Defense of Opus Dei

By Steve of Veritas Vincit (Truth Conquers) on February 28th, 2007

Here is a recent post I made on the Traditionalist Catholic discussion forum on www.fisheaters.com regarding Opus Dei. You can see the full thread here.

Hello All,

I saw the title of this thread, read the posts and feel obliged out of justice to respond. I am a conservative Catholic with a love for the Latin Mass, and Tradition. However I do believe in the validity of Vatican II and the Novus Ordo, even though I admit the mass as said in many US dioceses today is saddening.

Upon our move to a moderately liberal Catholic diocese, my wife and I sought out the local Opus Dei mornings of reflection. I attended one for the men and she one for women. It was a breath of fresh air. It includes confession, adoration, benediction, meditation, two solid homilies, etc. A sort of mini-retreat.

Recently, after attending local Opus Dei retreats and meeting members we decided to apply to become cooperators. We did not feel pressured in any way by any member we met. The fact that we were drawn to the organization by its orthodoxy, priests, and example if its members speaks well of the organization. The members we have met are great people, numeraries included, who are humble and attempting to live out their faith in their daily life. The mornings of reflection, retreats, and spiritual direction are top notch.

Members often attend daily mass, say a daily rosary, do spiritual reading and are a Catholic example to their co-workers, friends, and family. They also practice mortifications and offer up their sufferings and work. The married supernumeraries I know have very large families and, like many of you, live as signs of contradiction in our contraceptive and selfish society.

The masses are held in very ornate, beautiful, chapels and Latin is liberally used. They are the best, most reverent, Novus Ordo masses we have ever attended. There are also Opus Dei members who attend the local Latin indult Mass. The Latin Mass is not discouraged at all. In fact St. Josemaria loved the Tridentine Mass.

Supernumeraries and Numeraries follow a Plan of Life including daily mass, the rosary, examination of conscience, among other things. The Plan is a gameplan for incorporating your faith into your life, to be a constant reminder of Jesus’ admonition to pray without ceasing. Members offer up their work and mortifications for loved ones, friends, and those who need spiritual help. They also forge friendships with those around them and by their example, prayer and the Holy Spirit attempt to move these people toward the Truth and the Church.

One has to be careful in evaluating an entire organization based on the negative writings of ex-members. One can imagine the impression one would get of the Catholic Church from reading only websites of ex-catholics, fallen away Catholics, etc. Also there is no way to corroborate these stories or test their veracity. In addition no opposing viewpoints are ever given on ODAN.

If the stories are true, I agree that they are travesties that should have never happened and there needs to be correction and reparation. But this is no different in substance than the horrible priest abuse scandals. Just because there are bad individual priests out there and Bishops who cover up their deeds, doesn’t mean the Church as an institution is bad. We would tell Non-Catholics to get their information on what Catholics believe and teach straight from the horse’s mouth, the Church, and not websites with a negative agenda. I’d encourage you all to do the same.

Opus Dei’s website is www.opusdei.org/. There one can read the all too common stories of happiness, joy, service, and devotion of it’s members. Also I’d advise checking out the writings of St. Josemaria yourself to determine whether there is anything unorthodox about them. http://www.escrivaworks.org/.

P.S. The post regarding Josemaria changing his last name from Escriba to Escriva is simply not true. It is a fact that his family name was always Escriva. His name was misspelled on his birth certificate and later corrected. It is misinformation like this that is part of the problem with reading sites like ODAN. I think that, out of justice, the truth needs to be told about individuals, especially a holy man like St. Josemaria, whether or not you care for Opus Dei.

God Bless you all,

Steve

From:http://veritasvincit.wordpress.com/2007/02/28/defense-of-opus-dei/