in the political sphere might be possible through the mediation of the Catholic Church, but also insisted that the economic blockade be lifted, seeing that it was causing distress to hundreds of ordinary Goans. Nehru said he would be happy if the Church could mediate, but did not promise anything by way of lifting the blockade.

Carreño’s part in this affair bears investigation. His concern was clearly not limited by political or national boundaries: he had gone out of his way to care for the Indian political prisoners in Goa, and he was equally deeply concerned about the effects of the economic blockade on ordinary Goans. On the question of the continued Portuguese presence in Goa and on the possible Indian responses he is more ambiguous:

— Mr. Nehru, it has to be confessed, that the Goa question is currently at a standstill. The Indian Union does not seem to be aware of what Goa represents for Portugal. Portuguese India is so embedded in its history, its glories, its literature, its greatest poem, its spiritual heritage, that there is no hope of convincing the Portuguese that they can leave this territory, without betraying their most sacred duties to the Homeland. Do not compare Goa with Pondicherry. Here, economic interests are not at stake: it is the duty of a people to defend a sacred heritage. Believe me, Portugal will not budge. On the other hand, the Indian Union accepts no other solution than to force Portugal to abandon Goa. And, as the I.U. does not want to take up arms, it seems to have lost all hope of conquering the citadel of Portuguese conscience. Having closed its delegations, we have a dead end here. Shall we remain like this forever?

And again:

— Any honourable person will tell you, Mr. Nehru, that this blockade is a total failure. This blockade does not even scratch the Portuguese government or its army. Why does the Indian Union persist in getting involved with the Goan people?

— From a political point of view, the blockade is a failure: the only objective you have achieved is to bring the Goans closer to Portugal. They have every reason to say: ‘Portugal is our mother; the Indian Union treats us like a stepmother’.¹⁶⁸

According to Carreño, Nehru listened to him in silence, “with his head down like a tired lion.” As he had spoken before the Governor General of Goa, so now he had expressed himself without fear before the Prime Minister of India. Fear was not an emotion he had picked up during his upbringing. “No one ever talked to me of FEAR,” he writes about his childhood, “And how much I appreciated that all my life! Fear of what? Of whom? For what? Of lions? Was I not a son of God and brother of Jesus Christ?”¹⁶⁹

But let us return to the contents of the intervention. Is Carreño merely representing Portuguese convictions here, or is he reflecting his own? The author of the Expresso article of 1977 goes to the extent of suggesting that the good priest was acting as a double agent, though perhaps only involuntarily and without explicitly intending to. Rico reports that the dialogue between Carreño and Nehru ended with Carreño saying: “Mr Prime Minister, I am not a diplomat” and Nehru replying: “No, Father. But you are an honest person.”¹⁷⁰ We could say that Carreño certainly appreciated the benefits of Portuguese rule for the work of the Salesians, but that he was not one to allow his heart to be stopped by political boundaries.

Carreño’s mission was only partially successful. He carried Nehru’s request to Bangalore, where the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India was meeting: “The Prime Minister requests the Catholic Church to work towards obtaining amnesty for the Indian political prisoners in Goa.”¹⁷¹ Four months later Portuguese Goa granted the desired amnesty. Nehru’s India, instead, did not offer anything in return, and according to Rico “Goa suffered unjustly.”¹⁷² According to Pianazzi, this led to a falling out between Carreño and Nehru, with the former renouncing his Indian citizenship.¹⁷³

The chronicles of Panjim contain information about another incident that reveals Carreño’s political attitude.¹⁷⁴ The occasion was the Indian takeover of the Portuguese enclaves of Dadra and Nagar Haveli in 1954. In July 1954, a Dia de ‘Herois de Dadra’ (‘Heroes of Dadra’ Day) was held in Goa, in which the students of the Don Bosco School took part as members of the Mocidade Portuguesa (Youth of Portugal).¹⁷⁵ In October 1954, Dr Socrates da Costa convened a meeting of all Head Masters in which he asked them to sign a manifesto, “Saibam quantos êste documento virem [Let those who see this document know],” protesting against India for trying to merge Goa into India. Fr Caetano Lobo, the Salesian principal, was the only one of those present who declined to sign, saying he had to consult his superior, Fr Carreño. Dr Socrates insisted on knowing Carreño’s opinion, so Carreño sent a reply to Lobo that is a marvel of good sense and gospel shrewdness:

First of all, we are ministers of Jesus Christ and benefactors of the poor boys. This everyone knows.

Now, there is no doubt that for the good of Religion it is much better that Goa remain Portuguese, either as an overseas province or as a member of a Lusitanian Union. And I say this not as a Spaniard, but as a Catholic priest who is witnessing the course of events in the Indian Union. While the Portuguese government has been our best and most generous benefactor in Goa, the Bombay government, with its Public Trust Act, has been taking over – if not outright stealing – ecclesiastical properties, as you all know.

But in the public manifestation of our political convictions two limits are imposed on us

a) by our religious discipline

b) by our duty of charity.

(You see that I have not invoked the virtue of ‘prudence,’ for which I have very little sympathy!)

You, Fr. Lobo have your vow of obedience. You can be sent by your Provincial Superior once again to the houses of Shillong, Dibrugarh, Kotagiri... where you have worked before. If you, Fr. Lobo, sign any public manifesto in the present circumstances, it would not only go against our Constitutions which ask us to remain not only a-political but supra-political (‘we follow the politics of the Our Father,’ as Don Bosco used to say), but would make it impossible for you to be faithful to your vow of obedience. Suppose Fr. Provincial calls Fr. Lobo to Madras for a Retreat, the renewal of vows, to be Rector of a College... when Father arrives at Castle Rock, they could tell you what they told Mr. Virgincar: ‘You signed a public manifesto: please go back.’

I personally would be very happy, because that would mean that Father Lobo would stay with us in Goa for ever: but objectively, it doesn't seem canonically right.¹⁷⁶

Carreño goes on to mention “an even stronger reason” connected with the fact that the majority of the poor boys of the school have relatives in nearby India or in English Africa, but the chronicles unfortunately do not contain the second page of the letter. At any rate, the chronicler (probably Lobo himself) says that the letter was shown to Dr Da Costa, who in turned showed it to the Patriarch and probably also to the Governor General. In addition, a list of 249 names of ‘filiados’ (associates, members, probably the students) who had signed the document in question send to the Mocidade, and with that the matter seems to have been closed. “It was a delicate situation but it made clear to all that Salesians by their Constitution are to be not only a-political but supra-political,” comments the chronicle. Carreño comes out as pro-Portuguese or at least as one who appreciated what the Portuguese government was doing for the Salesian Work, but also as the wise (not prudent!) superior who is able to keep the larger picture in mind. He cared for the Indian satyagrahi prisoners but was also able to dialogue boldly with the Indian authorities. He was appreciated by Nehru but also received, at his departure from Goa, an official commendation on the part of the Portuguese government and a public homage involving the maximum authorities, both civil and ecclesiastical. Carreño knew how to give to God what belonged to God, and to the various Caesars what was due to them.

Another interesting element in Carreño’s Goa sojourn is the Betim aspirantate project.

In South India, Carreño had searched for vocations mainly from the vigorous and ancient church of Kerala. Goa, he realized, was another precious mine of vocations.

In the beginning the aspirants were simply part of the boarding school in Panjim along with other boys, as I have noted already. In 1955, the decision was taken to separate the aspirants from the rest. At first “Shed III” was allotted to them, and in 1956 the high school building, with the school being transferred to the central building. The provincial of South India, Pianazzi, entrusted immediate charge of the aspirantate to Caetano Lobo, under the direction of Carreño.¹⁷⁷

But Carreño’s dream was to put up a separate aspirantate.¹⁷⁸ The idea is mentioned already by the provincial of Portugal to Carreño in 1952: if the Salesians in Goa could put up the aspirantate and novitiate in the Convent of St Caetano in Velha Goa, the Portuguese province would take care of the philosophical studies of the clerics.¹⁷⁹ However, not everybody agreed with the idea of setting up a separate aspirantate. The provincial of Madras – Monteiro complains to Fedrigotti in 1959 – wanted, in fact, to close down the aspirantate in Goa.¹⁸⁰ It would seem that during his extraordinary visit to Goa the same year Fedrigotti himself suggested – according to Carreño – that the aspirantate be sent to Bombay.¹⁸¹

In 1960, however, as we have seen, Goa passed to the Portuguese province, where the aspirantate project found enthusiastic support. This, in fact, is one of the first things that Monteiro mentions to Carreño in his letter of 24 March 1960 communicating the news of the change of jurisdiction and of the appointment of Pinho as the new Rector of Panjim. In fact, he asks Carreño to take up direction of the aspirantate after returning from his holiday in Spain.¹⁸² Carreño, clearly relieved that the project was going through, replies that he would be happy to accept: “I had told you how it had pained me that Fr Fedrigotti was inclined to send the aspirantate to Bombay…; but when I received your letter and saw that your first concern was about the Aspirantate, it filled my heart with hope and joy. I feel happy now and willing to work for the propaganda; I believe that if I manage to collect a few thousand dollars for our minor seminary, the [Portuguese] Government will also be disposed to give us as much….”¹⁸³

Carreño left Goa for Spain probably in early June 1960, after the arrival of the new Rector. In February 1961 we find him still in Spain. Writing to Pianazzi, now a member of the Superior Council in Turin, he thanks him “for this marvellous holiday,” saying that he arrived there in time for the 75th anniversary of Don Bosco’s visit to that city.¹⁸⁴ He reports that he is still in the process of publishing his Marian Meditations, which would serve in his fundraising campaign for the aspirantate project in Goa. He then adds with uncanny prescience: “Even if I were not to return to Goa, what a consolation it would be for me to know that a new centre of vocations there would continue to multiply the good....”¹⁸⁵

In March 1961 the good missionary is in the USA, working in a rural parish while preparing the fundraising campaign. He had been hoping to get Fr Michael Murray to help him,¹⁸⁶ but that was not possible because he had been sent elsewhere by the local superiors. He writes to Monteiro, however, that Murray is keen to return to the missions: why not request the Rector Major or Bellido his vicar to send him to the new aspirantate in Goa?¹⁸⁷

In July 1961 we find Carreño writing to Monteiro from Don Bosco Tech, South San Gabriel, California. He is disappointed that Turin will not allow Murray to return to India: “It is a bitter refusal, but once authority has had its say, I accept in a spirit of faith. Fiat voluntas Dei!”¹⁸⁸ He goes on to ask for a decision about extending his stay in order to collect some more funds, discusses various details about the construction of the aspirantate building, inquires whether Monteiro had decided to place the project in Betim or in Vasco da Gama, and suggests that the provincial request the Portuguese government for a substantial contribution.¹⁸⁹

In November 1961 begins the discussion about transferring Carreño from Goa to the Philippines. Fedrigotti writes to Monteiro saying that Carreño had no problem accepting the transfer but was only asking for some months to complete the fund-raising for Goa – implying perhaps that the latter was, at the time, still in the USA. Fedrigotti goes on to say that the money collected for the aspirantate in Goa should be used for that purpose, as Carreño himself has been insisting. “Even if you first want to build the ‘college’ you must make sure that you find money for the aspirantate. But the danger is that no money will be left… I think you agree that the aspirantate is urgent.”¹⁹⁰

In December 1961, however, Goa is absorbed into the Indian Union and things change completely, also for the aspirantate project. Carreño writes to Monteiro from Barcelona saying that he has been told by Fedrigotti to hand over the money collected to Fr John Med, provincial of the South India province¹⁹¹ “who would look after the Goan aspirants.” Carreño is not at all happy with this turn of affairs: “Mi deja muy de mal humor todo este negocio [The whole business leaves me in a very bad mood],” he says, because it is a violation of the intention of the donors and of the one asking the donations.¹⁹²

The archives of the South India province will probably contain more details about the aspirantate project at this point. What is clear is that the aspirantate was never built in Betim but continued in different forms in Panjim itself.

We have seen already that, as part of the effort to bring the Work in Goa within the terms of the Concordat, Carreño was asked to terminate his service as Rector in May 1960, even though his (third) term was due to expire only on 15 August 1961.¹⁹³ It is likely that, after the public homage and farewell given to him in Panjim, he stayed on to welcome the new Rector and the Provincial who was accompanying him, and that he left Goa in early June. However, there is still some ambiguity surrounding the departure: was it temporary or final?

We have seen that – at least according to Lobo – already in 1959, during the canonical visitation, Fedrigotti had told Carreño to leave Goa the next year and go to Spain for some rest, after which he could proceed to the USA to collect funds for the proposed aspirantate at Betim.¹⁹⁴ Perhaps the Superiors in Turin were already thinking of ways of ‘regularizing’ the situation of Goa in the spirit of the Concordat.

However, it would be useful to keep in mind a very strong letter from Fedrigotti to Carreño, dt. 15 February 1957:

Would you like me to say what I think about some of your letters? I know how much you love the Congregation and Don Bosco; and this spares you a more severe judgment. But believe me that, perhaps without your being aware of it, your letters are sometimes offensive in what they say about the superiors: it would seem that they [the superiors] don’t understand anything and don’t do what they are supposed to do.

…

When you make a request, it seems there is nothing more important in the whole Salesian world, and so everyone must begin moving immediately to do it.

…

You say another thing that is completely out of place [Ne dici un’altra grossa]: the weaknesses that have motivated your letter are, according to you, ‘indirectly the result of the disaffection we have experienced’: as if the weaknesses in question don’t have a much older provenance, even predating my visit to India.

…

So that’s what I wanted to write to you. Forgive me if I have not put enough sugar into it. When you need to say something, you are always free to do so, and even for the sake of letting off steam; but you must do it in such a way that when your cause of beatification is introduced there will not be too many difficulties to overcome….¹⁹⁵

I have not been able to find Carreño’s reply to this letter, but the fact that he made a copy of it and sent it to Monteiro is itself of some significance, although the immediate reason was probably linked to Fedrigotti’s suggestion to send the Goan aspirants to Portugal for the novitiate. In addition, there is the fact that Carreño thanks Monteiro for his reply: “A thousand thanks for your affectionate letter of 5.3.57 that put new life into me, because the truth is that we receive all kinds of blows from all sides, including naturally from our dear Superiors….”¹⁹⁶

At any rate, we know that Carreño accepted with very good grace the early termination of his Rectorship. Instead of finishing in August 1961, he would finish in May 1960, before the beginning of the academic year in Goa. In May 1960, in fact, we have a rather well-documented and solemn homage to Carreño by the civil and ecclesiastical authorities in Goa. In the speeches that have come down to us, as also in the Official Commendation by the Governor General published a few days later, no mention is made of his leaving Goa.¹⁹⁷ However, other documents do speak of the function as a “despedida” or farewell on the occasion of Carreño’s trip to Europe, and the Aitarachem Vachop contains five tearful poems by well-wishers and past pupils,¹⁹⁸ but all this does not necessarily indicate a definitive departure from Goa. We know that Monteiro, the provincial of Portugal, visited Goa in May-June 1960, in order to accompany the new Rector, Pinho, but also perhaps because Turin had, in the end, sanctioned the passage of Goa to the Portuguese province.¹⁹⁹ We have surmised that Carreño left for Spain in late May or early June 1960.²⁰⁰ We have seen that in February 1961 he was still in Spain, and that from there he proceeded, probably in late March 1961, to the USA on his fund-raising mission on behalf of the new aspirantate in Goa.²⁰¹

As we have noted already, a significant change takes place in November 1961: Monteiro receives a letter from Fedrigotti saying that Carreño would be transferred out of Goa, probably to Manila:

I have to ask you for a sacrifice. The cardinal of Manila, who has blind faith in the Salesians, has asked us insistently for a Salesian to head his Catechetical Centre, a work of great importance for the capital of the Philippines. We have set our eyes on Fr Carreño who, apart from other great gifts, also speaks the two languages necessary in the Philippines, English and Spanish. I have already written to him and he has no difficulty in accepting this task; he asks only for a few months to complete his propaganda for Goa.²⁰²

The good provincial is shocked – “questa lettera mi causò una scossa profonda” – and in his long reply asks the superior not to go ahead with his plans. Carreño was highly appreciated by church and civil authorities, as the homage of May 1960 had made clear. He was involved in collecting funds for the aspirantate, and the Portugal province has no one else with that capacity. During his visit to Goa, the governor general and the patriarch made him promise that Carreño would return. “I responded, basing myself on your letter of March of last year, that they could be sure that the wish of his Excellency coincided with that of the Superiors.”²⁰³

Monteiro goes on to note that some Salesians had challenged Carreño for defending the respect due to the established authorities. Now, if he were not to return, it would appear that the superiors were either defending these Salesians, or else that they were allowing themselves to be deceived. It might also appear that the Portuguese Salesians wanted to send Carreño away: “And I, like all the Portuguese Salesians that I know, would feel very offended at this kind of calumny, because we admire him immensely and are very grateful to him.” The provincial then speaks about the aspirantate: he would like the money collected by Carreño to be used exclusively for the new building, and he had told the new Rector, Pinho, that as soon as Carreño returned he should begin with the construction. It was his intention, with the approval of his council, to name Carreño Rector of this aspirantate; this had been communicated to Carreño himself and also to Pinho and others. “For all these reasons I hope that the Superiors do not take him away and that they find someone in Hong Kong, where there is an abundance of personnel, e.g. Fr Pomati, for the mission that the Cardinal of Manila wants to entrust to the Salesians.”²⁰⁴

To Monteiro’s long and passionate letter there is no reply from Fedrigotti. The Indian military action began on 11 December 1961, a day after the provincial’s letter, and ended on 19 December 1961 with the annexation of Goa. The provincial was in Rome, participating in the First International Congress for Religious Vocations. From his letter to Carreño of 22 December 1961 it is clear that he is shocked, upset and worried about Goa and the confreres and people there, and at the same time pained at the lack of sympathy in Church circles for Portugal:

My impression in Italy, where I attended the First International Congress of Religious Vocations, is that the general mentality, at least in the case of Portugal, is the same as that of the Communists. For only these (and the socialists) make frontal attacks on our government and on the Portuguese position. And the great majority of the priests supported this position.²⁰⁵

But, obviously, Monteiro is also still dealing with the possibility of losing Carreño. He reveals that he had gone to Turin – precisely on 19 December 1961 – to meet the Superiors and discuss with them not only the new situation in Goa but also Carreño:

And let's come now to your case and the problems it raises.

I will send you a copy of a letter I sent Fr Fedrigotti so that you can see my state of mind when I heard the sad news that they wanted to take you from us. I went to Turin on the 19^th to meet the superiors and to work out things in the new situation created by the barbaric Indian attack on the Salesian work in Goa. In principle, they told me to leave everything as it is; but will the Hindu gentlemen in the Indian capital agree? Will they not send away the Portuguese Salesians and also some of the [other] Europeans? I will write to Fr. Med to get some news, because it is impossible to get news through our postal service for the time being.

I asked Fr Fedrigotti that you come to help us in Africa, because we will soon be opening a house in Luanda. But he, who was willing to change his mind when it came to Goa, if everything had continued as it had till a few days ago, told me that you could not go to India because you had defended the Portuguese position in Goa, and that they had already promised you to the Cardinal of Manila. You have no idea how much I feel this loss. The Provincial Council also joined me in defending you. And I am very sorry that I did not call you at the end of October or the beginning of November to give you a temporary posting until other problems were solved. My intention was that you would go to Goa in March-April to prepare for the new school year as Rector of the Aspirantate. Another Portuguese priest would go with Fr Casti to help you, because Fr Corcoran clearly does not have the qualities needed for community life. What can we do now? Fiat voluntas Dei.

Monteiro’s visit to Turin explains, perhaps, why there is no official reply to his protest letter of 10 December 1961 to Fedrigotti. It is good to know that Fedrigotti was, in fact, ready to change his mind and leave Carreño in Goa. The new political status of the territory, however, complicated things – especially because Carreño was regarded as a defender of the Portuguese position in Goa. There was also the promise made to the cardinal of Manila. Or perhaps it was just that things worked out in such a way that it was quite convenient to move Carreño out of Goa and into the Philippines.

Strangely, there is also a letter from Fedrigotti in Turin to Monteiro dt. 4 January 1962 which acknowledges the latter’s telegram communication and gives instructions about steps to be taken in the new situation.²⁰⁶

Some days ago we received your telegram with news of Goa. Thank God that there have not been major problems. Fr Pinho has also written to me: poor man, he is shocked and discouraged about the turn of events; he would like to leave immediately; but we must do things calmly. He [instead] has already sent a telegram to Fr Med asking him in the name of the superiors (sic!) to visit Goa to see the situation for himself. [But] it seems to me that there is no need of that.

Instead – and here you also must help – we must wait and see how the Portuguese government reacts; to remove [our] Portuguese personnel immediately would be to consider the invasion of Goa as a fait accompli and could be wrongly interpreted by your authorities.

Naturally, Fedrigotti does not mention Carreño at all. That also is now a fait accompli. “What can we do now? Fiat voluntas Dei,” Monteiro had said.

Carreño’s departure from Goa in 1960 turned out to be, therefore, his definitive departure. Thekkedath is right when he assigns 1952-1960 as the dates of Carreño’s sojourn in Goa.²⁰⁷

The public homages offered in May 1960 were, in point of fact if not in intention, the definitive despedida (farewell) to a man who had truly loved Goa. Among the messages that have come down to us, the official commendation offered by the governor general stands out:

We laud Rev. José Carreño for the magnificent work carried out in Goa during his eight years of permanent and tireless activity on behalf of the most underprivileged boys, to whom he tried to offer, along with care, food and lodging, living conditions that would make it possible for them to face life with greater optimism and hope.

Thanks to the tireless dedication of the illustrious Salesian Father it became possible for a few hundred young people to become men capable of living up to the task of a mission on earth quite different from that which would have resulted if they had grown up in the precarious state in which they were before being brought under the protection of the magnificent work of the Salesians.

In order to make this possible, at the cost of many sacrifices on the part of this missionary, some important facilities were set up… which… are already today a valuable element in the activities of this city, along with the enormous outreach in the moral, spiritual and professional formation of these hundreds of boys, the men of tomorrow, on whom the very structure of this Portuguese overseas province must be based more and more vigorously.

The Governor General is very pleased to officially and publicly record his high regard for the simple, humble and dynamic figure of the illustrious missionary that is the Reverend Father José Carreño, the fruit of unlimited devotion to the Holy Cause to which he dedicated all the strength and intelligence with which God has blessed him.

Rico also reports a fine tribute “from the Portuguese confreres,” which we now know was written in Lisbon after Carreño’s death:

The Oratory in Panjim, along with a high school, technical school, youth centre and other Oratories; the aspirantate next to the boarding school for abandoned boys; the growth of devotion to Mary Help of Christians and to Don Bosco, the collaboration with the local clergy and the prestige earned for the Salesians, all these are proofs of the quality of the unforgettable Fr Carreño. For the young confreres he was a father who never let down his sons in difficult moments.²⁰⁸

Most moving, however, is what this tribute reports about the feelings of the young:

And the students, when he finished his term as Rector of Panjim in 1960 and was going back to Europe, were inconsolable: ‘If we only knew that he was not coming back, we would not have allowed him to go. We would have all gone to the airport…’.²⁰⁹

Between South India and Goa, Carreño had spent almost thirty years in India. Marzo writes: “The 11 Salesian provinces and the flourishing of local vocations in the whole of India are the greatest and the best monuments of the great courage of Fr. Carreño, for whom the world was too small and for whom the Church and Don Bosco were the greatest loves of his life as father, prophet and visionary of the Salesian works in India.”²¹⁰

The Salesians had arrived in the Philippines ‘by chance’: the Communists of Mao Tse Tung had expelled them from China and they needed somewhere to go. The first houses were opened in 1951 in Tarlac and Victorias. In a letter published in Urdimbre en el telar, we get an idea of the situation of Catholics in the Philippines and Carreño’s feeling about it:

The Filipinos were almost 100% Catholic when Spain left the islands, today they are no more than 80%. And if things go on like this, we will have a nation of only 50% Catholics in twenty years. Of the one million babies God sends us every year, some 200,000 are not baptized… because there are no priests! There are of course some, but they are half those of India, when the Philippines has two and a half times the number of Catholics in the whole of Asia…. I was 30 years in India, but today I give thanks to God for having sent me to fire the last shots in the Philippines.²¹⁹

The first group of 10 novices (1962-1963) guided by Fr Carreño began in Mutinlupa. Carreño had taken over as novice director from Fr Vincenzo Ricaldone (1897-1975), nephew of Fr Pietro Ricaldone.²²⁰ The practical trainee or ‘assistant of novices’ was Valeriano Barbero.²²¹ Two months later the novitiate moved to the house of San Fernando, Pampanga, some 98 kms north of Manila,²²² where the Rector was Fr Godfrey Roozen (1912-1997), a Dutch missionary who had worked in China and had later tried to begin a foundation in Indonesia.²²³ Of the 10 novices who began, 4 made the first profession on 31 May 1963 and one on 17 June 1963 at the hands of Fr Carlo Braga. Seeing that so few had professed, some confreres complained that Fr Carreño was too liberal. The testimony of Fr Barbero, however, gives us a precious insight into Carreño the formator: those who left, in his opinion, were those who were nTot meant for the Salesian vocation.²²⁴

A couple of days after the first profession, the novitiate shifted to a new location in Canlubang in the Laguna province, about 40 kilometres from Manila. The property had been donated by Chief Justice José Yulo, a great friend and benefactor of Fr Braga, and a building had been constructed on the site. In 1964 Carreño was appointed Rector of the new house, in addition to being novice director.²²⁵ From 1962 to 1965, three groups of novices – a total of 33 – passed through his hands.²²⁶ In 1965, however, even before finishing his term as Rector, he returned to Spain, for reasons we will soon discuss.

Fr Giovanni Benna has wonderful memories of this period when Fr Carreño and he practically founded the Salesian work in Canlubang. Fr Benna had come from Italy as a young priest and had been assigned to Canlubang. He remembers asking Fr Carreño whether he could do some apostolate with the young people in the many barrios that surrounded the house, and how Fr Carreño encouraged him enthusiastically, despite the fears of some senior confreres that the young candidates would lose their vocation. He also recalls how Fr Carreño would simply entrust the whole house into his hands and go off to the United States in search of funds that were direly needed for setting up the house.²²⁷ Fr Carreño in turn described Benna as a Salesian of great value, spirit of sacrifice, well prepared and zealous.²²⁸

In Spain, Carreño had founded the VOFISA (Vocaciones Filipinas Salesianas) Association in order to collect funds for vocation animation and formation in the Philippines.²²⁹ As always, the distribution of his own books played a key role in this fund-raising.²³⁰

Fr José Bernacer (1937-), a Spanish Salesian who came to work in Canlubang as a formator during Fr Carreño’s last year in the Philippines, said that Carreño suffered because of the clash of mentalities with the Salesians who had come from China, but that he was never one to be discouraged. Full of humanity, enthusiasm, optimism and salesianity, he was able to make every young confrere loved.²³¹

As ever, Carreño was the man of dreams and visions. He soon became convinced that the newly professed Filipino Salesians should not be sent to Hong Kong for their philosophy, and that the vice province ought to have its own centre of philosophical studies that could also be a university college capable of providing them with the certification necessary to teach in schools.²³² His idea was to prepare not only Salesian Brothers but also clerics and priests to teach in technical and professional schools.²³³ Convinced that the Salesians could do in East what the Benedictines had done in the West, he had promoted and established professional and agricultural schools in India,²³⁴ and now he was pushing much the same idea in the Philippines.

The first aspirantate had been begun in 1953 by Fr Luigi Ferrari (Barbieri) (1908-1990) at Mandaluyong, in the old Seminario Conciliar de Manila given by the Archbishop of Manila to the Salesians. After some years it was transferred to the Salesian school at Victorias in Negros island. However, the parents of aspirants from the island of Luzon were reluctant to send their children so far away, so in 1962 Fr Carlo Braga, superior of the vice province, transferred the aspirantate to the Salesian school in San Fernando, Pampanga.²³⁵

As for the novitiate, after several false starts in Mandaluyong (1954) and Victorias (1955), it was begun in 1956 in Mutinlupa, south of Manila, as we have seen, in a villa leased by a benefactor. The first 8 novices made their profession in 1957. In early 1962 the novitiate was transferred temporarily to the school of San Fernando, Pampanga, while a house was being constructed for the purpose in Canlubang.²³⁶

Fr Mario Acquistapace (1906-2002), provincial of the China-Philippines province, had begun exploring various options for philosophical studies for the newly professed Filipinos: the Lyon province in France, the USA, the formation house in Cheung Chau – Hong Kong, and the Salesian house of Mandaluyong – Manila. In June 1957 the superiors in Turin approved the plan to keep the newly professed in Manila. Fr Acquistapace decided to keep the postnovices for the time being in Mutinlupa, with Fr Ferdinando Rossotto in charge.²³⁷ The choice of Fr Rossotto did not prove to be a happy one, however, and so for their second year the postnovices were sent to Cheung Chau, where they joined others from the China-Vietnam and the Japan-Korea areas. Fr Braga himself realized that this solution was problematic for several reasons, one of them being that they would come back without a degree recognized in the Philippines, something they needed if they were to teach in the schools.²³⁸

When Carreño was in San Fernando as novice director in 1962, therefore, the young clerics had been going to Hong Kong since 1958. New, however, was the decision taken in 1962 by the superiors in Turin, that the house of Cheung Chau in Hong Kong would be the international community for students of philosophy in East Asia.²³⁹ Very soon, as we have said, Carreño became convinced that the newly professed should not go to Hong Kong, and that the vice province ought to set up its own ‘seminary college.’ To this end he carried on a long correspondence with the general councillor for studies, Fr Archimede Pianazzi, the vicar of the Rector Major, Fr Albino Fedrigotti, and the Rector Major himself, Fr Renato Ziggiotti. The exchange makes for interesting reading and sheds light not only on Carreño’s return to his native Spain in 1965, but also on his character. He was certainly a poet and a visionary, but could also be strong in his judgments and persistent in dialogue. We draw here from 7 letters of the period 1963 to 1965.

The first letter is written from San Fernando on 8 January 1963 and is addressed to Fr Pianazzi. Of the 7 clerics who went to Hong Kong, Carreño points out, 4 returned with tuberculosis. Further, after spending 3 years there, they returned without the diploma (the papelito) that would enable them to teach in the five schools of the province. Worse still, one cleric returned with a falsified diploma. Sending the young Filipino Salesians to Hong Kong, Carreño said, amounted to deceiving them, for unlike in India, it would be easy to put up a school for philosophy in the Philippines, given that the government was favourable. He himself was willing to go to Spain and to India to find the needed professors and formators. The original sin of the Salesian work in the Philippines was that it had been begun per accidens, “come uno sfogo,” because the Salesian missionaries had been expelled from Communist China and needed to find something to do.²⁴⁰ These missionaries, including Fr Braga, were still attached to China, and it was this that made them insist on sending young Salesians to Hong Kong. When he had said that the young Filipino confreres ought to remain in the Philippines, the reply was: “How can we do this to our confreres in Hong Kong?”²⁴¹

In this letter of 8 January 1963, Carreño had made bold to ask Pianazzi to send a professor of calculus, chemistry and Spanish in the person of Bro. Julio Ferrer.²⁴² Ferrer would be a great boon to the college and, besides, he was being sadly under-utilized in Tirupattur. From Carreño’s letter to Pianazzi dated 5 February 1963, we understand that the latter had not agreed to this request. Carreño expresses his regret and adds: “I do not say this with bitterness, Don Pianazzi, even though it is inevitable to feel, at the age of 57, a new vein of irony in the body: if you had said yes, it would have been the second time, in these 30 years, that the Superiors of the Council (excepting the Rector Major) had said yes to me. I am by now very much used to the reaction from Turin – quixotic of me! – to my many requests: ‘another poem from Don Carreño!’”²⁴³

In February 1963 there was a provincial visitation during which Fr Braga seems to have told Fr Carreño that the clerics would no longer be sent to Hong Kong. A few days later, instead, Fr Roozen, Carreño’s Rector, received a letter from Fr Braga informing him that the clerics would, in fact, be sent to Hong Kong. This seems to have provoked a letter from Carreño to Braga, saying that the superior had been deceiving the young confreres and their families and the interests of the Congregation in the Philippines.²⁴⁴ This was a strong accusation, and Carreño tried to explain himself in a letter of 4 March 1963 to Fr Fedrigotti. He first rehearsed his reasons for not wanting to send the clerics to Hong Kong. They would not be able to see their parents for three years. 50% of them were likely to return with tuberculosis. They would return without a degree recognized in the Philippines. Not knowing Chinese, they would not be able to do apostolate in Cheung Chau, and anyway, how many oratories were there on that small island? Worse, he had also heard disparaging remarks from the (missionary and largely European) confreres, to the effect that the Filipinos were simply baptized pagans, while the Chinese were naturally Christian even without being baptized. Fr Braga, he said, had sacrificed the interests of the Filipino Salesians because of his ties with China. He had never really become ‘Filipino.’ This, he added, was just a hypothesis, but he believed he was not wrong, because he himself had been deceived several times since he came to the Philippines. Worse, he felt guilty that he was now part of the deception of the young Salesians, and so he had often thought of returning to Madrid. But there was another reason why he felt guilty: he was explaining to the novices that Don Bosco had given his life for poor and abandoned youth, but his impression was that the Salesians in the Philippines were not really working for the poor. It would be better if the superiors were to send another and saintly novice director to replace him. Carreño ended by noting that he had respectfully shared all these thoughts with Fr Braga, whom he considered a great, holy and humble Salesian. But it was precisely to protect Fr Braga that he was writing as he did, so that history would not later accuse him of having betrayed the trust that the Filipinos, and especially the young Salesians, had put in Don Bosco.²⁴⁵

About two weeks later, on 17 March 1963, Carreño wrote to Pianazzi, sending him a copy of his letter to Fedrigotti, which in another context, he acknowledged, could have been regarded as a protest. He repeated what he had said to Fedrigotti: that the thought of going back to Madrid was growing stronger every day, so as to avoid the possibility of giving way to open criticism and quasi-rebellion. For him it was sad that the Congregation had been established in the Philippines as an ‘outlet’ for China. There was a great absence of ideals. Whenever he spoke of poor and abandoned youth, he felt a disgust so strong that he was tempted to tell the young Filipinos not to allow themselves to be deceived, and that it would have been better for them to join the Society of the Divine Word.²⁴⁶ He ended the letter by repeating his plea to be allowed to return to Spain, revealing in the bargain that he is well aware of how he was regarded in Turin:

I am aware, more or less, that my letter will not change anything, because I know by experience that my correspondence is pre-classified in Turin as poetic. But at least I have done my duty. And, secondly, that it will convince the Superiors to send a Master of Novices who is holy… and also a bit naïve. Once he has arrived, if this will not displease the Superiors, I will humbly ask to return to my people: one does not come to the missions without an ideal, even if it might be called poetry. If it is only a question of ‘saving one’s soul’ or perhaps ‘to manage’, I ask that I might be allowed to save my soul in Madrid, where I have always felt at home. I will live with the remorse of having abandoned the most beautiful field of apostolate [I have ever seen]: but here I would run the risk of turning into a rebel.²⁴⁷

A postscript sheds more light on what was going on in the heart. Pianazzi had informed him about the bad impression created by his ‘harangues’ during his recent trip through South India: confreres there felt he was trying to ruin India, because of his request to take Bro. Ferrer to the Philippines. Carreño’s comment reveals a certain regret if not hurt at the lack of gratitude on the part of the Salesians in India:

From Yercaud they write to me: ‘Very soon we will have 21 priestly ordinations for this province and 17 clerics ready for practical training,’ all for the province of Madras! Those priests are the ones I left as Latinists… in those days when I used to make raids on Malabar [to find vocations]. And now our asking, as we are beginning, the service of a coadjutor to help in the setting up of a House of Formation, amounts to wanting to ruin India! … If this is not the bitterness of ingratitude, it is at least amnesia. How much more grateful my Goans have proved to be!²⁴⁸

In a letter of 10 April 1963 to Fedrigotti, Carreño thanks him for his assurance that the neglect of the Filipino Salesians and the lukewarmness towards them would soon cease. He then reports Pianazzi’s (rather blunt) reply to the effect that the new novice master had been identified and that, as soon as he arrived, Carreño could return to Spain:

Don Pianazzi has also replied to me. I must say, however that writing to him as the one in charge of studies, I had added also that I was feeling that my attitude was beginning to be interpreted as a kind of rebellion (‘these fellows from India’… ‘these confreres who have just arrived’… or, worse still, ‘these fellows from Spain’…). I had therefore said to him that, having always been an unconditional supporter of ‘authority’ (perhaps I should have added ‘of Salesian “authority”,’ because it is true that with ‘diocesan authority’ I got into a lot of trouble), I would be very sorry to give the bad example of rebellion, not being able on the other hand to simply shut up and say nothing; I requested therefore that a saintly Master of Novices be sent; upon whose arrival I would request to return to Spain rather than scandalize the whole province. And Don Pianazzi responded to me that in fact the new Master would soon set out and that ‘as soon as he arrives, you can return to Spain.’²⁴⁹

Given that the novitiate year would end 31 May, Carreño went on to ask “a last favour”: to return to Spain via the USA, so as to collect money to build the Chapel at Canlubang. It transpires that Carreño had already received, from the Curia of Newark diocese, a sum of $25,000 for the construction of the Chapel, but that money had been used to complete the construction of the Formation House. He now felt obliged in conscience to find the money to build the Chapel. He had 20,000 copies of a second edition of his Marian Meditations, and by distributing them in the USA he hoped to collect the sum required.²⁵⁰ Even when being seen as a rebel, Carreño continued to love “this beloved land” – the Philippines.

Carreño sent a copy of this letter to Pianazzi the same day, 10 April 1963. In his note he said:

This time I will disappear for good in my Cantabrian mountains, and I will not give any more trouble to anyone. I don’t hide the fact that it will cost me to leave this land, with which one falls passionately in love at first sight – especially if the missionary is Spanish – but I am by now used to giving this kind of shock to my poor heart.²⁵¹

In the meantime, the vice province had become a province, and the first provincial was appointed: Fr Alfredo Cogliandro (1911-1992), who had earlier been in India and had now just finished his term as provincial in the USA. Fr Carreño came to know that Fr Cogliandro had already authorized the departure of the newly professed clerics for Hong Kong, even before he could come to the Philippines and without having spoken to the formators. Perhaps the order had come from the superiors in Turin? He decided, therefore, to write to the Rector Major himself, which he did on 5 September 1963, asking Fr Ziggiotti to intervene in the matter. If the problem was the lack of philosophy teachers in the Philippines, he was ready to look for some in Europe. Sending clerics to Hong Kong was a stupendous waste of time, anyway, seeing that they returned without any certificate to teach. Further, in the Philippines minors needed the consent of their parents to go out of the country, but it was easy to intimidate parents in the name of God. And then, why deprive the young clerics from seeing their mothers? Why punish their parents by depriving them from seeing their sons? And why deceive them about the hope they had put in the Congregation? Carreño ended his letter by asking the Rector Major that he be changed and that another novice director be found in his stead.²⁵²

In notes on the back of the letter – probably at the request of the Rector Major himself – Fr Pianazzi said that Fr Carreño was exaggerating his case. It was calumnious to say that the clerics who went to Cheung Chau got tuberculosis. On the other hand, it was true that the teachers there were weak in English and had no degrees in philosophy. It was also true that the British certificates granted in Hong Kong were not recognized in the Philippines. However, Pianazzi pointed out that the Philippines vice province did not have the personnel to run a house for philosophical studies. Manila did offer good possibilities as far as professors were concerned, but Canlubang was too far from Manila, and in Manila itself there was no Salesian house that could accommodate the students.²⁵³

Impelido does not report Fr Ziggiotti’s reply, but remarks: “Turin would later heed Fr. Carreño’s proposal to have a college for the Salesians in the Philippines. But by that time, he was already resolved to return to his native Spain.”²⁵⁴

When exactly did the “seminary college” begin in Canlubang? Impelido implies that this happened already in 1963, with Carreño’s first batch of novices – the ones who professed in 1963²⁵⁵ – and in his letters Carreño himself talks about beginning in June 1963.²⁵⁶ It would appear that he had purposely ‘neglected’ to have the novices prepare their passports, and so the seminary college had to be started – or at least that is what Fr Philip Lazatin says, going by what he heard from Fr Celestino Lingad and others.²⁵⁷

In the seminary college of Canlubang, the young Filipino Salesians studied philosophy and also obtained a degree that would enable them to teach not only academic but also technical subjects.²⁵⁸ Carreño had visited the Department of Education in Manila to see the courses they offered, and had chosen Bachelor of Science in Education (BSE) and Bachelor of Science in Industrial Education (BSIE), at a time when all college seminaries in the Philippines, both diocesan and religious, were offering just Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy (AB Philosophy). His reasoning was that an ‘AB Philosophy’ would be useless in the Salesian academic and technical high schools.²⁵⁹

In front of Mount Maquiling and 22 kms from the Taal volcano…, in the midst of sugarcane fields, arises our first Filipino Seminary in Canlubang. And it will not be the last one, please God! … even if… for me perhaps it will be. We began it in 1963. In other words, it has meant two and a half years of hard work… and all this without any official resources or help from any agency! This allows us to see that there is Someone who is in a more hurry than we are to prepare priests for this sweet Christian land that has been betrayed. Who is She? The same one who once whispered into the ear of the Good Master: ‘They have no wine!’ and who today goes on repeating: ‘They have no priests!’ Look at those millions of innocent children, those good mothers, those humble houses, those simple peasants who three generations ago were all Christians, thanks to the Spanish missionaries.... Today, instead, they cannot even receive you in the most holy Eucharist because there are no priests! Go, my Son: help your ministers multiply vocations.²⁶⁰

So the ‘seminary college’ began in June 1963, and the first group young postnovices, it would seem, did a ‘double’ course consisting of ecclesiastical philosophical studies as well as BSE. Qualified teachers were obtained from the surrounding towns, but Carreño also managed to get an American De La Salle Brother to come over every week from Lipa City, Batangas – some 29 kms away – to teach English.²⁶¹ As he himself had hinted – and we have seen that by April 1963 his request to return to Spain had already been accepted²⁶² – Carreño did not see the first fruits of his project: the first graduates received the BSE or BSIE diploma in early 1967, by which time he had already left the Philippines.²⁶³

In his letter (5 September 1963) to the Rector Major, Fr Carreño had also suggested that Fr Bellido send about 20 novices from Europe, as he had once done for India.²⁶⁴ Such an injection of young clerics from Europe would provide fresh blood. They could easily learn not only English but also the local language. They could even obtain Filipino citizenship if they wished to. And studying in the seminary college they would be qualified to teach in any Philippine school. Finally, a mixture of local and foreign clerics would be to the advantage of all.²⁶⁵ This wish found a listening ear in Turin, and young clerics began coming from Italy to Canlubang for the study of philosophy. The arrangement did not last for long, however, because of the travails of the Church in Europe in the immediate post-Vatican II period and the consequent decrease in vocations.²⁶⁶

Fr Cogliandro, who had resisted the project of the seminary college at first, later saw the wisdom of such an initiative.²⁶⁷ On 10 July 1964 we find him writing to Fr Fedrigotti, in fact, saying that Fr Carreño was doing well as novice director and superior of Don Bosco Seminary College, Canlubang, and that they were expecting to have about 50 young Salesians, between novices and students of philosophy, in August 1964.²⁶⁸

We do not have much information about Carreño’s last years in the Philippines. However, a further insight into the generosity of his character is provided by the following incident. The provincial chapter had elected Fr Carreño as delegate to General Chapter 19 (1965), but he saw that Fr Braga, who had by then finished his term as superior of the vice province, was nonetheless keen on going to the Chapter, and so yielded his place to him. Fr Braga was, at the time, serving as confessor in San Fernando, Pampanga.²⁶⁹

The third and last group of Carreño’s novices professed on 16 July 1965. Fr Giuliano Carpella, a confrere on loan from Hong Kong, seems to have arrived either in July 1965 or else a year later, on 14 August 1966, to take over as novice director.²⁷⁰ Since it had been decided that the aspirants coming from San Fernando would do two years of college and only then begin the novitiate, the novitiate had been suspended for two years. Fr Carpella was asked to take the job of music and Latin teacher. He became novice director when the novitiate resumed in 1967.²⁷¹

Carreño left Canlubang and took the flight to Spain on 24 July 1965.²⁷² On 12 October 1965 we find him writing from Spain to Fedrigotti saying he was on vacation. He sends his filial greetings to the vicar of the Rector Major, informing him that he was doing what he could for the ‘seminary college’ in Canlubang, asking benefactors for funds to put up the necessary buildings. On his part, he reminded the superiors to send confreres to strengthen the work there.²⁷³

So, did Carreño depart definitively from the Philippines in July 1965? There is some uncertainty about this. Celestino Lingad is of the opinion that he left only in early 1966, while Rico and Thekkedath say he remained till 1967.²⁷⁴ However, the novitiate chronicles of Canlubang do speak of Fr Provincial (Cogliandro) taking over as acting Rector after Carreño’s departure to Madrid on 25 July 1965, and of Carpella’s arrival in Canlubang on 29 July 1965.²⁷⁵ One thing is certain: José-Luis Carreño had loved this his third mission land as he had loved India and Goa, and perhaps even more. “I spent 30 years in India; but today I give thanks to God for having sent me to fire the last shots in the Philippines.”²⁷⁶