Free Republic

Rick Santorum’s Catholic faith is an obvious centerpiece of his campaign for the GOP presidential nomination, and it is rare for him to speak without referencing his religious beliefs. It is also rare, however, to hear him speak about his particular church, St. Catherine of Siena, which he and his family have belonged to for at least a decade. Even his 2005 manifesto on his personal faith and politics, It Takes a Family, did not mention the church. I was curious to learn more about it, so last Friday morning, I attended a 9 a.m. Mass there. St. Catherine is...

Spanish Monsignor Fernando Ocáriz has been confirmed by Pope Francis as the new leader of Opus Dei, following his election by an Opus Dei congress to the role. Ocáriz, 71, is a long time consulter to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and performed key tasks under Pope Benedict XVI. Monsignor Fernando Ocáriz, a Spanish priest and consultant to the powerful Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith as well as other Vatican departments, has been confirmed by Pope Francis as the new leader of Opus Dei after being elected to the post by the group’s congress.Ocáriz becomes...

Bill Barr is plugged into, and gets his marching ­orders from, a network of reactionary Catholics, whose tentacles reach into the highest echelons of power. At the center is a sinister, secretive organization with a Latin name: Opus Dei, “the Work of God.” That’s the impression you might take away from a new profile of the attorney general in The New Yorker. All that’s missing are the hair shirts, cilices and murderous albino monks — the kind of thing too many secular elites believe about the lives of devout ­Catholics generally and members of Opus Dei especially. The winding and...