Cardinal of Boston blogs about his get-together with Opus Dei numeraries

By Cardinal Sean O'Malley in Cardinal Sean's blog. He is the only cardinal with a blog.

Saturday morning we went to Arnold Hall, a retreat center in Pembroke, for a Mass and visit with the members of Opus Dei.

During my visit, I had a chance speak with Bishop Juan Ignacio Arrieta Ochoa de Chinchetru, Secretary of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts, as well as Msgr. Thomas Bohlin, who is Vicar of Opus Dei for the U.S., and Father Peter Armenio from Chicago.

After that meeting, I celebrated Mass for a group of young men who are taking their summer courses at Arnold Hall. These are men who are numeraries of Opus Dei, laymen who have made commitments to live in a manner that will help them witness their faith to the people they meet in the course of their daily lives. Most of them are college students, graduate students and young professionals. It was very impressive to see how many vocations Opus Dei has.

The priests for Opus Dei are chosen out of the numeraries. They do not have a seminary, but all the numeraries receive the appropriate training and certain men are chosen to be ordained.

We stayed for lunch, and then we met with all of the young men. Many of them talked about their experiences and ministries. I was very taken by the apostolic zeal that was demonstrated in the stories that they told and how they are working to share their faith with their peers in the workplace, their schools, etc.

In today’s world where people talk about a vocations crisis, it is very encouraging to see the wonderful response to this way of life that has been approved by the Church and confirmed in the holiness of their founder, St. Josemaría Escrivá.

I think many people heard about the Opus Dei for the first time when the movie “The Da Vinci Code” came out. Although it was a very negative portrayal, it seems to have put Opus Dei on the map, as the say, at least in the United States. In the end, it does not seem to have hurt the community but rather made them more well known.

John Allen, who writes for the National Catholic Reporter, wrote a very interesting book about Opus Dei, titled “Opus Dei: An Objective Look Behind the Myths and Reality of the Most Controversial Force in the Catholic Church,” which I recommend to people who would like to know more about this way of life.

Of course, the writings of St. Josemaría are also very important, the most important being El Camino, which is a very easy read. It is almost like a book of sayings by the saint, organized according to themes.