Ex-member: I remain very much in love with Opus Dei

By Juan Math Geek in Catholic Answers Forum. Juan Math Geek is a 26 year-old graduate student.

I went through the temporary period of celibacy for several years but in the end I did not continue to make the commitment permanent. It takes normally about 6 years of having to renew the commitment every year, and on the 6th renewal it is for a permanent committment.

Let me just say that for me, in the end, it didn't work out.

Nevertheless, I remain very much in love with Opus Dei.

The thing is, as you search the web, you will encounter commentary that puts Opus Dei very negatively. Some of those who write these criticisms are former numeraries. I cannot say that I understand their point of view, as I can never know what they went through, but I disagree with many of the negative things former numeraries say. I do understand many of the difficulties they cite, but I believe whatever happened to them does not mean there is essentially something wrong with Opus Dei itself, as it is a spiritual path in essence.

So it saddens me to read what they say, like they were insulting my own mom. If you ever come across those criticisms, do consult people from both sides first, and I personally would be very glad to discuss. Not all former numeraries end up hating Opus Dei you know

http://www.escrivaworks.org/

http://www.josemariaescriva.info/

these are great sources of information

Ex-member: My years as a celibate member prepared me for my life as a wife and mother

By Peg Bruer in Opus Dei blogs. She first learned of Opus Dei in 1966. Peg became a numerary member a few years later, when she was not quite 18. For fifteen years after that she lived in centers of Opus Dei in Boston, New York, Chicago, and Washington, D.C.

Since there are a few people who have related “horror stories” about the Work, I would like to share my experiences while I was a member of the Work, as well as my relationship with Opus Dei since ceasing to be a member in 1984. Perhaps by doing so, there will be parents or young people who will realize that Opus Dei is not to be feared or avoided, but in fact sought out as a great source of growing in one’s faith and setting out to serve God through daily work.

While in high school, I started attending some doctrinal classes at a college residence called Bayridge in Boston. From the beginning, I was grateful that the priest explained many points of the Catholic faith which had been glossed over in my religion classes at school. This doctrinal formation continues to be available through centers of Opus Dei, and I feel deeply indebted to the Work for all the hours of instruction which I received as a member of the Work for fifteen years and as a cooperator for the past 22 years.

I have relied on what I learned from classes sponsored by Opus Dei throughout my years in college, law school, professional life, and particularly as the mother of five. It is not a matter of “conservative” or “liberal” positions on issues, but rather what is the truth as taught by the Catholic Church. So much of the present-day confusion of many Catholics on topics such as abortion, euthanasia, artificial birth control, the purposes of marriage, the search for God’s will in each of our lives, could be clarified if only people had the opportunity to receive the solid doctrinal formation that Opus Dei provides.

I truly believe that my years as a celibate member of Opus Dei prepared me for my life as a wife and mother. Because the majority of members of Opus Dei are married, I learned that the essence of both the single life and married life is service to others. While living in a center of the Work, I tried to make life more pleasant for those who lived in the center; now I try to make life more pleasant for my husband and children. The current media effort to report “corporal mortification” used by members of Opus Dei (in the form of a cilice and discipline) as a shocking expose is laughable. For example, how many secular people spend hours each week in grueling exercise routines, sometimes rising at 5:00 a.m. to get in a workout before the workday begins, or deprive themselves of all fattening foods for the sake of achieving the ideal body? The discomfort of wearing a cilice is nothing in comparison.

Was I recruited by Opus Dei without knowing what I was getting into and without my parents’ knowledge? Absolutely not – in fact when I was about to join Opus Dei I talked with my parents about it that morning, and remember my father’s clear and very supernatural answer: “When each of my kids reached the age of adulthood (I had three older siblings, and three younger siblings) I permitted them to do whatever they thought was God’s will, and I will do the same with you. God bless you.”

Other allegations about Opus Dei have included that members are pariahs if they leave the “organization” and that the internal workings of Opus Dei are secretive. Believe me, if I thought I could reveal “secrets” from my years of life as a numerary, I would be seizing this Da Vinci Code moment to publish a book and reap windfall profits! Instead I can attest to witnessing many members of Opus Dei who practiced a complete dedication to God through detachment from material goods, who sacrificed their personal ambitions in order to be available for the needs of Opus Dei, who used every minute of the day well in order to get more done for the glory of God. For a period of time I was in charge of the accounts for the women’s section of Opus Dei in the Midwest. Every penny that was donated, and every penny that was spent was accounted for.

My experiences with Opus Dei since 1984 have been equally positive. When I met and decided to marry my husband, it was a priest of Opus Dei who gave us pre-Cana classes. We have often relied on his practical advice in resolving any controversy throughout twenty-one years of marriage. Shortly after marrying, a priest of Opus Dei asked my husband and me to help give classes in our parish to people who wanted to convert to Catholicism. When my mother died in 1990 several members of the Work brought dinners for my family and guests, and many of those I had known while in the Work attended the wake and funeral.

In the Jubilee Year, our family traveled to Rome. My fourth child was ready to receive her First Holy Communion, so I asked in advance if it might be possible for her to receive at the crypt of St. Josemaria. A priest from the United States who was then residing at the headquarters of Opus Dei celebrated a special Mass for our family and my daughter received her first Holy Communion in the Oratory of Our Lady of Peace. Our whole family considers that day a very special blessing from God. When the Founder of Opus Dei was canonized in 2002, I went to Rome again with my oldest daughter. I continue to feel that I owe St. Josemaria a great debt for all the formation I have received and the faith I have. Because of the doctrinal and spiritual formation I received in the Work, I was able to organize classes for parents of my children’s friends when our children were about to make their first Holy Communion.

For a period of time my family lived in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where there is no center of Opus Dei. However, several friends of mine became cooperators of the Work and we met weekly to pray together for Opus Dei and our own intentions. Over the years, my children have participated in camps organized by Opus Dei, as well as clubs and classes. While I have learned that I need to respect their freedom to attend these activities, I have also learned to use prayer as a weapon in helping them to make the best decision. For any parent who is concerned about their children’s growth in the faith, the support and assistance of Opus Dei is a godsend.

A final point I would like to refute is the role of women within Opus Dei. I have read some accounts by former members who say women are relegated to servant- like roles when taking care of the household tasks, the cleaning, laundry, and so forth in centers of Opus Dei. The fact is, the work of the home is considered a professional job, one that requires training and skill. I learned many aspects of household management while I was a numerary, and have since been able to use this knowledge in my own household. At various times I worked in the administration of some of the centers of the Opus Dei. However, I also acquired a B.A. in Political Science, and was encouraged to pursue my dream of becoming a lawyer. Once I became a lawyer, my goal was the same as that of anyone working in the household tasks of the center: sanctify my work, sanctify myself in my work, and try to sanctify others through my work. Opus Dei does not teach that there are levels of work that are more important than others, but that every job is important and becomes more valuable depending on how much love of God one puts into the job.

Like all families

A post in dominic-cooray.blogspot

THE OPUS DEI story in Singapore began in 1982 with the arrival of four laymen and two priests from the Philippines. The first Opus Dei centre here was established in October that year and the next centre, for women, the following year.

Today, there are four Opus Dei centres in Singapore – two male and two female –with 10 to 12 numeraries, mostly Singaporeans, living in each. It is not easy to put a number on the size of Opus Dei here because in addition to the numeraries “the associates, supernumeraries and Cooperators are also part of the family,” explained Gerry Faigal, who came to Singapore with the first Opus Dei group from the Philippines.

Co-operators are those who assist the educational and social undertakings promoted by Opus Dei through their prayer, work or donation. Opus Dei Cooperators include Catholics, other Christians, Jews, Muslims, and others.

Opus Dei is a family, and like all families, the members of Opus Dei move in different circles but also, like all families, they try “to eat together, have excursions together, pray together,” Father Michael Chan said. As an Opus Dei priest, Father Michael’s role in the institution is “to do what the layman cannot do,” he said, namely to celebrate the sacraments, provide spiritual direction, carry out faith formation classes, preaching, and conducting retreats. He is also required to carry out assignments given to him by the Opus Dei regional vicar, and participates in archdiocesan priestly meetings. “(To be an Opus Dei member) is a matter of divine vocation; you discover it through prayer,” said Father Michael, who discerned his vocation during post-graduate studies in England. Each member who joins Opus Dei has made an informed and free choice, he affirmed.
		Father Michael Chan joined Opus Dei in February 1983 as a layman.

Gilbert Keng, 38, has been a member of Opus Dei for the past 12 years. His wife, Josefina, has been a member for about 14 years. Mr Keng likened his special guidance in Opus Dei to a gymnasium where people who want to keep fit go to find special guidance from a fitness instructor. “(Through Opus Dei) I discovered how to be a better Christian,” he declared. ■

Nothing more than a part of the Church that's serious about their faith

By Joe. Joe is thirty-three, married, and teaches in Seoul, Korea. He describes himself as a Buddhist-Catholic.


You remember that secret Catholic organization, the bad guys in the Divinci Code? Opus Dei. Well, I met with them on Thursday of last week. And let me tell you, did we do some strange things.

No, not really. Opus Dei is nothing more than a part of the Church that's serious about their faith. Their founder, Father Josemaria Escriva, was canonized as a saint by John Paul II. I have great respect for Opus Dei. In my opinion, if you believe something, or claim that you believe something, your actions should follow. In other words, if you're really a Christian, this belief should have some serious consequences for your life. But enough preaching, let me get back to the evening.

It took place in an elegant chapel in Hannamdong, Seoul. About a dozen of us sat on the pews while someone read for ten minutes from Saint Escriva's writings. The subject was prayer. We then prayed, oddly enough. The priest talked for fifteen minutes on loving the world and how the world is good, and if it's not, it's our responsibility to do something about it. This was followed by thirty minutes of silence and reconciliation, which is reflecting on our recent thoughts, words, and actions.

Another talk by the priest on joy, a brief benediction of the blessed sacrament, and the evening concluded. My favorite part was the Gregorian chanting at the end.

I thoroughly enjoyed the Evening of Recollection. It was somber, quiet, reflective, and even joyous, in a quiet, inward bubbling way. It felt sacred... even, dare I say, holy.

Harambee: Trust in mankind

Harambee Africa International. Rome, October 27th

Linda Corbi, Giovanni Mottini and Rosella Villa

“Trust in mankind, and love and be close to people of every condition. From these points of reference, the fruit of the teachings of St Josemaria, was born the Harambee Programme for Africa.” This is the way Giovanni Mottini, the president of the new charitable not-for-profit foundation, defined the profile of Harambee Africa International, presented on the 27th of October 2008, in Rome.

“In the year 2002, due to the canonization of St Josemaria, we asked ourselves what we could do as Christians to leave a sign of his teachings. And we began to get involved in Africa, avoiding an aesthetic look,” Mottini said, “that is to say looking at the continent only from the point of view of its natural riches, or else avoiding its beautiful side altogether and showing only indignation towards its dramas and staying well away from its problems. Instead, Harambee Africa International looks to give concrete solidarity, never from a distance – the solidarity of St Josemaria Escriva.

We began to get involved in Africa,” Mottini continued, “asking ourselves not so much what the Africans needed, but what they were thinking of, because we are convinced, along with Pope Benedict XVI, that the poverty is not only material but above all a poverty of hope.” This is the reason why Harambee Africa International has promoted and sustained programmes in Africa. “We concentrate on education, on improving its quality, because in this way we can cultivate the intelligence and the capacity of every one to improve their own destiny. The solidarity of Harambee by definition is less spectacular but very efficacious.”

After the speech of Giovanni Mottini, the international coordinator of the new association, Linda Corbi, showed the results obtained by the projects launched by Harambee, focusing especially on the experience of Kenya. “We have finished some days of study and work in Nairobi, where we were able to experience the potential for positive change that there is behind the programmes that we have financed to help the teachers in the schools, who are at times the only points of reference for the new generations.”

Harambee Africa International also means to promote a less stereotypical type of solidarity. For this reason there is a series of initiatives promoted by the Italian committee and coordinated by Rosella Villa. “Every month we have an issues forum in which experts on Africa will speak, guided tours of museums, projects, little events and more important ones with the common aim of raising the funds to carry forward this year’s projects. In this way it will be possible for everybody to help Africa in a concrete way.”

Sanctification: The Work Of A Lifetime

By Daniel Tay in Oxygen, 5 November 2008

Today’s quotes, some of them humorous, are on the theme of work:

“I like work, it fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours.” - Jerome K. Jerome

“Work is the greatest thing in the world, so we should always save some of it for tomorrow.” - Don Herold

“Light is the task where many share the toil.” - Homer

“Some are bent with toil, and some get crooked trying to avoid it.” - Anon

“God gives every bird its food, but he does not throw it into the nest.” - J. G. Holland

“He who labours as he prays lifts his heart to God with his hands.” - St. Bernard

“The great scandal of the nineteenth century is that the Church lost the working class.” - Pope Pius XI

“Be thankful if you have a job a little harder than you like. A razor cannot be sharpened on a piece of velvet.” - Anon

“The best worship, however, is stout working.” - Thomas Carlyle

“Nothing is really work unless you would rather be doing something else.” - James M. Barrie

- Taken from “Quotes and Anecdotes - An Anthology for Preachers & Teachers” by Anthony P. Castle
____________________

Work for your salvation.

Have you ever heard of Opus Dei? The name literally means ‘work of God’. I first heard of Opus Dei when a movie was being made from the book ‘The Da Vinci Code’ written by Dan Brown. The story portrays Opus Dei as an insidious cult. One of its characters is an Opus Dei monk who commits murder to protect the secrets of Opus Dei. I still remember an Opus Dei priest giving a talk in Singapore to clarify this. His opening line was, “We have no monks.”

Indeed Opus Dei is an international lay organization in which most of its members are people who live in the world and hold normal jobs. Only a minority of its members are priests. They have no monks. What the members look for in Opus Dei is the spiritual help that they need to sanctify (or make holy) their ordinary work. Thus their work becomes a means to sanctify themselves and help others to do the same thing. The organization asks its members to make an effort to practise human and Christian virtues, as children of God, despite the limitations and errors that are inevitable in human life.

In today’s first reading, we see St. Paul encouraging the Philippians to persevere and “work” for their salvation. There is a saying in Opus Dei that sums it up nicely. It goes: “Conversion is the matter of a moment. Sanctification is the work of a lifetime.” The Philippians were converts, just as many of us were.

All of us must have had a conversion experience at some point in our lives, otherwise we wouldn’t be here reflecting on the scriptures to try to deepen our faith. This conversion experience is the start of our journey and it happens in a moment. How many people do we know who have had conversion experiences but have since fallen away from the faith? This tells us that salvation must be worked for and this is done by leading a holy life.

The beauty of the spirituality of Opus Dei is that it tells us that lay people are called to holiness just as priests and religious are. What sanctifies us is our everyday work and the way we do it. Everyone works, even those who do not have a job. And it is through this work that we become cooperators with God who also works. This is what makes us holy. This is how we work for our salvation.

(Today’s OXYGEN by Daniel Tay)
____________________

Prayer: Dear God, we offer to you the work that we are going to do today. Bless us in our interactions with our colleagues, our superiors, and our clients. Help us to treat them with love, and may this work that we do serve to sanctify us. Amen.

Thanksgiving: We give thanks to the Lord for giving us work, by which we have the opportunity to be made holy.

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.

Ex-member: I received so much

By Alan Robinson. These are comments Alan gave in this blog which deserve to be placed in the main page.

I knew OD for ten years before becoming a member. I was a member for ten years and learnt SO much and received so much. I left believing that I did not have a true vocation. Everything I found in the Work was wonderful, and the priests (especially) and others fantastic. My one criticism is that I don't think they really "interview" and examine potential members enough. I don't think that they really checked me over enough.

[N.B. from Raul: According to Opus Dei officials, there have indeed been mistakes committed which they hope will be less and less as the directors of Opus Dei learn and mature. Thanks again to Alan for his piece.]

Back in the Garden of Eden

By Caminante from Puerto Rico in A Spiritual Journey. Caminante describes herself as: "60's and 70's generation, loving wife of a loving husband, mother of two, I love life, love God, love to pray, am Catholic, love the Beatles, Sade, Maria Callas, Andrea Bocelli, Raphael, Cezanne, Van Gogh, french lounge music, the Opus Dei concept of sainthood, Wayne Dyer, Paulo Coehlo, Marianne Williamson, Deepak Chopra..."

When I mention that I feel a real affinity for the Opus Dei concept of sainthood, people look at me like I am crazy. Between the idea of saints dying these horrifying deaths and The Da Vinci Code no one wants to have anything to do with it.

But to any Catholic or to any Christian for that matter, the concept of achieving sainthood is extremely attractive if you take away the martyrdom. And that is what the Opus Dei does: it takes away the necessity of martyrdom from sainthood.

You can become a saint in your everyday life, you can become a saint just living your everyday life, in your work, in your marriage, as a parent. You do not need to be extraordinary for sainthood; live your life in chastity which means no adultery, with charity, in love, and you are on your way.

Love God above all things, love your family, be excellent in your work, with your wife or husband, with your children, do your best for your parents and your family.

Be humble, know that all your talents all your ideas and creativity come from God and use them as God would want you to use them in love and for the benefit of many, and that is all that is asked of you.

Does that sound so hard or so terrible? If we all thought that way what a different planet we would be living in; I believe we would be back in the Garden Of Eden.

Friendly and family air

By Anne Soriano in Home Matters

Bishop Javier Echevarria or "the Father" as we fondly call him finally came to Manila on July 27 and left on Aug 1. Once again we saw and felt the family atmosphere of Opus Dei with the get-togethers that we had with the Father. In the general get-together that we had at SMX convention center, many people from all walks of life, members and non-members came to hear him.

With 9,000 people that gathered they said that they felt very much the friendly and family air we breathe in the Work. They also saw some other familiar faces they were not expecting to be there. Indeed, it is a small world, and many have heard or followed the Work in one way or the other.

What was the message of the Father to his Filipina daughters and sons? In summary, they are the following:

1) to be joyful and optimistic in Christianizing the world; to deal with young people, since they are the future of the world; to have a lot of hope in getting many people involved in our projects (social or otherwise), and even asking for financial help
2) to take care of the family; for husbands and wives to love each other, and to take care of the children; love should prevail in the families; to take care of the material and spiritual care in the homes
3) to avoid grudges and resentments (which many Filipinos are prone to); this goes against Christian charity; to forgive and forget.

Ex-member: I never encountered any conspiratorial non-sense

By Pat Delaney, answering allegations by someone against Opus Dei, at Greenspun. According to the accusations, life in Opus is allegedly "miserable" and Opus Dei's practices are allegedly "very far from Catholic orthodoxy". The text of Pat Delaney is the last piece in a series of posts and counter-posts at the Greenspun website.

Dear Atila,

I have known the Work for many years. In fact, I have previously been a member, and did in fact "whistle." I was an active member for five years before I decided it was not quite right for me about 8-9 years ago. Nevertheless, the people in the Work are still very much a part of my life in some ways. I have NEVER encountered any of the conspiratorial nonsense you allege. The types of things you allege cannot be proven otherwise as you allege they are done secretly.

What I have seen within the Work are many highly gifted people who live saintly lives, and less gifted ones who are willing to struggle with themselves. As with any human organization, there is an occasional idiot or two hanging around that everyone tries to be patient with in the hope that they will grow.

What I have also seen much of is something else. I have seen people who, when they see the opportunity for much sacrifice in their life, the sacrifices that will really need to be done to reform their spiritual life, will recoil in disgust after making an initial attempt. This often happens in the spiritual development of any person and is referred to as the "the dark night." Saint John and Saint Theresa of Avila refer to these periods as occurring twice along the path to great spiritual perfection. This path is well know and is defined by three phases: Purgative, Illuminative and Unitive and are separated by these dark periods. This is all explained quite well in "Spiritual Passages" by Father Benedict Groeschel (not in Opus Dei).

Many people when they reach these dark phases, or encounter some other great temptation, give in to the temptation and just stop trying. These people sometime find their way back to spiritual development, sometimes not. Unfortunately, rather than realize that this failure is the result of their own weakness, these people will try and blame their own personal decision on factors controlled by others.

I see this often among ex-members who wish to justify there own personal decision to leave the "Work." They associate the demands of growing in the spiritual life, with the rigors associated with living the "Norms" and other activities that EVERY person, in and out of the Work will eventually need to undertake if they are to develop themselves and grow to be a person of great virtue (i.e., a saint).

You have left the Work for your own reasons. That is fine. That is your personal freedom and your right. No one in the Work disrespects that. But you sin greatly by maligning those who, of their own freedom, choose to stay and use the Work as a vehicle for their own spiritual growth. That is all that Opus Dei really is. Its a service-provider and a vehicle for what can be great spirtual growth for those who wish to take that ride.

The LIBROS website you refer to is trash. It is set up by bitter people who wish to justify the unhappiness they have with their personal decisions by maligning others. It teaches attacks on the Church herself. It is full of relativism, skepticism and cynicalism. These are the marks of people who have turned their eyes from the truth.

I will pray for you Atila, as I'm sure your true friends in the Work regularly do despite your absence and attacks upon them. But in charity, I tell you that your present crusade is guided by none other than the Father of Lies.

-- Pat Delaney (pat@patdelaney.net), February 26, 2004.

Authentically Catholic

By a political scientist, 3 October 2008

Yesterday was the 80th anniversary of the founding of the Opus Dei by St Josemaria Escriva. I wish all my friends at Opus Dei a blessed anniversary!

The Opus Dei has been such a blessing to me. The priests there have heard my confession hundreds of times over the last three years (this has been such a gift). First Fr Michael and now Fr Marin have been such gentle, friendly and able spiritual guides for to me. At first I baulked at the idea of having a spiritual director and meeting him regularly. Now I can't do without it! It's so good to have someone wise and experienced to advice you and guide you. And they do it so gracefully. Spiritual direction is not scary or awkward at all ("so my friend, how has your week been?")

I've had circles (classes on the spiritual life) with Dr Ignacio, Claro and Dr Alvin and I've gained so much from them. It has helped me serve the Legion better too. I now attend, with Paul, Ferdi, Jordi, Ajith and Evan a super interesting class on Catholic doctrine with Dr Alvin. His lecturing abilities surpass most of my professors' and his jokes are priceless. He opens up for us the wealth of the Catholic Church's treasury of doctrine and teaching.

The spirituality of the Opus Dei is authentically and heroically Catholic, truly - as our Holy Father has said - "God's work"

It's great to have a beautiful oratory to pray at so near school - always a sanctuary where prayer is much easier.

The library has been a vital resource too for my own spiritual reading, for my apostolate and as help in writing allocutios and articles.

The Opus Dei retreats I have attended have been so refreshing and I come out of them with good resolutions and inspirations. The gatherings, the dinners, the barbeques, the interesting conversations about books, religion, philosophy are all cherished.

Yes I've been blessed! And I thank God for the Opus Dei!

By a political scientist

Benedict XVI: Escriva knew that we cannot make ourselves holy

Homily of Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, at the thanksgiving Mass for the beatification of Josemaría Escrivá, In the Church of the Twelve Apostles, Rome, May 19, 1992

St John’s Apocalypse, which tells us of so many terrible events both past and future, also opens up Heaven upon the earth and shows us that God still holds the world in his hands. However great the power of evil, God’s victory is assured in the end.

From the depths of the world’s misery there rises a song of praise. God’s throne is surrounded by an ever-growing choir of souls who have achieved salvation, who, forgetful of self, have made their lives into a movement of joy and glory. This choir does not sing only in the next world, but is being prepared in the midst of the history of this world, and is already present among us, though hidden. This is clearly shown by the voice that comes from the throne of God himself: “Praise our God, all you his servants, you who fear him, small and great” (Apoc 19:5).

This is a call to our world, a call to commit ourselves to the one thing that matters and so form part of the eternal liturgy here and now.

The beatification of Josemaría Escrivá tells us that this priest of our times now forms part of the choir that is praising God in Heaven, and that in him too the words of today’s reading are fulfilled: “Those whom he predestined, he also glorified” (Rm 8:30). This glorifying does not belong to the future but has already taken place, as beatifications remind us. “Praise our God small and great”: Josemaría Escrivá heard this voice, and understood it as the vocation of his life, but he did not only apply it to himself and his own life. He considered it his mission to pass on the “voice which comes from the throne”, and make it heard in our times. He invited great and small to praise God, and by that very fact he glorified God.

Josemaría Escrivá realised very early on that God had a plan for him, that God wanted something of him. But he did not know what it was. How could he find the answer, where should he look for it? He started his search primarily by listening to the Word of God, Holy Scripture. He read the Bible not as a book of the past, nor as a book of problems to be argued about, but as a word for the present, that talks to us today: a word in which we are each the protagonist, and need to look for our place in it, so that we can find our way.

In this search, he was especially moved by the story of the blind man Bartimaeus, who, sitting at the roadside on the way to Jericho, heard that Jesus was passing by and shouted out his appeal for mercy (cf. Mk 10:46-52). While the disciples tried to make the blind beggar keep quiet, Jesus turned towards him and asked, “What do you want me to do for you?” Bartimaeus replied, “Lord, that I may see!” Josemaría recognised himself in Bartimaeus. “Lord, that I may see!” was his constant cry: “Lord, make me see your will!”

People only begin to see truly when they learn to see God. And they begin to see God when they see his will and are ready to make it their own.

The desire to see God’s will and to identify his will with God’s was always the basic motivation of Escrivá’s life. “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” This desire, this unceasing plea, prepared him to answer, in the moment of illumination, like Peter: “Lord, at your word I will let down the nets” (Lk 5:5). His “yes” was no less audacious than the Apostle’s, on Lake Genesareth, after a long and unproductive night.

Spain was convulsed with hatred for the Church, for Christ, and for God. People were trying to rip the Church out of the country at the time when Escrivá received the call to let down his nets for God. From that moment on, and throughout his life, as a fisher of God, he kept throwing out the divine nets tirelessly in the seas of our history, to bring great and small to the light, to return their sight to them.

The will of God. Saint Paul says of it to the Thessalonians: “This is the will of God: your sanctification” (I Thess 4:3). The will of God is, ultimately, very simple, and at its core it is always the same: holiness. And holiness means, as today’s reading tells us, becoming like Christ (cf. Rom 8:29).

Josemaría Escrivá considered this call as addressed not to himself alone, but above all as a message to pass on to others: to encourage them to seek for holiness, and to gather a community of brothers and sisters for Christ.

The meaning of the word “holy” has undergone a dangerous narrowing in the course of time, and this certainly still influences it today. It makes us think of the saints whose statues and paintings we see at the altars, of miracles and heroic virtues, and it suggests that holiness is for a few chosen ones, among whom we cannot be included. Then we leave holiness to the few, the unknown number, and content ourselves with being just the way we are.

Amidst this spiritual apathy, Josemaría Escrivá issued a wake-up call, shouting: “No! Holiness is not something extra, it is what is normal for every baptised person. Holiness does not consist of the sort of heroism that is impossible to imitate, but has a thousand forms and can become a reality anywhere, in any job. It is normal, and it consists of directing one’s ordinary life towards God and filling it through with the spirit of faith.”

Conscious of this message, our new Blessed journeyed untiringly through different continents, speaking to everyone to encourage them to be saints, to live the adventure of being Christians wherever their lives took them. In that way he became a great man of action, who lived by God’s will and called others to it, without ever becoming a “moralizer”.

He knew that we cannot make ourselves holy. Just as love presupposes the passive – being loved –, so too holiness always goes together with the passive: accepting the fact of being loved by God.

The Work he founded was called Opus Dei, not Opus nostrum: the Work of God, not a work of ours. He did not want to create his work, the work of Josemaría Escrivá: he wasn’t aiming to build a monument to himself. “My work is not mine,” he could and did say, in line with Christ’s words and in identification with Christ (cf. Jn 7:16): he did not want anything of his own, but to make room for God to do his Work.

He was certainly also aware of what Jesus tells us in St John’s Gospel: “This is the work of God, that you believe” (Jn 6:29); in other words, to surrender ourselves to God so that he can act through us.

Thus we come to another point of identification with the word of Sacred Scripture. The words of St Peter in today’s Gospel were something Josemaría Escrivá also made his own: Homo peccator sum: I am a sinful man. When our new Blessed saw the abundant catch he had achieved with his life, he was appalled, like St Peter, on seeing his own wretchedness in comparison with what God wanted to do in and through him.

He used to call himself a “founder without foundation” and “a clumsy instrument”. He knew and saw clearly that all of this was not done by himself, that he could not do it, but that it was God acting through an instrument which seemed totally disproportionate. And that is what “heroic virtue” ultimately means: making a reality of what God alone can do.

Josemaría Escrivá recognised his own wretchedness, but surrendered himself to God without worrying about himself, holding himself ready, instead, for whatever God wanted. He got rid of self, and of all self-interest.

Again and again he would speak of his “madnesses”: the madness of beginning without any means, beginning in impossible circumstances. They seemed to be madnesses that he had to stake everything on, and he ran the risk. In this context, the words of his great compatriot Miguel de Unamuno come to mind: “Only madmen do what is reasonable: the wise can only do foolishness.”

He dared to be something like a Don Quixote of God. After all, does it not seem quixotic to teach, in the middle of today’s world, about humility, obedience, chastity, detachment from material possessions, and forgetfulness of self? God’s will was what was really reasonable to him, and that showed that the most seemingly irrational things were really reasonable.

The will of God. God’s will has a specific place and a specific shape in this world: it has a body. The Body of Christ has remained in the Church. Hence, obedience to God’s will cannot be separated from obedience to the Church. Only if I include my mission in my obedience to the Church do I have the guarantee that my own ideals can be considered God’s will, the guarantee that I am really following his call.

So for Josemaría Escrivá the basic measure of his mission was always obedience to and union with the hierarchical Church. This does not imply any kind of positivism or dictatorship.

The Church is not a power-structure, nor is she an association for religious, social or moral purposes that has to work out methods of achieving her aims better, updating and replacing those methods as necessary. The Church is a Sacrament. That means that she does not belong to herself. She does not do her own work, but has to be ever available to do God’s. She is bound up with God’s will. The Sacraments structure her life, and the centre of the Sacraments is the Eucharist, in which we touch the real presence of Jesus Christ in the most direct way.

And so, for our new Blessed, ecclesiality meant first and foremost living in the centre of the Church, which is the Eucharist. He loved and proclaimed the Eucharist in all its dimensions: as adoration of our Lord present among us in a hidden but real way; as a gift in which Jesus gives himself to us again and again; as a sacrifice, in accordance with the words of Scripture, “Sacrifices and offerings thou hast not desired, but a body hast thou prepared for me” (Heb 10:5; cf. Ps 40:6-8).

Only Christ can share himself out, because he has offered himself up in sacrifice, because he has surpassed himself out of love, because he has surrendered himself, and surrenders himself still. We will only manage to become like the Image of the Son if we enter into this movement of self-giving love, if we become sacrifice. Love is not possible without the passive aspect of the passio which transforms us, opening us up.

When Josemaría Escriva fell seriously ill at the age of two and was despaired of by the doctors, his mother decided to dedicate him to Mary. Despite huge difficulties, she took her son up the steep, rough path to the shrine of Our Lady of Torreciudad, and there she offered him to the Mother of the Lord, asking her to be his mother. So all his life Josemaria knew that he was under the protection of our Lady, who was his Mother.

In the room where he worked, opposite the door, there was a picture of Our Lady of Guadalupe; whenever he went in, his first glance was for her. And his last glance of all was also for her. At the moment he died, he had just gone into that room and looked at the picture of his Mother, when he collapsed on the floor. As he died, the Angelus bells were ringing, announcing Mary’s “fiat” and the grace of the Incarnation of her Son, our Saviour. Under that sign, which had been there at the beginning of his life and had shown him his road, he returned to God.

Let us thank God our Lord for this witness of faith in our times, for this untiring herald of his will, and let us ask, “Lord, may I also see! May I recognise your will and do it!” Amen.

Benedict XVI: Work is a Means and Path of Holiness

By Benedict XVI's address to Italian Artisans. Benedict XVI refers to the founder of Opus Dei as a "Saint of our times."

Dear friends, continue with tenacity and perseverance to preserve and put to good use the productive craft culture that can give life to important opportunities for balanced financial progress and encounters between men and peoples.

Furthermore, may you as Christians be committed to living and testifying to the "Gospel of work", in the awareness that the Lord calls all the baptized to holiness through their daily occupations.

Josemaría Escrivá, a Saint of our times, notes in this regard that since Christ who worked as a craftsman took it into his hands, "work has become for us a redeemed and redemptive reality. Not only is it the background of man's life, it is a means and path of holiness. It is something to be sanctified and something which sanctifies" (Christ Is Passing By, Homily, n. 47).

Benedict XVI on Opus Dei

By Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, October 6, 2002. An article by then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, published on the occasion of the canonization of Josemaría Escrivá. This is one of the best and most concise explanations of Opus Dei.

I have always been struck by the interpretation which Josemaría Escrivá gave of the name Opus Dei—an interpretation which we could call biographical and which allows us to understand the founder in his spiritual dimension. Escrivá knew that he should found something, but he was always aware that whatever it was was not his work, that he had not invented anything, that the Lord had simply made use of him. Thus it was not his work, but Opus Dei [Latin for "work of God"]. He was only an instrument with which God had acted.

While I was pondering this fact, there came to mind the words of the Lord reported in the Gospel of John (5:17): “My Father is always working.” These are words spoken by Jesus in the course of a discussion with some religious specialists who did not want to recognize that God could act even on the Sabbath. This is a debate that is still going on, in a certain way, among people and even Christians of our own time. Some people think that after creation God “retired” and no longer has any interest in our everyday affairs. According to this manner of thinking, God could no longer enter into the fabric of our daily life. But the words of Jesus affirm the opposite. A man open to the presence of God discovers that God is always working and still works today: We should, then, let him enter and let him work. And so things are born which open to the future and renew mankind.

All this helps us to understand why Josemaría Escrivá did not consider himself “founder” of anything, but only a person who wants to fulfill the will of God, to second his action, the work, precisely, of God. In this sense, the theocentrism of Escrivá, in accordance with the words of Jesus, means this confidence in the fact that God has not retired from the world, that God is working now and we ought only to put ourselves at his disposal, to be ready, capable of reacting to his calling. This, for me, is a message of greatest importance. It is a message which leads to overcoming what could be considered the great temptation of our times: the pretense, that is, that after the "big bang" God retired from history. God’s action did not “stop” at the moment of the "big bang", but continues throughout time in the world of nature and the world of man.

The founder of Opus Dei said: I am not the one who invented anything; there is Another who acts, and I am only ready to serve as an instrument. So the name, and all the reality which we call Opus Dei, is deeply bound up with the interior life of the founder. He, while remaining very discreet on this point, makes us understand that he was in permanent dialogue, in real contact, with Him who created us and works through us and with us. The Book of Exodus (33:11) says of Moses that God spoke with him “face to face, as a friend speaks with a friend.” I think that, even if the veil of discretion hides many details from us, still from some small references we can very well apply to Josemaría Escrivá this “speaking as a friend speaks with a friend,” which opens the doors of the world so that God can become present, to work and transform everything.

In this light one can understand even better what holiness means, as well as the universal calling to holiness. Knowing a little about the history of saints, and understanding that in the causes of canonization there is inquiry into “heroic” virtue, we almost inevitably have a mistaken concept of holiness: “It is not for me,” we are led to think, “because I do not feel capable of attaining heroic virtue. It is too high a goal.” Holiness then becomes a thing reserved for some “greats” whose images we see on the altars, and who are completely different from us ordinary sinners. But this is a mistaken notion of holiness, a wrong perception which has been corrected—and this seems to me the central point—precisely by Josemaría Escrivá.

Heroic virtue does not mean that the saint performs a type of “gymnastics” of holiness, something that normal people do not dare to do. It means rather that in the life of a person God’s presence is revealed—something man could not do by himself and through himself. Perhaps in the final analysis we are rather dealing with a question of terminology, because the adjective “heroic” has been badly interpreted. Heroic virtue properly speaking does not mean that one has done great things by oneself, but rather that in one’s life there appear realities which the person has not done himself, because he has been transparent and ready for the work of God. Or, in other words, to be a saint is nothing other than to speak with God as a friend speaks with a friend. This is holiness.

To be holy does not mean being superior to others; the saint can be very weak, with many mistakes in his life. Holiness is this profound contact with God, becoming a friend of God: it is letting the Other work, the Only One who can really make the world both good and happy. And if, then, Josemaría Escrivá speaks of the calling of all to be saints, I think that he is actually referring to this personal experience of his of not having done incredible things by himself, but of having let God work. And thus was born a renewal, a force for good in the world, even if all the weaknesses of mankind will remain ever present. Truly we are all capable, we are all called to open ourselves up to this friendship with God, to not leave the hands of God, to not neglect to turn and return to the Lord, speaking with him as if speaking with a friend, knowing well that the Lord really is a true friend of everyone, including those who cannot do great things by themselves.

From all this I have better understood the inner character of Opus Dei, this surprising union of absolute fidelity to the Church’s great tradition, to its faith, and unconditional openness to all the challenges of this world, whether in the academic world, in the field of work, or in matters of the economy, etc. The person who is bound to God, who has this uninterrupted conversation, can dare to respond to these challenges, and no longer has fear. For the person who stands in God’s hands always falls into God’s hands. And so fear vanishes, and in its place is born the courage to respond to today’s world.

Christian-bashing: the last acceptable bigotry

By Charles Moore in The Telegraph-Journal. Charles W. Moore is a Nova Scotia based freelance writer and editor whose column appears weekly at the Telegraph-Journal.

Bloc Quebecois leader Gilles Duceppe's attack on a Quebec Conservative candidate over her membership in the Catholic prelature Opus Dei, and lack of any consequential significant expression of media censure or popular outrage, further underscores that Christian-bashing is the one remaining socially-acceptable form of discrimination and intolerance in Canada.

While it's unremarkable that Mr. Duceppe, a former communist and still thoroughgoing left-winger, despises traditionalist Christianity, that his criticism of Nicole Charbonneau Barron, Conservative candidate in the Montreal-area riding of St. Bruno-St. Hubert, for her Opus Dei affiliation received only cursory and passing mention from the commentariat speaks volumes about popular acceptance of anti-Christian bigotry in our increasingly secular humanist culture.

Opus Dei, you see, adheres faithfully to official Catholic doctrine condemning abortion, contraception and same-sex marriage, unlike some (more socially acceptable) "cafeteria Catholics" who imagine they can legitimately pick and choose among which Church doctrines and moral teachings they will affirm or oppose. The mission statement of the organization, founded in 1928 by Spanish priest Josemaria Escriva who was canonized by Pope John Paul II in 2002, is "to spread the message that work and the circumstances of everyday life are occasions for growing closer to God, for serving others, and for improving society."

Opus Dei's first Canadian member was Jacques Bonneville of Montreal who established the group's work there in Canada in 1957 at the invitation of Cardinal Paul-Emile Léger. There are now an estimated 600 Opus Dei members in this country (some 87,000 worldwide), mostly married men and women, as well as approximately 1,600 co-operators who pray for the group's work and help with apostolic initiatives, including programs for young people, professionals, and families such as seminars for high school students, parenting courses, summer camps, and student residences at several universities intended to provide an environment for Christian formation and help participants become "sowers of peace and joy." There are now 16 Opus Dei centres in five Canadian cities: Montreal, Quebec City, Toronto, Ottawa, and Vancouver.

Opus Dei was viciously slandered in Dan Brown's amateurishly-written but wildly popular pulp-fiction fantasy novel The Da Vinci Code and the 2006 Tom Hanks film derived from it, in which the organization is caricatured as a sinister, murderous cult, a stereotype Mr. Duceppe presumably sought to channel with his assault on Ms. Barron's religious beliefs.

While he didn't call for Ms. Barron to resign as a parliamentary candidate, Duceppe was clearly fear-mongering in attempting to portray her as a member of a "secret society" with an agenda to impose "fundamentalist" Christian views on Parliament. That's pretty much lib-left boilerplate referencing any devout Christian participating in public life, but what especially rankles is that had Mr. Duceppe delivered a similar critique of the religious beliefs of, say, a Muslim, Jewish, Hindu or Sikh candidate, the political correctness brigades would have been over him like flies on a garbage truck, condemning him as an in tolerant racist. However, attack serious Christianity and the silence is deafening.

The double-standard is infuriating. It's become abundantly clear that at least among media chatterati, devout Christians are about as welcome in electoral politics as fire ants at a picnic, the message being that Christian social conservatives should be disqualified from holding political power and influence because in the estimation of lib-left self-appointed elites they are moral interventionists promoting hidden agendas - ideologically out of sync with a society allegedly comprised mainly of social liberals. The further implication is that religious people who actually take seriously and try to practice the principles, standards, and doctrines of their faith must be relegated to second-class citizenship. A topical example is the bleating from stage left over U.S. vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin's evangelical/pentecostal faith affiliation.

To draw a clearer bead on just how offensive this trope is, try inserting the words "Jew" or "Jewish" in place of "Christian" or "social conservative," or "religious right" in news reports and commentaries expressing shock and alarm that "fundamentalist" Christians are actually participating in the political process.

Sounds ugly, doesn't it? So why do secular humanists think it's perfectly OK to say such things about Christians seeking office? It's nothing less than selective, left-wing, secularist bigotry.

A struggle within our reach

By a priest of Midwestern United States in his blog, Clerical Reform.

I received a question about the quote from St. Josemaria appearing in the blog header: "A priest should be exclusively a man of God. He should reject any desire to shine in areas where other Christians do not need him."

St. Josemaria is quite a lightning rod. He is loved and revered as well as hated and reviled. It is in not enough to say, "So was our Lord." His model of priestly service is amazing on its own terms. He was sinful man, a broken man, a man whose sins were borne on the Holy Cross. Yet, he is also a saint. This ought to give us great comfort. This is not to say that we ought to embrace sin. It is rather to say that there is no place for discouragement. Yes, we shall sin. Yes, we have sinned. Yes, our sins make us foolish. However, they are not stronger than Jesus Christ. If we submit to Him and not to the sin, sanctity may be in our reach as well. Here's a quote that I think sums up St. Josemaria and his view on this:

"The Church, the souls, of all continents, of all times present and to come, expect a lot from you... But you should have it very firmly fixed in your head and in your heart that you will be fruitless if you are not a saint or, let me put it better, if you don’t struggle to be a saint." (From The Forge, 873)

Our job as priests is not perfection; it is the struggle for perfection. The struggle is within our reach.

My experience of Opus Dei

By David in Methodist Preacher. David is a preacher in the Birmingham West and Oldbury Circuit of the Methodist Church (UK).

The long planned resignation of Transport Minister Ruth Kelly has once again seen her alleged membership of the Roman Catholic group Opus Dei bought into the spotlight.

I must admit when Ruth was first appointed a Minister I felt uncomfortable with the implication in some quarters that her strong Catholic faith ruled her out from political office in a Labour government.

Now I'm no expert on the Catholic side of things but I'm aware that Opus Dei has always had something of a reputation and few years ago I was surprised to find myself providing a short training session for them.

A small part of my professional life is providing public speaking and media training. It isn't my main business but it brings in a few days work here and there, always useful.

One day I got a phone call and was asked if I could provide an afternoon's public speaking session to a woman's church group conference. I gather they had been let down and needed someone at short notice. By one of those astonishingly strange coincidences I had an appointment in the same city that morning.

Perhaps I should have asked a few more questions but was delighted that a church organisation was prepared to use my skills and halved my fee. On reflection the lady who telephoned me was a little vague.

Eventually I arrived just after lunch at a massive house in a suburb of Glasgow. My immediate impression was that there was a lovely atmosphere about the place and I felt welcomed.

What interested me about the thirty or forty people at the conference is that they genuinely spanned all age groups. I think of the words "woman's church group" and my Methodist mind defaults to a gathering of women in their late fifties and beyond. There were women in their 50s and 60s but there was also a strong representation of women in their late 20s and 30s. They seemed really nice, kind people.

Anyway I did my presentation, took a few questions, and joined them for afternoon tea. It was only when I was handed my fee that the organiser explained that this was an Opus Dei conference and offered me some literature about the controversial founder of the group Josemaria Escriva recently canonised by John Paul II.

I must admit I was a bit taken aback but certainly didn't feel I was meeting a group who were in any way sinister or fanatic. I haven't been asked to do anymore work for them but I now question the knee-jerk reaction of many who immediately denounce Opus Dei. I can understand how it provides the same sort of support that Bible study and house groups provide in a Methodist context. I feel sad that Ruth Kelly's alleged links have been used against her.

By David, a Methodist preacher in UK.

Opus Dei: No albino killers

By Michael Coren in the National Post. Coren is a respected Canadian columnist, author, public speaker, radio host and television talk show host.

We face an election conducted through the prism of sensationalist fiction or, to put it another way, the dictatorship of the novel. In this case a bad novel. Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code has largely been forgotten but its grotesque caricature of Catholic organization Opus Dei has left a cloud of absurd misunderstanding around this group, whose main crime appears to be orthodoxy. For Dan Brown, Opus Dei, Latin for the work of God, signified crazed albino assassins running around France, secret plots, dark intrigue and self-flagellation. In fact, it’s more charity missions in slums, schools, religious retreats for busy people and work for the poor.

But Dan Brown is evidently big in Quebec and, much to the chagrin of the Bloc, so might be the Conservatives. Accordingly, Gilles Duceppe announced that the Tory candidate in Saint-Hubert-Saint-Bruno, Nicole Charbonneau Barron, was an Opus Dei member. Then Raymond Gravel, a Catholic priest and outgoing Bloc MP, opined that, “Social conservatives such as members of Opus Dei may be running for office in order to change policies concerning abortion and same-sex marriage.”

Earth to dotty separatist: It’s not Opus Dei but the Roman Catholic Church that teaches that life begins at conception and that marriage can only be between a man and a woman. You might know that if you weren’t suspended from almost all priestly duties. Indeed it is entirely likely that in a less liberal place than Quebec in the 1980s, this former prostitute who worked in Montreal’s gay leather bars would never have been ordained in the first place.

The more important point is that this is a game of gutter politics being played by frightened politicians. Opus Dei is entirely faithful to Catholic teaching, so if anyone objects to its people standing for office they should really say what they mean — that genuine Catholics are not welcome. That, however, might be too much even for the most ardent followers of the new religion of state secularism.

Opus Dei was founded by Spanish priest Josemaria Escriva in 1928, as a largely lay organization of Roman Catholics with the purpose of sanctifying ordinary work. The holy is within everyday people doing everyday things, wrote the founder, but they need guidance. It is now an international group with houses and followers throughout the world. It has more than 80,000 members, 1,800 of them priests. In Canada there are around 500 members, but the number of followers is dozens of times larger. It is also a Personal Prelature of the Pope, which means it has clout.

Opus Dei is traditional: the sacraments, the Rosary, the adoration of the Virgin Mary and the saints, strict moral discipline. It’s what would have been considered average Catholicism just a few years ago, before “Catholics” such as Duceppe and Gravel came to prominence. It is growing particularly fast in Toronto, with a high school and a male and a female hall of residence catering to university students. Actual membership is not easy and most of its adherents simply go along for evenings of “recollection.” Others, however, commit themselves to celibacy and devote a certain part of their income to Opus Dei.

There have been rumours of extreme right-wing sympathies but this is largely nonsense. Because of the Spanish history of the organization, it is strong in Latin America and, of course, in Spain itself. Some members have supported juntas in Latin America, but they have also faced deportation, torture and murder because of their support for social justice. Opus Dei obviously stands for Church authority and hierarchy and so has sometimes been in conflict with the Liberation Theology of certain Marxist Latin American priests. But then so did Pope John Paul the Great and now Pope Benedict, men who have shown quite extraordinary sympathy toward the victims of fascism and offered contrition for any Church failings in this regard.

No albino killers, no former sex-trade workers and not even any leaders of the Bloc Québécois. Which rather disqualifies Opus Dei from what many see as the Canadian body politic -- one which is clad in fetish leather. It’s not the work of God that’s odd, but political liars who start false fires.

Michael Coren is an author and broadcaster.

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