José Luis Carreño

Born on 23 October 1905 to Rogelio and Teresa, Carreño entered the Salesian school of Santander, Spain, in November 1913, and later the school for aspiring Salesians at Campello. From Campello he went to the Salesian novitiate at Carabanchel Alto in 1921, and made his profession on 25 July 1922. After a brief military service, he made his perpetual profession at Sarrìa on 11 December 1928. He was ordained priest at Gerona on 21 May 1932.[4]

Having volunteered for the missions, he spent a year at Cowley, England, studying English. He set sail for India and landed in Bombay in 1933. When the second Salesian province was formed in South India, with its provincial house at Vellore, Carreño, not yet 28 years old, was sent to as novice master to Tirupattur.[5] In August 1939, India felt the echoes of World War II. All foreigners, including missionaries who belonged to countries at war with Great Britain, were taken to concentration camps in 1942. Carreño, belonging to a neutral country, was not disturbed, and was even able to mediate for his fellow Salesians before the authorities.[6]

In 1943, in the middle of the war, Carreño received a message over the Vatican Radio to take the place of Eligio Cinato, the provincial of the Southern province, who had been interned. At the same time, the Salesian Archbishop Louis Mathias of Madras invited him to be his Vicar General. In 1945 Carreño was officially appointed provincial.[7] The Salesian centres doubled under the leadership of Carreño: Kotagiri (1946), Poonamallee (1947), Nagercoil (1947). In his term Fr Aurelius Maschio managed to buy land in Mumbai and begin building what is today Don Bosco High School (Matunga).

One of Carreño's most far-reaching acts was to begin a university college in the remote and large Dalit village of Tirupattur. The college went on to transform the whole district.

It was also 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.[8] "The most lasting contribution of Fr. Carreño to the province, and indirectly to Salesian India as a whole, was the effort that he made to increase the number of candidates to the priesthood and to Salesian life."[9]

At the end of the war, certain of the interned Salesians were not allowed to stay on in British India. They hit upon the idea of going to Goa, then a Portuguese enclave. The first Salesian to enter Goa was Vincenzo Scuderi. He was followed by a group of seven others, including Giuseppe Moja. In October 1952, Carreño himself was sent to Goa. He stayed there eight years. During this time the work expanded to include two technical schools, a high and elementary school, two public churches, one of them in Panjim dedicated to the Pilgrim Virgin; the care of more than 600 poor boys, the presses, the Catholic Hour on the government radio station, and the work for vocations. 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. Four months later Goa granted amnesty to the Indian prisoners. Between Madras and Goa, Carreño spent almost thirty years in India.[10]

From Goa he was assigned to work in the Philippines. He arrived in 1962 and remained hardly 3 years. He is, however, remembered with great affection by the young people and Salesians who knew him.

During his stay in the Philippines, there were differences of opinion about ways of going ahead with the Salesian work, between missionaries who had come from China and others like Carreño who had come from India and elsewhere.

He went back to Spain where he founded the Hogar del Misionero (House for Missionaries).[11] He died on May 29, 1986 in Spain.[12]

Carreño was a prolific writer of popular books. Some of them, such as G in M ("God in a Mirror"), were apologetic. Many were religious. His books on the Shroud of Turin have been translated into several languages (see Bibliography below), and may still be found in print. He not only wrote, but also encouraged others to write; evidence of this is his election as Patron of the Konkani writers association in Goa during his stay there.

Among his musical compositions was the beautiful Latin hymn "Cor Iesu Sacratissimum", and "Siam Salesiani", sung in English translation as "We are Salesians". Among his more popular compositions was Kotagiri on the mountain, Tirupattur on the plain.