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 CALCUTTA

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CALCUTTA

This barbarous warfare of the Portuguese of Chit- tagong brought about, amongst other causes, the ruin of Hugh in 1632. Shall Jehan, the Mogul emperor, ordered Khasim Khan, Nawab of Bengal, to destroy Hugh. After a siege of three months, the town was stormed; four priests and many Christians were sent prisoners to Agra. However, the Portuguese were restored to favour the next year (1633). Either by the exertions of the Jesuits of Agra and Lahore, the intervention of a Mogul prince called Assofokhan, or the negotiations of the Viceroy of Goa, Christians were allowed to settle, not in Hugh itself, but on a spot outside the town, called to this day Bandel. They erected there in 1660 a church and an Augus- tinian convent, still existing. The prior of the con- vent was the captain of the bandel, with power to try minor but not capital offences. There also was erected a convent of Augustinian nuns, which has been the occasion of the accusations levelled by trav- ellers against the morality of Bandel. The canonical standing of this convent seems to have been rather undefined. In 1666 Aurangzeb succeeded in taking Chittagong, and the Portuguese colony was trans- ferred to Feringhee Bazar, near Dacca.

The Jesuits went back to Bengal about 1612. Their ministry was hampered by the rivalry of the Augustinians, who strongly maintained their exclu- sive privilege. The former so.on confined their exer- tions to their church and college of St. Paul in Hugli. These were built in 1621, destroyed or damaged in 1632, and reappear in 16.55. For many years only one Jesuit priest was stationed there, till, in 1746, church and college were given up. In 1688 the French started a factory in Chandernagore, a few miles from Hugli. The Augustinians of Bandel claimed the right to be the parish priests of the new town, but, yielding to the representations of the French authorities, the Bishop of Meliapur created there on 10 of April, 1696, a special parish en- trusted to the French Jesuits. In 1753 there were in Chandernagore 102,000 inhabitants and only 4000 Catholics. The Capuchins had settled there and built a church in 1726.

In 1690 Charnock founded Calcutta. Portuguese from Hugli settled in the new town. They built a chapel and were attended by Augustinian priests. In 1799 the chapel was replaced by the beautiful church dedicated to Our Blessed Lady of the Rosary, which is used to-day as the cathedral. The Augus- tjnians of Bengal have been severely criticized by Protestant travellers, and, it must be granted, not without foundation. It can cause no surprise if in some cases the conduct of half-trained priests who were sent to outstations, far from any spiritual help or control, should not always have been exemplary. Besides, they were living in tin- midst of Pagan. Mo- hammedan, and Christian corruption. The defect lay in the way they were recruited. The Augustinians of Goa refused all candidates of native or mixed origin, and were therefore compelled to accept all European candidates, however unlit. As the supply was not equal to the demand, the training was neces- sarily short. Even so, Catholic communities had to remain without a priest for many years. The Augus- tinian superiors of Lisbon did not approve of such a policy; they pointed out thai it was much better to select the best of the native candidates than to accept indiscriminately the young adventurers whom their families had sent to India to get rid of them. These superiors, and the King of Portugal himself, in virtue of his right of patronage, threatened more than once to recall the Augustinians from Bengal. The bishops of Meliapur insisted on better organization and disci- pline. All was useless; the best regulations, the most stringent orders could not be enforced at such a dis- tance and on Mogul territory. Francis Laynez. S. I. Bishop of Meliapur, visited all the stations of Bengal

in 1712, but his efforts were fruitless. In all questions of reform clergy and people were against him. They even went so far as to appeal to the Mogul authorities to stop the exercise of his episcopal jurisdiction.

At the end of the eighteenth century there were Augustinians in Calcutta and Bandel only; elsewhere the Catholics were attended by clerics from Goa. The condition of the 25,000 Catholics then living in the eleven parishes of Bengal may be summed up in two words: ignorance and corruption. They were an easy prey for Kiernander, called "the first Prot- ectant missionary in Bengal", who went to Calcutta in 17.5S. But what did more for the perversion of Catholics was the erection, at the end of the eigh- teenth and beginning of the nineteenth century, of a number of well-endowed Protestant schools. There was no Catholic school in Bengal before 1830. About 1829 division set in among the Catholics of Calcutta. One party, with the parish priest of the principal church at its head, wrote to Rome to obtain a British vicar Apostolic and British priests. On 18 April, 1834, the pope created the Vicariate Apostolic of Bengal, and entrusted it to the Jesuits of England. Robert St. Leger, an Irish Jesuit, was nominated first Vicar Apostolic of Bengal, and landed in Calcutta with five companions in October, 1S34. The parish priest of the principal church received him in his church. The companions of St. Leger started a little college of St. Francis Xavier, which increased slowly. Most of the Catholics accepted the authority of the vicar Apostolic; only a few sided with the Goanese priests of the Boytakhana church, which was interdicted by St. Leger. St. Leger was recalled in 1N3S, and Mgr. Taberd, titular Bishop of Isauropolis and Vicar Apos- tolic of Cochin China, then living in Bengal, was ap- pointed Vicar Apostolic of Bengal ad interim. He earnestly promoted Catholic education and endeared himself to all, but died suddenly 31 July, 1840. Di- vision set in again amongst the Catholics of Calcutta. Dr. Carew, who had just succeeded Dr. O'Connor as Vicar Apostolic of Madras, was appointed Vicar Apos- tolic of Bengal, 20 November, 1840. He built in Calcutta the church of St. Thomas, founded schools, orphanages, asylums, and the little college of St. John. Difficulties arose between him and the Jesuits. The latter were recalled by their superior and their flour- ishing college of St. Francis Xavier was closed in 1846.

In 18.50 Eastern Bengal and Arracan were consti- tuted a separate vicariate, which became in 1886 the Diocese of Dacca. Dr. Oliffe, coadjutor of Dr. Carew, consecrated in October, 1843, was appointed Vicar Apostolic of Eastern Bengal. In 18.52 the districts of Bengal south of the Mahanadi River were entrusted by Dr. Carew to Bishop Neyret, Vicar Apostolic of Yizigapatam. In 1853 the Foreign Mis- sions of Paris consented to take over Assam, which has since become a prefecture Apostolic. In 18.55 Dr. Carew made over to the Foreign Missions of Milan the districts of Central Bengal, which became in 1870 a prefecture Apostolic, and in 1886 the Diocese of Khrishnagnr. Dr. Carew remained Vicar Apostolic of Western Bengal, and died 2 November, 1855.

The AiicniiincKsr, <>|. ( Alittta extends along the sea-coast from the Khabadak to the Mahanundi River. After the death of Dr. Carew, Dr. Oliffe, the Vicar Apostolic of Eastern Bengal, took possession of the Vicariate of Western Bengal. This vicariate, in- creased by the addition of the districts of Hazaribagh in 1871, Kurseong in 1881. Purneah, Santhal Pargan- nahs, Darjeeling in 1N.X7, is today the Archdiocese of Calcutta, with two suffragan dioceses, Dacca and Khrishnagnr, and the Prefecture Apostolic of Assam. Taught by experience, Dr. Oliffe entrusted at once, with tin' approval of the Propaganda, his former vicariate to the lathers of the Holy Cross. Three years afterwards he also obtained permission to put the Jesuits in charge of his Vicariate of Western Bengal.