Posted on 04/06/2005 6:11:48 PM PDT by Former Military Chick
The National Catholic Reporter´s Rome correspondent John Allen is about to publish a study of Opus Dei that challenges its common depiction as a secretive and sinister cult within the Catholic Church.
An interview with Allen in Newsweek focuses on the book´s role as an answer to the view of Opus Dei in Dan Brown’s best-selling thriller, The Da Vinci Code. Opus Dei, it says, is a secretive society of men and women who have sought political power to further the interests of a wealthy elite.
The book, and Allen, have been praised by conservatives who are normally hostile to the National Catholic Reporter.
Beliefnet´s resident Catholic blogger Charlotte Hays has welcomed the book, anticipating that "it might not get [her] blood boiling."
She quotes Allen´s explanation for widespread hostility towards Opus Dei: "In the 1930s and ´40s [Opus Dei] experienced some enormous, extremely bitter rivalries with the Jesuits [because] some young Spanish men were deciding not to become Jesuits and signed up with Opus Dei instead. And this was, I think, the initial source of tension, that there was this perception that Opus Dei was kind of poaching ... Some Jesuits began circulating, from my point of view, really outlandish charges against Opus Dei, things like they had secret tunnels under their centres, they were engaging themselves in bizarre rituals like crucifying themselves on crosses in Opus Dei centres."
Allen has been quietly urging all parties in the Church to adopt a more open-minded attitude to each other for some time. Following a symposium in San Antonio last year, Allen observed that the liberal Catholics present spoke of the need for dialogue "with secularity, with the young, with different cultures", but were "not even ready for dialogue with the different cultures present in their own Church".
"In one session, it was mentioned that a new bishop in Austria comes from Opus Dei, and the gasps were audible, as if he had said the bishop was a member of the Nazi party or the Klu Klux Klan," he recalled.
2005-04-05 17:27
MOSCOW, April 5. (RIA Novosti political commentator Pyotr Romanov) - The death of John Paul II has left many people all over the world feeling like they have lost a father, but the main orphan is Opus Dei, perhaps the best-loved project of the late pontiff, the only Catholic diocese without frontiers. I have met its representatives on many occasions both abroad and in Moscow. John Paul transformed the pariah and "revolutionary" of the Catholic world into a mighty organization, which, depending on sympathies or antipathies, is called "holy men," the "pope's soldiers," or even the "holy mafia."
Opus Dei was the pope's main response to changes in the modern world that were alarming for Christianity. In his apostolic message of 1995, the pope wrote: "Let us not allow Christ's Cross to be abolished, for if it is abolished, man will have neither roots nor prospects, he will be null and void. This is the lament of the end of the 20th century, the lament of Rome, Constantinople, and Moscow." This despairing call was dictated not only by the Christian world ceding positions to, for example, the missionary efforts of Islam, but simply because the world of profit and social injustice, which is immoral from the Christian standpoint, began to prevail.
A colleague of mine, writing about the death of John Paul II, said that the Russians would remember him as a fighter against communism. This is true. But if my fellow citizens knew a little more about the pontiff, they would remember him not only as a fighter against totalitarianism, but as also an equally consistent fighter for social justice.
While John Paul II was alive, the left wing of Catholicism developed, Liberation Theology, at the opposite pole from Opus Dei. I have met the man behind it, Padre Gutierrez from Peru, many times. Karol Wojtyla, who as a child dreamed of becoming a goalkeeper, and then an actor, also worked in a quarry. He learned all about social depths mean and the real weight of a pick axe. He thought that poverty had to be fought, although, naturally, not with Bolshevik methods.
Opus Dei helped the pope. Its founder Jose Maria Esgriva back in conservative Spain in 1928 advanced a fundamentally new interpretation of "holiness" - a major tenet of any church and religion. Esgriva argued anyone could claim and work for holiness and you did not have to enter a monastery, mortify the flesh or eat locusts to do so. Just the opposite. Escaping from temptation by barricading yourself in a cell is far easier than living in the real world, keeping your faith and integrity. Try, said Esgriva, being a saint in life, remaining a good family man, a businessman, or a lawyer. This doctrine, although developed by a Catholic, is quite applicable to modern Russia, and many other countries steeped in corruption and other vices.
While for most of his life Esgriva was a pariah, during John Paul II's lifetime the Opus Dei founder swiftly rose through the ranks, from the Vatican's enfant terrible to an officially recognized saint. The pope saw a new banner for the evangelization of the modern world.
The pope was, of course, perfectly aware that the path from a businessman or a lawyer to a saint is long and difficult, but what mattered was the first push along the way. During Wojtyla's life, the number of cardinals, bishops and mere clergymen in Opus Dei soared. When celebrating Trinity in 1991, for example, the pope ordained 61 clergymen, 20 of them from his best-liked diocese. It is not inconceivable that Opus Dei will attempt to place its supporter at the head of the Holy See during the current conclave. It could succeed.
Does any of this concern Russia? The answer is obvious: yes. Ideas have proven many times that they are material. And ideas do not recognize borders. This is particularly true given that Opus Dei was initially conceived as a "diocese without frontiers." We should not forget the past. It is anybody's guess who reared more atheists - communism or Voltaire. Both entered Russia on foreign passports.
Should we fear the ideological tenets of Opus Dei? I do not think so. There is no need to convert to Catholicism in a predominantly Orthodox country, just as there is no need in the 21st century to seek shelter in monasteries from the temptations of life. Yet to be decent, or at least try to be such, is not forbidden either to a businessman or a lawyer, or even a rich Russian.
So, this is another reason why it is a pity that Karol Wojtyla has passed away. What if his noble idea might have succeeded and led to something worthwhile?
I know very little about this, so if there are any Freeper's that would like to shed light on this subject I certainly would appreicate it. Thanks.
Opus Dei was not a project of Pope John Paul. It was started by Josemaria Escriva de Balaguer. The Pope Tolerated Opus Dei.
They wear spiked cilices and practice corporal mortification.
I think the reasoning for corporal mortification is, that we will all go to purgatory to pay for our sins. But while on earth we can pay for our sins here to make the path to heaven easier and faster when we die.
This is hardly a widespread or required practice. Opus Dei is a way for devout laity to serve the Church. I know folks in the organization and no one has admitted to corporal mortification on the level of the islamists.
As it happens, while I was at Harvard many years ago I knew the chaplain of the Harvard Catholic Club, Father Porres, who was an early priest of the order in America, originally from Spain. I became interested in Opus Dei and spent a couple of years during graduate school living in their house in Boston. I was not a member, but I got to know a number of members and joined them at their meals and prayers.
One of my classmates at Harvard, whom I knew in the Catholic Club, subsequently became a priest of Opus Dei. I haven't seen him in recent years, but used to run into him fairly often. Another friend from Harvard became one of the lay leaders at the Opus Dei U.S. headquarters in New Rochelle. I have met with him and corresponded with him and had him over for dinner for many years.
I have also have had acquaintances among the Jesuits. I taught at a Jesuit College on the west coast for several years, and for a number of years while I was in college I was a good friend of my Aunt's spiritual director, an Austrian Jesuit of the old school who taught at their Weston center before it turned sour.
The basic teaching of the founder of Opus Dei is that you can live a life of holiness in your family and in your ordinary work. (It's not really that different from the Protestant idea of having a calling or a vocation.) You try to sanctify your daily life and work with prayer, use of the the sacraments, yearly retreats, and the like.
For a while, we had monthly meetings of a small group of interested faculty at NYU, which were led by a member of Opus Dei whom I had met. These ceased, to my knowledge, about ten years ago. I can't really give more details without violating confidentiality, but these prayer meetings probably led to at least one conversion--someone whose faculty colleagues are so bitterly anti-Catholic that he had to keep his conversion a secret.
All the members of Opus Dei whom I have met--and I have met a great many over the years, including some of the American leadership--are perfectly sane, ordinary, conservative, faithful Catholics. None of the outre stories are true, to my knowledge.
Opus Dei has been very successful, whereas the Jesuits have been going down to ruin, and I have often been told, and occasionally have seen evidence, that the Jesuits are jealous of Opus Dei, and likely have worked to spread vicious rumors about them. The Jesuits used to pride themselves as being the Pope's faithful servants, even his shock troops, but for the past 50 years their leadership and most of their members have betrayed their original mission and have given rein to disobedience and dissent. There are still a few wonderful priests in the order, but they are in a distinct minority. The jealousy of the order is understandable but regretable. As the Jesuits have shrunk, the Opus has grown.
So, yes, I've seen a great deal of Opus Dei at first hand, and I have always been impressed by their good sense, their devotion to the Church, and their complete lack of any kind of cultishness. Despite having lived in the Opus house for several years, I was NEVER pressured to do anything I didn't want to do, and when I left to get married and moved on there was never any effort to say that my decision was wrong. Cults don't behave that way.
True. I am saying that they are not the mindless cultists portrayed in the media. Cicero's post #6 does justice to devout group.
That's a theory, the conclusion I've come to after reading a few things.
Who tells you they are secretive? Who are the many others who have had negative experiences? Have you ever tried to go to a meeting and been denied?
"There is something very strange about Opus Dei."
Please Lauralee you may be young but you seem more insightful than that.
I won't pretend that I've seen everything in an order that is now all over the world, but I've never seen anything like that. I've never seen anything secretive about it, just a matter of minding their own business. I've also never run into anyone in the order who was a dissenter. But on the other hand, they are not fanatical traditionalists, either.
Mostly what I've seen is people working communally to try to help each other lead better lives. I don't know what your sources are, but sometimes people who go idealistically into something like this can find that it's not for them, and then be bitter in their disappointment.
No organization is perfect, so no doubt there may have been some bad experiences. You can hear the same complaints about most of the Catholic religious orders, where people have tried them out and then quit.
Or you can hear complaints about the military. There are bound to be some bad officers, and basic training isn't fun, but that's the nature of things in this world.
According to the story, it sounds like Opus Dei IS about bringing Jesus to the world, in their daily activities.
I would not be surprised at ALL to learn that some Jesuits were the driving force behind the ugly rumors about Opus Dei. The Jesuits have been dwindling for years, and so many have sown dissent among so many Catholics, it makes me start thinking of millstones.
Do they practice corporal mortification?
Some do. So what? If you fast, you're practicing corporal mortification.
We can't pay for our sins - only One Person in all of time and creation could do that, and has. (all quotes KJV)
Romans 10 (9) "That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved."
Hebrews 10 (27) "And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: (28) So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation."
There is no purgatory - you die, you're judged. Not "easier" or "faster"; but immediately pass or fail, yes or no: accepted Christ or didn't. ALL the sins of mankind have already been paid-for; judgement rests solely upon that one decision.
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