They never pressured me

Part of a comment of Pete Vere in Catholic Lite

I basically showed up on their doorstep, a young Traditionalist journalist who had recently returned to Church, having just been accepted into a canon law licentiate program because of a gentleman who was close to the Work, and was suspicious to know why. I had lots and lots of questions, which they patiently answered.

I attended several activities, and never felt any pressure to join. Some of my friends would visit from my hometown, want to join, and were told they needed to take time to pray and discern, that Opus Dei was a vocation that could not be rushed, that the Church recognized many different paths to sanctity and holiness, and they needed to make sure Opus Dei was a good fit for them. However, I noticed that I was never offered spiritual direction whenever I showed up for recollection, or retreats.

So one day I said to the director: "Am I being singled out because I'm traddy?"

He laughed, and said: "Yes and no. The work is a path to holiness recognized by the Church, but not the only path to holiness that the Church recognizes. The Church also recognizes your involvement with the Ecclesia Dei movement as a path to holiness, you have a good spiritual director back home who is guiding you on this path, and we don't want to interfere with that unless he feels it would help you."

And it was true. My spiritual director back home was an elderly Benedictine moral theologian who often assisted the local Tridentine indult priest. One day Father came to Ottawa to visit me, do theological research, and he quietly wanted to check out Opus Dei since a number of his parishioners had made contact and expressed interest. They invited Father to stay at their residence.

At the end of the weekend, just as he was loading his suitcase in the car to return home, Father turned to the director, pointed at me and said: "Make sure you keep an eye on my Pete while he's down here. He needs some good spiritual direction to keep him focused on his studies when I'm not around. If he gives you any problems, call me."

The director laughed, and after that I was invited to receive spiritual direction. That being said, I never felt called to join, and they never pressured me to.