Time to wake up

By  Michael Asciak in Malta Independent

I was away from the island for three weeks, partly on an Opus Dei annual sabbatical workshop dealing with Christology (the essence and being of Christ – one substance but two natures) and partly on holiday. Together with my wife and two daughters, I spent several days enjoying the delights of Lake Como in Italy which is easily accessible from Milan by train (30 minutes). There is however a big change in scenery from that in Milan, when walking out of the main station in Como San Giovanni! It's really breathtaking to see the majestic lake itself surrounded by rising high mountains whose peaks were often ringed with puffy clouds. The stately villas with their beautiful flower and tree gardens are something to behold in themselves, several of them being just summer residences for those who want to get away from Milan’s summer heat.
......

Two years ago I wrote an article from Rome after having several discussions with a Spanish colleague of mine during a similar Opus Dei workshop retreat then dealing with marriage. He was a supernumerary like me, married with children and a navy captain at the Nato command in Naples. In between lectures in theology and prayers, we often talked in our free time about security in the Mediterranean. He asked me pointed questions about Malta’s future security which I then realised underlined the deficiencies we potentially faced then and which are increasingly crystallizing now. I subsequently wrote a piece published by this newspaper and asked whether Malta should start seeking membership of Nato since we are already a member of PfP. Not surprisingly, even though my article then was in the form of a question, I was taken to task and openly ridiculed by the leftist press and politicians who were then in Opposition. Today, with Labour in government, we suddenly have the Minister of Foreign Affairs asking the same questions I asked two years ago. Nobody on the left is laughing now it seems! Dr Vella went on to express his wish that security arrangements similar to those in other European neutral countries should be sought.
.....                           

Read the rest here.

Opus Dei has many left-wingers

In Wikipedia Talk Page

* Ruth Kelly - Secretary of State for Transport, Labour Party (traditionally center-left) in the United Kingdom. John L. Allen, Jr. states that she is a supernumerary member in his book, Opus Dei.
* Paola Binetti - Senator-elect in Italy (2006). A numerary member. Binetti belongs to a party -- La Margherita (“The Daisy”) -- which includes Christian Democrats, Socialists, Greens and even some ex-Communists.
* Antonio Fontán - President of the Senate of Spain in 1977-1979. A journalist who advocated free elections and trade unions, and was persecuted by Franco. He helped draft Spain's new democratic constitution after Franco.
* Alberto Ullastres Calvo (d. 2001) - Minister of Trade (1957-1965). He is one of the members of Opus Dei who were appointed by Franco as ministers (Spain under Franco). He pushed forward the so called Plan of Stabilization which brought about Spain's transition from economic autarchy to liberalization and internationalization of the national economy.
* Jesus Estanislao - Secretary of Economic Planning and subsequently Finance Secretary of the Philippines under Corazon Aquino (1989-1992), who toppled the dictatorial government of Ferdinand Marcos. A numerary member of Opus Dei, who started Opus Dei in the Philippines.
* Squire Lance - a civil rights leader, called by the Spectator, "granddaddy of Civil Rights in Obama's own Chicago." He is a Democrat.
* Jorge Rossi Chavarría was the Vice-President of Costa Rica from 1971-1974. He co-founded the National Liberation Party (PLN), a social democrat party. He was a supernumerary of Opus Dei.
* Felipe González de Canales is a co-founder of a system of agriculture schools and rural development centers called Escuelas Familiares Agrarias (Agrarian Family Schools) which has 30 schools in Spain and has influenced 68 other agricultural schools in other parts of the world. He is also the founder of two trade unions. He is an associate member of Opus Dei.

Even theologians who are working on social issues:

* Joseph de Torre is a social and political philosopher. He has written a number of works on social ethics and Catholic social teaching.[9]
* Enrique Colom was a contributing editor of the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church made by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace. He is a member of the Scientific Committee of the Card. Van Thuan International Observatory which promotes Catholic social teaching internationally.

The secular fundamentalists don't want any Christianity in Parliament

By Tim Montgomerie at Centre Right

David Kerr is the SNP candidate for the forthcoming Glasgow NE by-election (caused by the Speaker's resignation). Until recently at the BBC, David Kerr has come under some fire for being a member of Opus Dei, the controversial Catholic group that famously includes Labour's Ruth Kelly.

The National Secular Society has led the charge:

"The concern for voters would be that such a person would have their allegiance to the Church and not to the SNP. It is one thing to bring your religious beliefs to politics, but it is another to bring the dogmas of a right-wing Catholic organisation. That would be the worry for voters."

The NSS are making a fake distinction between Opus Dei and all Christianity. The NSS' true agenda is pretty transparent.

I am not a member of Opus Dei. I am not even a Catholic. But I am an Anglican and I worry that the attacks on Opus Dei and David Kerr are the latest stage in a secular fundamentalism that is trying to push people of faith outside the public square. The Buttiglione affair - with illiberal Liberal Democrats leading the Inquisition (and, sadly, Matthew Parris) - has been the most prominent episode in this new manifestation of intolerance.

The Da Vinci Code book and films have made Opus Dei out to be some extreme organisation. Although Opus Dei is somewhat unusual the Hollywood treatment is very unfair. Tories should certainly know that the liberal media isn't the kindest to people of conservative disposition. Opus Dei does not have its own belief system. It has exactly the same beliefs as the wider Catholic Church. An attack on Opus Dei is therefore the beginnings of an attack on Catholicism generally. Opus Dei merely upholds and practices of an orthodox Christianity and in that way is similar to Anglicans, Baptists, Methodists and Pentecostals. It is no more 'hardline' on moral issues than the Evangelical Alliance or the Conservative Christian Fellowship or the Black Majority Churches on issues of when life starts and ends and on marriage, for example.

It is of course perfectly acceptable for a voter to decide to withhold their vote from David Kerr because of his views on abortion. That's democracy. But I would counter that a new intolerance of Christianity would be very bad for politics as whole. One of the characteristics of Christianity in Britain (compared, say, with the USA) is its breadth. Christians in the UK have a healthy range of interests including a concern for the poorest people at home and abroad.

I was recently at a CCF party to celebrate Guy Hordern's 70th birthday party. Few Conservatives have done more to link the party leadership (in his home city of Birmingham and in the wider nation) with innovative poverty-fighting groups and charity sector thinkers. Philippa Stroud, our candidate in Sutton and Cheam, is (with IDS) the hero of the Centre for Social Justice. Both Guy and Philippa are churchgoers. Our country's history of social reform has had Christians at its heart (Wilberforce and Shaftesbury).

My own hunch is that the intolerance of Christianity is largely an elite class thing. Most Britons - even if they don't go to church - still have a deep affection for the Christian faith and Jesus' teachings. That's why so many send their children to faith schools and even more will do so once Michael Gove has enacted his supply side revolution.

David Kerr deserves to be judged on his merits as a candidate. I am fortunate to count him as a friend. If elected I know he'd be an excellent MP who would tirelessly work hard for all his constituents (of every faith and none). People like David would enrich Parliament. It's just a terrible shame he's in the SNP and that (in case there is any doubt) is why I'd vote Conservative and Unionist if I lived in the constituency.

Lay apostolate in action

By Fr. Tim Finnigan at The hermenuetic of continuity

Via a note from Damian Thompson on Twitter, I found Ed West's excellent post about the National Secular Society: The National Secular Society aren't secular - they're atheist bigots.

This was prompted by the NSS reaction to the Scottish Nationalist Party candidate for Glasgow North East who is associated with Opus Dei. They apparently think that this disqualifies him for office. Looking up the story, I am delighted to find that the candidate in question is David Kerr. David has worked for the BBC for many years and wrote a powerful critique of the Panorama programme "Sex and the Holy City", showing its inaccuracies and bias. This research was used by Robin Aitken in his book "Can we Trust the BBC?"

The National Secular Society needs to be worried. In addition to his association with Opus Dei, David has also been a regular at events run by the Faith Movement. He is more than able to answer the expostulations of those secularists who imagine that science has disproved the existence of God.

A Catholic man involved in his trade union, working in the media, and getting actively involved in politics: David offers a fine example of the lay apostolate in action. As Pope Benedict has pointed out in Caritas in Veritate, the Church has a right to a voice in the public square. It is good to hear that someone like David Kerr is there at the coal face.

Ex-member: Don't judge Ruth Kelly's spirituality by what The Da Vinci Code says

By Christopher Howse in The Telegraph. Christopher Howse writes leaders and features and reviews for The Daily Telegraph, which he joined in 1996 as obituaries editor. He lives in Westminster.

When I was a member of Opus Dei, a certain sort of person was beastly to me because they hated Opus Dei. "Aha," they would say, if I made a mistake, "typical Opus Dei!" Opus Dei-baiting was like Jew-baiting.

No hidden agenda: Ruth Kelly

Since I left, in 1988, the same kind of people have been much nicer, on the assumption that I loathe Opus Dei as much as they seem to. I don't loathe it at all. My departure was to do with me rather than them. I didn't like getting up early and things. But I have never since met a group who are kinder, more patient or less motivated by personal ambition.

I can understand, though, why Ruth Kelly, the Education Secretary, doesn't want to be written off as a mere chip off the Opus Dei block. She should be condemned for her politics, if they are despicable, not for her choice of spiritual advisers.

Just at the moment, the serial on Woman's Hour is a novel called The Gowk Storm, set in 19th-century Scotland. The village dominie or schoolmaster is driven out by the local elders because he is a Roman Catholic.

He is believed to be capable of anything. One old woman saw with her own eyes how he bewitched a fish in her frying-pan and made it jump on to the floor. Of course. And the vilification of Opus Dei is just like the routine disgust with Roman Catholics in Britain in the 19th century.

In fact, Roman Catholics can look pretty strange to outsiders. In their churches they display carvings of a dying or dead man with no clothes on, nailed to a cross. As they enter their pews, they make obeisance or curtsy towards a metal box under a veil which contains nothing but what looks like a round bit of bread. Ghosts figure large in Catholic belief. Until recently, they called one of the gods they worship the "Holy Ghost".

All right, the preceding paragraph was a parody of ill-motivated observation. I know that Catholics only worship one God. The Holy Trinity – Father, Son and Holy Spirit (or Ghost) are three persons in one God. That's what the C of E believes, too. But it is not easy to explain simply.

Similarly, it is not easy to explain to a post-Freudian secularist that ascetical practices – penance, fasting – are not exhibitions of self-hatred. The one thing everyone wants to know about Opus Dei is whether they beat themselves with knotted cords. The inquirers hope that this is a bit of kinky sex they can hear about.

Cardinal Newman (1801-90) used to beat himself a bit. "Taking the discipline," he called it. Fr Faber, a fellow member of the Catholic congregation of priests called the Oratorians, made excuses about taking the discipline, saying it was bad for his health. Perhaps that sort of practice is impossible in the modern world.

I can't say I go in for beating myself. All Catholics are, however, bound by their religion to do some penance every Friday in honour of the Passion of Jesus Christ on Good Friday – that dying man nailed to the cross. Catholics believe he isn't dead. They talk to him, same as you'd talk to the cat, only they really think he understands.

I want to say what Opus Dei is really about, but there's The Da Vinci Code to deal with first. The chief baddy in that bad book, you must know, is called Silas, an albino Opus Dei "monk" who kills people.

But no members of Opus Dei are monks, they are ordinary civilian women and men, and they seldom kill anyone. Albinos are admitted as members, as available. So are black people, and were welcomed a long time before a lot of other white churchy people recognised them as equals.

A few facts, then. Opus Dei was founded in 1928 by a Spaniard called Josemaria Escriva. He was recently declared a saint. The Catholic Church fully approves of Opus Dei, which has about 80,000 members round the world. Its chief function is to remind lay Christians that by their baptism they have a vocation to seek holiness, which is to say, friendship with God. Ordinary people, Opus Dei declares, do not have to become monks or nuns to find God; they can offer to him their daily work.

Most members are married folk. A very few are priests. Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor has just asked Opus Dei to take on a parish in Hampstead, but the people who go to church there will not be Opus Dei members any more than people who go to a church run by the Jesuits are Jesuits.

What do members of Opus Dei do? They pray in the morning and in the evening. They go to Mass every day, as pious Catholics do. But most of the day is spent working, as anyone has to, and with their families. All the time, they are aware that they are in the presence of God and, as his children, inwardly offer him the things they do during the day, cheerfully. It sounds nice enough to me and almost makes me want to join up again. Perhaps they are too normal for me, though.

Anyway, because Opus Dei wants lay people to be responsible for their own actions, it never gives members any orders or advice about their professional or political lives. That was the great taboo when I was a member: you could ask for advice about praying but would never dream of asking about voting.

We wouldn't just shop at a grocer's because it was run by a member. So Opus Dei doesn't boast of having a specific MP or plumber as a member. It's up to the member. There is such a thing as privacy. Perhaps he might be hounded out of his job by those playground bullies.

I've noticed that when people leave organisations, they can make a hobby of slagging them off, thus proving their own superiority. But the Catholic Church is a big place, hence the name. Christians are meant to be seeking unity and loving one another, so the Bible says, not denouncing anyone who follows a slightly different way from their own.

Even the chief inspector of schools rather bafflingly called this week for us to be "intolerant of intolerance", so I think multi-cultural tolerance should at least extend to a voluntary association of committed Catholics like Opus Dei.

There's a lot of information about it at www.opusdei.org.

Opus Dei welcomes left-wingers, too

Written by Michael Swan, The Catholic Register, Friday, 12 September 2008. Michael Swan is Associate Editor of The Catholic Register. He is an award-winning writer and photographer and holds a Master of Arts degree from New York University.

It probably comes as no surprise to many Catholics that Nicole Charbonneau Barron, is running in the Montreal riding of St. Bruno-St. Hubert for the Conservatives. Charbonneau Barron is a member of Opus Dei, and the personnel prelature to the pope is generally associated with conservative, right wing politics.

Members of Opus Dei were highly placed in the governments of Generalissimo Franco in Spain and Alberto Fujimori in Peru. Opus Dei members were influential in the senior civil service when the generals were running Brazil and Argentina.

But Isabelle Saint-Maurice who runs the Opus Dei information office in Montreal protests that there's nothing right wing about the Catholic movement, whose sole aim is to help people live their faith in their daily lives. Even in Franco's Spain there were Opus Dei members who had to go into exile because of their opposition to Franco and who returned to Spain after the Generalissimo's death to found a centre-left coalition which included ex-communists, she said.

The most prominent, active left-wing politician who is a supernumary of Opus Dei is Ruth Kelly, Secretary of State for Transport in Gordon Brown's Labour government in England.

Jesus Estanislao was secretary of economic planning in the government of Corazon Aquino which overthrew the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos.

Italian politician Paola Binetti is a numerary member of Opus Dei and was elected to the Italian senate in 2006 as a member of La Margherita (The Daisy) – a coalition which includes ex-Communists, Greens, Socialists and Christian Democrats.

Of course the list of Opus Dei politicians includes far more senior members of right wing governments and dictatorships than social democrats. But Saint-Maurice claims the only influence Opus Dei has on their members politics is to help them integrate the social teaching of the church and the values of the Gospel. Opus Dei wouldn't tell its politician members how to practice politics any more than they would tell its doctor members how to practice medicine.

"Politics is a practical way of bringing solutions to people," she observed.

Written by Michael Swan, The Catholic Register, Friday, 12 September 2008