Opus Dei: A Strange Pastoral Phenomenon

In this exclusive English translation of an article appearing in Le Sel de la Terre (No. 11), Nicolas Dehan probes the organization referred to as Opus Dei and its beatified founder, Josemaria Escriva de Balaguer. This dossier concludes with a response from the Opus Dei, Mr. Dehan’s counter-response, and a commentary regarding the approbation of Opus Dei by the Catholic Church. Translated by Suzanne Rini.

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On May 17, 1992, a grandiose ceremony in St. Peter’s Square in Rome revealed to, and thrust upon the world a man’s name and that of his work, both up until then relatively unknown to the general public.

In the presence of 46 cardinals, 300 bishops and 300,000 pilgrims, John Paul II celebrated the Mass of beatification of Josemarie Escriva de Balaguer, founder of the Opus Dei.

For over sixty years, "God’s Work" has labored very discreetly, so much so that some of its opponents —and it does have some —have defined it as clerical Freemasonry.

Josemaria Escriva, who died in 1975, hurtled over the various stages of the beatification process and was pushed up to the altar with amazing speed: 17 years. Certainly, the media seized upon this sensational aspect of the event, so rarely seen in Church history. For instance, think of the time it took —170 years —to define the heroic virtue of an authentic popular apostle like Louis-Marie Grignon de Montfort.

Thus, logic based on Church history prompts attempting to discover a reason justifying the urgency surrounding the introduction of Msgr. Escriva’s beatification process, and its acceleration. His cause was opened in 1981, six years after his death.

During the years of the process, the Opus Dei, which has no media antennae of its own, and conforming to its principle of discretion, reached its affiliates in the intellectual and professional classes through an annual Information Bulletin, addressed to select cadres. This private publication exalted the Spanish priest’s deep interior life and his apostolate; it reviewed and commented on his written and social work; it informed readers of the progress of his cause in the Roman Curia; and gave a brief overview of the Opus Dei’s expressions and its international activities. Although not much, this was enough to get and keep the attention of the Bulletin’s readers, who might be curious about, or interested in, restoring the social order upon spiritual foundations. Nothing written in this publication, a priori, arouses any suspicion of an orientation deviating from the traditional teaching of the Church. Thus, the reader faithful to Church teaching remains trusting.

The same Bulletin also serves as a remembrance for those who knew the apostolate and work, some decades ago, of another Spanish priest, Rev. Fr. Vallet.

Information on the Opus Dei leads to comparing the two works, as well to deducing two facts:

an obvious similarity in style of apostolate of Rev. Fr. Vallet’s work, founded in 1922, and that of Fr. Escriva in 1928.
a coincidence of the dates of the suppression of Fr. Vallet’s work, his expulsion from Spain at the hierarchy’s order, and the birth of Fr. Escriva’s work only a few weeks later during the same year, and supported by the same hierarchy.

The grand silence maintained by the Church on the missionary and social work of Jesuit Fr. François de Paule Vallet and, over these many years, the great amount of discretion enveloping Fr. Josemaria Escriva’s work, is enough to whet the curiosity, to incite lifting the veil by investigating all documentation on these works. Let us begin with what the Conciliar Church today exalts:

WHO WAS FR. VALLET?

In the 1920’s, the Jesuit priest, Fr. François de Paule Vallet (1883-1947), having discovered the power of conversion possible through the 30-day Ignatian Exercises, made them available to more people, especially laity, by condensing them into a 5-day format. In 1928, Fr. Vallet founded the Parochial Co-operators of Christ the King with the express purpose of presenting this abbreviated form of the Exercises to laity, who for reasons of time, money, and physical and mental capacity found the 30-day regimen too difficult. The 5-day retreat was an "adaptation to modern man" while still preserving the masterpieces of the original 30-day format.

The Cooperators’ apostolate went international, and in France and Spain spawned "La Cité Catholique," a network of lay cells in France and Spain which studied Catholic doctrine and worked practically to restore Christ as King over society. (Some 5,000 former retreatents died fighting for a Catholic Spain against the Communists in the Spanish Civil War, 1936-39).

Edited from Issue Nos. 44, 55 of the Verbum. (the monthly bulletin of the SSPX’s St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary in Winona, MN)

HE "SAW" OPUS DEI

But what did God want? On October 2, 1928, he (Msgr. Escriva —Ed.) was pondering that question as he’d often done, while making a retreat in Madrid. Suddenly, while bells pealed in the nearby church of Our Lady of the Angels, it became clear: God made him see (emphasis in original —Ed.) Opus Dei.

An institution which, as he put it, was to "tell men and women of every country and of every condition, race, language, milieu, and state of life...that they can love and serve God without giving up their ordinary work, their family life, and their normal social relations."

Taken from Ordinary Christians in the World. What is Opus Dei? (p.2.)

Historical

The history of the Opus Dei has been investigated for several Spanish, Italian, German and French studies. We shall begin our investigation with the first French work aimed at the public, written by an Opus Dei member, recommended by its Information Bulletin, and titled The Opus Dei.¹ The author, Dominique Le Tourneau, who has a Ph.D. in canon law and a degree in economics, paints a 120-page, complimentary portrait of the Founder and an idealized exposé of the spirituality of The Work. It is an account without warts of the Opus Dei’s work and its ensuing fruits. The book was given the Nihil obstat and Imprimatur of the Archdiocese of Paris.

The first chapter is devoted to the background and life of Josemaria Escriva, the founder: born in 1902 in Barbastro (Aragon, Spain), he is revealed as having been a precociously pious, as well as a sweet and generous person who, at sixteen, abandoned the idea of becoming an architect to enter the seminary. In 1922, the Archbishop of Zaragoza, Spain, named him superior of the seminary; he was 20 years old. At 23, he was ordained a priest. In 1927, in Madrid, he prepared for a doctorate in civil law, all the while plunging himself into intense, charitable work among the sick, the poor, and abandoned children. While on retreat in 1928,

Fr. Escriva "saw" —that is the term he later used —what God expected of him. He saw that Our Lord was asking him to devote all of his energy to accomplishing what was to become Opus Dei, to urge men in all works of life —beginning with university people so as afterwards they could reach all men —to respond to a specific vocation to seek holiness and carry out apostolates in the world’s midst, through the exercise of their profession or skills, without any change in state.²

Fr. Escriva was only 26 years old when The Work was created. He was long on desire for action, short on experience, but: "Fully aware of the Opus’ spirit, aims, means and ends, the Bishop of Madrid had encouraged the Founder from the beginning, and had blessed his work." ³ This is the same bishop who, later, in June 1944, would ordain The Work’s first three priests, all of whom had been lay members of the Opus Dei. Fr. Escriva’s disciples say he was "inspired by God"; others thought he was "mandated by the hierarchy." Father preached retreats, recruited members, and organized his Work. He chose his priests for The Work from the ranks of his disciples. He spoke of having clearly seen, while celebrating Mass on February 14, 1943, the canonical solution: the ordination of lay members of the Opus. At that moment, "The sacerdotal society of the Holy Cross was born, representing in the Church a new pastoral and juridical phenomenon, the ordination of men with university degrees and engaged in a profession..." ⁴

In 1946, Fr. Escriva moved to Rome, was appointed a domestic Prelate by His Holiness in 1947, and received various appointments: member of the Pontifical Academy of Theology; consultor to the Congregation of Seminaries, etc. He toured the world, preached his doctrine, "sanctity through work," and died suddenly, in Rome, on June 26, 1975.

Through reading issues of the Information Bulletin,⁵ the reader develops an unsuspicious belief in the Opus, since each issue reports on the impressive record of the worldwide dissemination of "Msgr. Escriva’s doctrine," particularly through Camino (The Way), his only work published during his lifetime. First published in Valencia, Spain, in 1934, Camino is the Opus Dei’s veritable rule. Under the title, Consideraciones, the first edition of The Way appeared in 1934. Since then, 250 editions have been published in 39 languages, with sales of nearly four million copies.

Opus Dei’s Spirituality: Sanctification Through Work

On October 2, 1928, Fr. Escriva de Balaguer knew the will of God in all its implications.... The light received was not a general inspiration, but a precise illumination; he knew from the outset that The Work was not a human one, but a great supernatural undertaking; ...the founder was able to describe it, presenting its total newness: all men are called to holiness and to apostolate, "without leaving the world, on the condition that they supernaturalize, above all, the temporal realities in which they are immersed: professional work, family and social responsibilities." ⁶

If this proposition is not false, it is essential to know how to interpret this phrase: "provided that he supernaturalize the temporal realities above all."

"What took shape was a veritable pastoral phenomenon," writes Dominique Le Tourneau. In the 1920’s, the wind was favorable to novelties, echoes of which were found at all ecclesiastical levels. In the beginning of the century, modernism was condemned but not neutralized. Taking refuge in clandestinity, it flourished, fostering a climate of return to novelties, or of a favorable reception to them: liturgical change, pastoral novelties, the marriage of the Church and the world.

The Opus Dei Refutes Ten Centuries of Tradition

One of the next chapter’s subheadings, "The religious concept," is instructive:

In the lives of the early Christians, work was not seen as something "good in itself" and, above all, was considered an ascetic means for combating pride...Among the Fathers of the Church, St. John Chrysostom, who paid great attention to work, was the last prominent Churchman to speak of the sanctification of the ordinary life in the same terms as Vatican II. After him, one gets the impression that the ordinary Christian is not called to fully live the Gospel. This prevailed up to the fifth century; regarding apostolate, it does not seem to have been part of the Christian’s obligations. In the Rule of St. Benedict, it is more the monastery than the monk who carries out apostolate.(!)⁷

After this quotation, which inspires amazement and uneasiness, the author outlines the horizon where he wishes to lead the reader:

The appearance of the mendicant orders brought with it an emphasis on preaching, with preacher-monks traveling from city to city. This did not imply any affirmation of the value of professional work. On the contrary, above all, it seems to have increased the distance from it ...The theologians of the mendicant orders did not reflect much upon the fundamental dimension of work; they affirmed the non-obligatory character of manual work. St. Thomas presents the secular occupations as an obstacle to contemplation. St. Bonaventure and others express a similar opinion.

Some other institutions more directly present in the world (military orders and medieval guilds) furnished scant ascetic and doctrinal preparation favorable to an awareness of the need to sanctify work.

Over the course of subsequent centuries, attention was deflected from work. The author of The Imitation of Jesus Christ judged work even more negatively than had the Desert Fathers. But the polarity that they erected between work and pride underwent a basic distortion in that work was seen as a constraint upon the effort implied in the ascetic struggle. This is the conception of Cisneros⁸ in his Exercitatorio and of St. Ignatius Loyola in his Spiritual Exercises.⁹

The Opus Dei: Liberalism’s New Antenna

After having disposed of the Church’s tradition, the Opus Dei prudently sets forth its doctrine’s spirit: The Opus Dei’s theologian’s following quotation sums it up:

A certain positive evolution was begun during the Renaissance by some men like Thomas More¹⁰ and Erasmus¹¹ (...) However, the Catholic theology of the Renaissance and of the Baroque eras¹² were in part contaminated by the ideas of an aristocracy which, by way of a narrow and badly founded moralism, held manual labor in contempt...¹³

Comparing the religious vocation in the traditional orders to the Opus’ vocation, the author quotes the founder:

HISTORY OF OPUS DEI

Josemaria Escriva de Balaguer was born in Barbastro, Spain, on January 9,1902, son of a cloth merchant and a pious housewife. He was ordained to the priesthood in Zaragoza on March 28, 1925.

On October 2, 1928, in Madrid, Father Escriva founded the first Opus Dei institute, inaugurating a women’s branch on February 14, 1930, also in Madrid.

In 1939 the first edition of Camino (The Way) was published, setting forth Escriva’s 999 maxims to serve as a guide for Opus Dei members. On May 24, 1941, the Archbishop of Madrid, Leopoldo Eijo y Garay, publicly defended Opus Dei against accusations of secrecy from some sectors in the Spanish Church.

The Priestly Society of the Holy Cross, the association for lay affiliates of Opus Dei who aspired to the Opus Dei priesthood, was founded on February 14, 1943. On June 25, 1944, the first ordinations of Opus Dei priests took place.

Escriva came to Rome on June 23, 1946, returning to Madrid in August with Holy See encouragement for his initiatives. Pope Pius Xll’s promulgation Provida Mater Ecclesia (February 2, 1947) gave juridical status to secular institutes such as Opus Dei. Finally on June 16, 1950, Opus Dei received its definitive approval from the Holy See. The organization became the first secular institute approved directly by the Pope and took on the title "Priestly Society of the Holy Cross and Opus Dei." In 1962, Father Escriva pleaded in vain with Pope John XXIII to grant Opus Dei a different status from other secular institutes, which were answerable to the Congregation for Religious and Secular Institutes. A few years later, Pope Paul Vl also set aside the request, saying the time to grant it had not yet come.

Escriva passed away on June 26, 1975, and on May 12, 1981, the process for his beatification was initiated.

In spite of the opposition of a large part of the Catholic clergy and a majority of the Spanish bishops (55 of 56), the Vatican announced on August 23,1982 that Pope John Paul had decided to grant the status of Personal Prelature to Opus Dei.

Taken from 30 Days, June-July 1995.

The path of the religious vocation seems to me blessed and necessary in the Church, but it is not mine, nor that of the members of the Work. One can say of all of those coming to the Work that each and every one of them has done so on the express condition of not changing his state.¹⁴

To be more precise, and using progressivism’s now official vocabulary:

The basic difference between the two can be expressed as movements in opposite directions. One answers [the call to vocation] from outside the world and moves toward it, bringing its presence toward it. This is the evolution of the religious state. The other is a "being in the world"; it starts from being of the world. Such is the Opus Dei’s secular spirituality....This is what made Card. Luciani, the future Pope John Paul I, say that while St. Francis de Sales proposed a spirituality for lay people, Msgr. Escriva proposes a new lay spirituality.¹⁵

Dominique Le Tourneau remains imprecise as to the Opus’ spirituality, declared unambiguously lay by the transitory Pope. A thirty-page Spanish study, written by one Juan Morales,¹⁶ very usefully completes the documents already studied here. The author bases his critique on seven works, all published by Rialp,¹⁷ the Opus’ publishing house in Madrid. In his introduction, he does not hesitate to write that the Opus Dei is "a real Trojan horse at the heart of the Church." Through sections taken from texts written by Opus Dei members, and the quotations by Fr. Escriva cited by the authors themselves, Morales demonstrates that the latter had the lay spirit to such an extent that he based some of his proposals on a fundamentally anticlerical mentality.

Morales quotes from Peter Berglar’s book, Opus Dei: "Escriva was happy when his first three priests were ordained, but he was also very sad that they did not remain laymen." ¹⁸

He also quotes Salvador Bernal in Monsignor Escriva de Balaguer: "For us, the priesthood is a circumstance, an accident, because at the heart of The Work, the vocation of priests and that of the laity is the same." ¹⁹ As well, he says, "[As to] the way that apostolic works are organized by the Opus Dei..., these are planned and governed from a lay mentality;...by so doing, they are not confessional."²⁰

Juan Morales reports the work of another Opus Dei author, Ana Sastre, in Tiempo de caminar, who, speaking of the Opus Dei’s characteristics, writes, "The climate of secularism and of personal initiative resulted in the Founder having been accused of being a progressive, a heretic and crazy." ²¹

Vasquez de la Prada, in El fundator del Opus Dei, says the same thing, recognizing that the spirit of the Opus Dei formerly qualified as being innovative and heretical, but is today ratified by Vatican II. He writes:

His [Escriva’s] collaborator and successor —Msgr. Alvaro del Portillo —[recently deceased —English Ed.] —who is faithful to the Council, and who contributed to its development, made this comment, "On many occasions during the approval of conciliar documents, legitimizing them while speaking with the founder of the Opus Dei, I repeated to him: ‘Congratulations: Because what is in your soul, and what you have unfailingly taught since 1929 has been solemnly proclaimed by the magisterium of the Church....’" ²²

Vasquez adds: "This doctrine which thirty years ago would have been considered to be folly and heresy has been invested with official solemnity."

This is an unvarnished admission of the upheaval of the Church’s traditional doctrine. The Opus’ new doctrine was ratified yesterday by the Council and glorified today by the beatification. Because we are not fools, [we must say that] the beatification is the integration of Opus’ principles into the conciliar Church’s doctrine.

Opus members know, and have no compunction about this destruction of Tradition. In the book, Estudios sobre camino [Studies on The Way —Ed.], in a chapter titled, "A Silent Revolution," José Miguel Ceja makes this comment:

The novelty of the teachings of Msgr. Escriva consisted not only in being a new way of making an apostolic task practical, this being more or less similar to what, in previous times, the Church undertook through the concept and praxis of apostolate..., [Rather], The Way represented a quasi —and even non-quasi —scandalous novelty.²³

Ordinary Christians in the World. What does the Opus Dei say about itself?

While Opus Dei is people far more than it is institutions, there are a certain number of institutions conducted by members on their own initiative, which in one way or another embody the spirit and purpose of the organization.

Although these institutions –universities, schools, study centers, student residences, conference centers, and professional or vocational training institutes of various kinds –have an apostolic purpose, they are not officially ‘Catholic,’ since members of Opus Dei conduct them on their own and in collaboration with others who are not only not members of Opus Dei but, in many cases, not even Catholics. Opus Dei itself takes responsibility only for the spiritual and doctrinal aspects of the programs of these institutions, not for their practical and professional management....

In addition to the members of Opus Dei and the priests associated with the Priestly Society of the Holy Cross, there are also ‘Cooper-ators’ who help through their prayers, work, and financial assistance. In return, they benefit from the prayers of members and other spiritual helps. If they wish, they can participate in various spiritual and educational activities. Non-Catholics as well as Catholics can be Cooperators. (Opus Dei was the first Church institution to have non-Catholic Cooperators.)

(Taken from Ordinary Christians in the World. What is Opus Dei? pp. 12, 14. Available from: 99 Overlook Circle, New Rochelle, NY 10804)

The houses of Opus Dei are inter-confessional residences where ‘students of all religions and ideologies live.’
(Conversaciones con Msgr. Escriva de Balaguer, Conversations with Msgr. Escriva de Balaguer, Rialp, p.117).

The affirmation of pluralism for Catholics in the first years of the Opus was an incomprehensible novelty to many, because they had been formed in a totally opposite direction. (Ibid., p.311).

The Work was the first association of the Church which opened its arms fraternally to all men, without a distinction as to their creed or confession" (Tiempo de Caminas, Ana Sastre, Rialp, p.610).

These are not only words: our Work is the first organization to have authorization from the Holy See to admit non-Catholics, Christians or not. I have always taken the defense of liberty of conscience.
(Conversaciones, p.296).

It is only after many years and with the debut of the ecumenical trend that this audacious step, which would have caused so much incomprehension, took place naturally in contemporary history. (El Fundador del Opus Dei, The Founder of Opus Dei, Andres Vasquez de Prado, Rialp, p.235).

On the Way of Fantasy, Utopia and Heresy

By this subtitle we allude to Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange’s judgment on the "new theology."

Let us return to the work of Le Tourneau.

In the paragraph discussing the Opus’ "great principles" on the sanctification of work, the author cites Msgr. Escriva: "‘In effect, for us, work is a specific means of sanctity. Our interior life —contemplative amid the street —finds its source and impetus in this external life of each one’s work.’ Msgr. Escriva demonstrates the latchkey of the passage in Genesis (2:15) where it is written that man was created ut operaretur, in order to work." ²⁴

Yet another novelty! This interpretation of the Bible is not the Church’s. Dom Calmet, Crampon, and nearly all of the exegetes translate this verse 15 from Chapter 2 of Genesis thusly: "The Lord God took man and placed him in the Garden of Delights to cultivate and take care of it." Not, God "created man in order to work," but "to know Him, to love Him, to serve Him and thus to obtain happiness in heaven," as the catechism has always taught. Throughout the centuries, the various religious orders and spiritualities within the Church have pursued this singular goal through different means. Certainly, work was one, but without it ever having been erected into an absolute value, as is attempted throughout the 130 pages of its codification by the Opus Dei:

Professional work becomes the pivot on which the entire task of sanctification turns. This is what led the Founder of the Opus to sum up life on earth by saying that: it is necessary to sanctify work, to sanctify oneself in one’s work, and to sanctify others through one’s work.²⁵

Dominique Le Tourneau does his best to demonstrate that the universal way to health and holiness is the Opus’ discovery and prerogative:

Holiness cannot be reserved to a privileged few, neither to those who have received the priesthood, nor to those whose religious profession sets them apart from the world. The message of Opus Dei’s founder demonstrates itself to be much more optimistic and open. And when it was proclaimed, it was seen as being even revolutionary: All men...can and ought to seek holiness, as the Second Vatican Council affirmed thirty years later.²⁶

Did we have to wait for Fr. Escriva and Vatican II to proclaim that holiness is not reserved to the privileged few? This is the constant preaching of the Church, Tradition, missionaries and preachers. This was what the founders of the various works of Catholic Action proposed long before the world snatched them up. Well before 1928, in order to facilitate and make sanctification available to all, Rev. Fr. Vallet, faithful to papal teaching, was preaching the necessity of the social royalty of Our Lord Jesus Christ, otherwise called the Christian social order.

The counsel to search for sanctity is nothing revolutionary, it is perfectly traditional in Christianity. What is revolutionary is the modernist spirit which the Opus provokes by infiltrating societies, as we shall go on to verify, in order to create a lay mentality, completely contrary to the social kingship of Our Lord Jesus Christ, a mentality which is effectively that of the Second Vatican Council.

In a chapter on freedom, pluralism, and understanding others’ opinions, Msgr. Escriva says: "With our blessed liberty, the Opus Dei can never be, in any country’s political life, a type of political party. There is a place —and there will always be a place —in the Opus Dei for all of the viewpoints allowed by a Christian conscience." ²⁷

In the above, there are two questionable, debatable points which are illusionary, utopian and mistaken:

"The Opus Dei is not a type of political party." Yes, it is! And we shall eventually prove it here.

"...all of the viewpoints allowed by a Christian conscience."

Since conscience has been lately defined by natural morality as the "interior sentiment by which man gives witness to himself as to the good and evil that he does" (Larousse), the winds of liberalism have completely deformed this ethic beyond recognition. Conscience, still claiming to be Christian, seduced by the world, arrives at its aggiornamento: it is now elastic and permissive. It allows today what was inadmissible yesterday. Examples abound. Thus, the Opus puts Christian conscience on a very long leash by allowing those with every viewpoint, of all religions, and even non-believers in its ranks, and above all, in its "corporate apostolic activities."

Le Tourneau states:

For the Founder, the Catholic solution to various problems in the world does not exist.

All solutions will be Christian if they respect natural law and Gospel teaching. He therefore does not put the emphasis on the materiality of the solution, but on the spirit which should inspire it.²⁸

These sentences are laden with meaning, power, and destruction. It is necessary to stop here. The Catholic solution is cast aside. Thus the door is open to every solution, all vaguely tinged with ecumenical religiosity.

Meanwhile, pontifical documents reveal the solution to the social question, to the problems of work, to the social order, all of which were in circulation during the first years of the Opus Dei. The encyclicals Mens Nostra (12/20/1929) and Quadragesimo Anno (05/15/1931) are specific enough. The solution is Catholic. For example, Pope Pius XI declares that the Spiritual Exercises, in conjunction with retreats, are proper means for resolving the social question: "We have declared these to be very useful for all laymen, for workers.... In this school of the spirit is formed, through the love of the heart of Jesus, not only excellent Christians, but true apostles for all states of life." ²⁹

Let us again ask: Why, at the time of these clear pontifical directives, was Fr. Vallet’s work destroyed, especially since it conformed to this teaching? The internal disintegration of the Church had begun. The modernists installed in the Curia successfully surrounded and beat down St. Pius X’s faithful heirs, who were the artisans of the social kingship of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

Rev. Fr. Vallet was among these faithful heirs and his work was an excellent means for "restoring all things in Christ."

Fr. de Balaguer’s fledgling work took a totally other direction through its being pushed and protected by Msgr. Eijo y Garay. We find this direction defined in our reference work’s Chapter IV, where its nature is presented in paragraph four, under the heading, "Corporate works of apostolate" :

[The apostolate of its own members is primarily] a personal apostolate of friendship and trust. Nevertheless, members of the Opus, joining with their friends, who may be non-Catholics or even non-Christians, sometimes set up corporate works of apostolate. These are always professional and civil in character, radiate a Christian spirit, and contribute to the resolution of contemporary world problems. In any case, these works are not ever official works, nor even officially Catholic...[T]hey are carried out and directed with a lay mentality.³⁰

This is aberrant! It is the very apostolic mentality condemned by Popes Pius X, Pius XI, and Pius XII.

"Moreover," continues Le Tourneau, "these activities are open to men and women of all backgrounds, without discrimination against their social status, race, religion or ideology. This also applies to The Work’s benefactors, as well as to its administrative personnel.... It is in co-existence that the person is formed." ³¹

This professional and civil character between people of different religions and ideologies, with the same skills or same business, or in the same association, resembles an organization based on similar interests, such as a sports club, a theater troop, but in no way resembles an apostolic work. It is truly a tissue of contradictions; it is to desacralize apostolate, it is apostolate’s negation, as well as the negation of the propagation of the faith, whose mission is conversion; it is to pervert the very sense of the word apostolate.

In Conversations with Msgr. Escriva de Balaguer, one is not astonished to read: "Long live students of all religions and all ideologies." ³² In the same document, he says, "Pluralism is not to be feared but loved as a legitimate consequence of personal freedom."

This passion for freedom prompted Escriva to make some of the Opus’ residences interconfessional. Thus freedom comes before the truth. The truth is an obstacle. Escriva is really the precursor, the inspiration and doctor of the new world order, whose working model we saw at Assisi.

The Opus Dei is a contemporary modernist manifestation, and, as such, falls exactly under the sentence pronounced against modernism and reiterated by the magisterium, particularly by St. Pius X’s Encyclical, Pascendi Dominici Gregis, promulgated on September 8, 1907 and, more precisely, by his August 25, 1910 Letter on the Sillon, condemning these utopias:

At once alarming and saddening are the audacity and the shallowness of spirit of men who call themselves Catholic, who dream of reshaping society ...with workers coming from everywhere, of all religions or without any, with or without beliefs, provided only that they forego whatever divides them.... The Church, which has never betrayed the happiness of the people by making compromising alliances, has no need to free herself from the past; all that is needed is to take up again, with the help of the social restoration’s true workers, the organisms shattered by the Revolution and to adapt them, in the same Christian spirit that inspired them, to the new milieu created by the material development of contemporary society. For the true friends of the people are neither revolutionaries nor innovators, but traditionalists.

There are numerous Opus Dei texts that are similar to those of The Sillon. Here then are some examples from our reliable authors:

De Berglar: "When in 1950 the founder finally obtained permission from the Holy See to admit non-Catholics and non-Christians into the work, as ‘cooperators,’ the spiritual family of the Opus Dei was complete." ³³

De Vasquez: "It was something unheard of in the pastoral history of the Church, it was to tear out the locks and to throw open the doors, integrating the souls of protestant, schismatic, Jewish, Muslim and pagan benefactors." ³⁴

Berglar, Vasquez, Sastre and others give details regarding the very friendly relations between Escriva and these cooperators from other religions, who were very good financial brokers for The Work; it was already an active and political ecumenism. Essentially, and in all areas, Escriva was a precursor.

This is the mentality and conduct which Pius XI condemned in his 1928 encyclical Mortalium Animos, where he addressed himself to those who:

...set to work organizing congresses, meetings, lectures, attended by all types of persons, unbelievers of every sort, and even those who have, unhappily, rejected Christ.... Such efforts can in no way be approved by Catholics since they presuppose the erroneous theory that all religions are more or less good and laudable.... Truly, the partisans of this theory have not only strayed into error, but have perverted the idea of true religion, repudiating it; and by stages, they fall into naturalism and atheism; ...this is tantamount to abandoning revealed religion.

Yet, this is the way, "the spirituality which Msgr. Escriva has laid out in unaltered form since 1928," ³⁵ writes Dominique Le Tourneau, who quotes Card. Poletti: "This is why he [Escriva —English Ed.] has been unanimously recognized as a precursor of the Council." ³⁶

This is really why, so quickly after Escriva’s death, i.e., on February 19, 1981, his beatification cause was introduced. On April 9, 1990 he was declared "venerable," and on May 17, 1992, he was beatified. Only a saint could cover and justify the acts of the Council, in order to authenticate them.

An appraisal of Msgr. Escriva’s interior life and virtues is not within our ken. On the other hand, it is completely legitimate to cast doubt upon, and to refute, his revolutionary doctrine. Virtue and piety may not automatically confer doctrinal and pastoral orthodoxy.

Opus Dei’s Internal Organization and Life

The Opus is organized like a religious order, comprised overall of priests and laity. Entering the Opus is considered to be a vocation and there are a rule and vows,³⁷ although married members take different ones.

Here is how vocations are born:

When Opus Dei members enter their professions, they begin their personal apostolate, make friends, organize formation chats in their homes. [What formation?] Vocations arise, and, little by little, a nucleus is formed. An Opus Dei priest comes to preach.... Soon, it becomes necessary to find a temporary lodging and, eventually, a permanent center. Thus they put into practice the Founder’s recommendation: "You must spread out, disperse worldwide through all of men’s honest occupations; you must open into a fan." ³⁸

The number of vocations has continually increased. In 1989 the Opus Dei had 76,000 members in 87 countries. In France, there are about 1,400 members with ten centers in Paris and 15 more provincial ones. Some "corporate activities" have been created there, i.e., a hotel training school in Aisne (France), youth clubs, meeting centers, residences for domestic employees, etc.

By adorning its actions with the word "apostolate," the Opus Dei warps the general meaning of the term, understood in Catholicism as the propagation of the Faith. But this is exactly what it does not wish, what it does not do, and what it expressly forbids. It contradicts itself when it says: do the work of the Church and do not proselytize. But to which Church does this refer? The ecumenical Church? God’s Church? Assisi’s?

The Opus Dei is a work which opens, as it describes, into "a fan." This is exactly correct, for it is everywhere at work. It possesses a prestigious international university, the University of Navarre, in Pamplona, Spain, created in 1952, which has faculties of law, medicine, philosophy, letters, pharmacy, the sciences, theology, a language institute, schools of architecture, economics and business, as well as a school of hospital work, etc. Over 40 years, 30,000 students have completed their studies at the University of Navarre. In 1988-1989, more than 15,000 were enrolled. In Spain, eight residences for high school students are attached to the University. Also part of the University is its 500-bed clinic. In 1988, more than 80,000 consultations were given there, and 12,000 patients admitted.

This is only a sketch of what’s been done in Spain at the university level. There are similar universities in Peru and Colombia. We shall not list the full quotient of Opus’ worldwide works (Latin America, Australia, Japan, etc.). Knowing the Opus’ scope promotes understanding the reasons for its discretion, why it has been effective, and the methods of its success.

Recruitment of Members

This is primarily carried out in the universities, schools, sports camps, clubs, and circles directed by The Work, all of which, in theory, are open to everyone; it is, in fact, also carried out in the intellectual and upper strata of society, among young high school and college students, in groups involved in academic, scientific, legal, military, medical, financial, commercial and political activities. In effect, this is Msgr. Balaguer’s "fan."

Membership in The Work

There are four degrees of membership:

Numeraries: The elite, who take vows, or promises —of poverty, chastity and obedience. Some live in communities and turn over their financial revenues to The Work which then takes care of their needs. Numeraries are both priests and laity.

Associates: They make the same promises. They are not from the same class nor of the same intellectual rank as the numeraries.

Supernumeraries. These are the most numerous, many are married. Their promises are less constraining.

Cooperators. These take no "vows," but participate in "corporate apostolic works." It is possible they may be non-Christians.

Despite its liberal doctrine, the Opus has been, and is, the object of critics and opposition coming from different points of view. It has been treated as clerical Freemasonry because of its hierarchical structure and the great discretion surrounding its members’ activities. It absolutely denies this. Secularists classify it as right-wing or conservative because of the members’ piety and social class. This too is denied. Traditionalists define it as modernist.

The Opus’ doctrine, and its self-described "revolutionary" position, and its distance from the secular principles professed by the Church, the Fathers and the Doctors of the Church, have not prevented many Spanish bishops known as conservatives from offering their support to Msgr. Balaguer and his Work. In the 1970’s, among these were Archbishop Gonzales Martin, Primate of the Spanish hierarchy; Bishop Garcia Lahiguera, Archbishop of Valencia; or Bishop. Lopez Ortiz, Vicar of the Armed Forces. Others, such as the progressive Swiss theologian, Urs von Balthasar, accused them of perverting the Gospel through blind conformism, and of contemporary integrism unto theocracy. The critics of both extremes haven’t hurt them; on the contrary, they have made them the beneficiary of a reputation for moderation, for exemplifying the golden mean, conciliation and cohabitation. In Rome, modernist Rome, which has unceasingly cooperated with the Opus Dei, such a position of openness is much needed —that type of openness which attempts to satisfy some, the progressives, and to reassure others, the conservatives —after the failure and disorder engendered by the Council.

The Opus Dei clergy is formed exclusively of priests who were former lay members of the Opus. The priests answer solely to the Prelate. In August, 1982, John Paul II constituted the Opus as a Personal Prelature. The Prelature’s jurisdiction embraces all of the members of the Opus worldwide. The current Prelate is His Excellency Alvaro del Portillo, one of Msgr. Escriva’s first collaborators. (Bishop Alvaro del Portillo died on March 23, 1994. Bishop Javier Echevarria was elected Prelate of Opus Dei on April 21, 1994, following Bishop del Portillo’s death. —English Ed.) Portillo was a civil engineer.

In 1991, there were about 1,400 priests in the Opus. By way of example, here are some ordination facts:

1964: 22 members of the Opus were ordained in Madrid, Spain. Among them were journalists, engineers and magistrates.

1969: 20, from ten countries.

1971: 29 were ordained in Barcelona, Spain, by Msgr. Gonzalez Marin. Among these were marine officers, engineers, architects, lawyers and university professors.

1973: In Madrid, 51 Spanish, French, English and Italian numeraries were ordained.

In the recent past, about sixty Opus members had their priestly orders conferred on them by the highest authorities: Cardinal Koenig, Cardinal Oddi, Cardinal Etchegaray, and Pope John Paul II. This is proof of the grand and then grander pride of place taken by the Opus Dei in the conciliar Church.

The priests of the Opus Dei are all aggregated into "an association of clerics who respond to the exhortations of Vatican II....They seek to promote priestly holiness and full submission to the ecclesiastical hierarchy ³⁹ of the diocese where they were incardinated. This is the Sacerdotal Society of the Holy Cross."

THE APPROBATION OF OPUS DEI —DEFINITIVE OR NOT?

Without examining the detail of the criticisms (of the Nicolas Dehan article —Ed.), some of which are solid and others less so, it must be observed that they bear fundamentally upon the very conception of the work as intended by its founder, and expressed in its official publications. It must be observed —as is pointed out on p.139 (in the original Le Sel de la Terre version; p21 in this English translation from Angelus Press —Ed.). —that this work was officially approved by Pope Pius XII in 1947. Now, whatever may have been the maneuvers of Msgr. Montini (Pope Paul VI), it is theologically certain that the definitive approbation of a religious foundation (and there is no theological reason to hold otherwise for a secular institute) is covered by the Church’s infallibility.... A letter from a reader published in Le Sel de la Terre, No. 13

Here is the commentary published in Le Sel de la Terre on the points raised:

It is correct that the definitive approbation of a religious order by the pope is covered by the infallibility of the Church. This doctrine is not of faith, but it is considered as certain.

Nevertheless it is necessary to understand it correctly.

The approbation must be definitive. Was this the case with the approbation of 1947? It does not seem so, since modifications came about in 1950 (if there was a definitive approbation of the statutes, it was at this date that it was given); then in 1982 there was a significant modification of the juridical statute of the institute.

But especially, the approbation must bear upon a religious order (cf. Zubizarreta, Theologia dogmatico-scholastica, Bilbao, 1947, vol. 1, p.420); for the Church is then infallible because she uses the means of sanctification given by Our Lord himself (the religious life). Yet, precisely, the Opus Dei refuses to be classed as a religious order, and demands that its special lay, secular character be recognized.

One could point out as well that the infallibility of the Church only concerns the doctrinal judgment: this or that religious rule is apt to sanctify; but it does not concern the prudential judgment: it is prudent or opportune to accept this religious order (cf. Sacrae theologiae summa, B.A.C., vol. 1, 1962, p.724). If, and such does not seem to us to be the case, one demonstrated that the infallibility of the Church were engaged in this matter, one would still be free to criticize the Opus Dei and to demand its suppression for reasons of prudence (for example, this institute foments a liberal, conciliar mentality).

...To maintain it (the Work) and the members of Opus Dei, there are other individuals who help, some of these are not Catholic and a large number, a very large number, are not Christians... (Msgr. Escriva de Balaguer, Tiempo, p.615).

For Popes John Paul I and John Paul II, Opus Dei and its founder were already objective historical facts that announced the beginning of a new era of Christianity (Opus Dei, Peter Berglar, Rialp, p. 243).

One must be satisfied with the end of this Council. Thirty years ago this month, I was treated as a heretic for having preached a certain spirit that is now solemnly welcomed by the Council in the Dogmatic Constitution De Ecclesia. One sees that we have shown the way, that you have prayed a lot. (Tiempo, p.486).

You certainly have a great ideal, because, since the beginning, he (Fr. Escriva) anticipated the theology of the laity that characterized the Church at the Council and after the Council (Allocution of Pope John Paul II, August 19, 1979).

The very ordinariness of the members of Opus Dei —the fact that they don’t look or act or speak differently from anyone else (because in fact they aren’t different) —does not imply any type of secrecy. But while members of Opus Dei do not advertise their membership, neither do they conceal it. As one expressed it, "We never hide what we are or what we do, but we don’t carry a sign saying that we are good Christians or want to be" (Ordinary Christians in the World. What is Opus Dei? p.12).

The discretion and mystery enveloping the Opus Dei do not permit knowing who or where their most important and influential members are. What is certain is that their stock is high, by virtue of the important social and political positions that they hold in every country, in the intellectual and action capitals of the world, where the thinkers and the technocrats reign.

Without being able to affirm their membership in The Work, one can at least say that some persons are known to be powered by the engine of the Opus: For instance, in France, there are politicians such as Maurice Schumann and Antoine Pinay; some members of the Academy such as Jean Guitton, and Professor Jean Roche of the Institute, Rector of the Sorbonne, who was made an honorary doctor by the University of Navarre in 1967; and [now deceased —French Ed.] Professor Jerome Lejeune who in 1974 received the same distinction from Msgr. Escriva de Balaguer.⁴⁰

February 2, 1947 was a great day for the Opus Dei. Rome published the constitution Provida Mater Ecclesia, providing the norms for the creation of secular institutes; on the 24th of the same month, the Opus received approval as a secular institute.

As the first secular institute, the Opus was the first Catholic association to cooperate with non-Catholics and even with non-Christians. Why this act, contrary to doctrine, contrary to the thought and will of Pius XII?

What we know today from archives which were opened, and from revelations written by intimates or disciples of Msgr. Montini (the future Pope Paul VI),⁴¹ allow us to answer this question. We know how the substitute Secretary of State betrayed the actions and decisions and of his superior, the Holy Father. How? By falsifying his letters (in particular, a December 2, 1944 one by Blondel); by providing interpretations contrary to Pius XII’s directives (in particular, to Humani Generis, in 1950); by making contacts, as well as compromising and scandalous alliances without the knowledge, but in the name of Pius XII (among others, the 1942 secret Montini-Stalin accords).

From Msgr. Montini’s now-known, disloyal conduct on so many occasions, it is not improbable to think, for example, that the decision to create secular institutes, which immediately benefited the Opus, was extorted according to the habitual practice of the disloyal servant.

Under Pius XII, nearly twenty years before the "French Revolution of 1789 in the Church," the Catholic Church’s immutable and traditional doctrine was already changed through the filter of Msgr. Escriva’s Opus Dei, a useful instrument in the hands of Msgr. Montini for proselytizing, among the ranks of the international elite, the "new theology" condemned by Pius XII.

The Opus Dei’s Doctrine

We have already observed some of the doctrinal aspects. Above all, the Opus’ doctrine is transmitted orally to its members. However, it is written down for members’ use as a breviary in The Way, a compendium of 999 maxims.

The Way exalts the dignity of the human person independently of religion. In Estudios sobre camino42 [Studies on The Way], Msgr. Escriva’s successor comments:

This human dimension of The Way explains the capacity, as demonstrated by the book, of reuniting the hopes and aspirations of all men and women who are conscious of their own dignity, independently of their religious convictions. [The Way] offers the reader the inspiration to live a clearly more human and nobler life.

In the same document, he reveals how the indoctrination was fashioned prior to the Council. Although hidden, this indoctrination was thoroughgoing, reaching well beyond the cadre of Opus initiates:

At that time, The Way prepared millions of people to come into harmony with, and to imbibe, on a deep level, some of the most revolutionary teachings which thirty years later would be solemnly promulgated by the Church at Vatican II.

Thus is revealed a favored revolutionary mission, subsequently integrated by the modernist Church. This sums up the very effective Opus’ Father’s thinking on the self-destruction of the Church.

Peter Berglar, quoted earlier here, relates some very important things which promote an understanding of the enormity of the crisis. Like a propagandist for the Opus Dei, Berglar writes: "We know that Paul VI used his book, The Way, for his personal meditation. As well, John XXIII told his secretary that, ‘The Work is destined to open the Church to unknown horizons of universal apostolate.’ For Popes John Paul I and John Paul II, the Opus Dei and its Founder were already objective historical facts on which were based the beginning of a new epoch of Christianity."

The reader of The Way is deceived because, if the Opus exalts the lay mentality, The Way stifles the laity:

Maxim 61: "Whenever a layman sets himself up as an arbiter of morality, he frequently errs; laymen can only be disciples."

Maxim 941: "Obedience, the sure way. Blind obedience to your superior, the way of sanctity. Obedience in your apostolate, the only way: for, in a work of God, the spirit must be to obey or to leave."

These are authoritarian principles, for internal use, which bear heavily on the spiritual life of these "religious-laity."

Let us compare these maxims with some remarks, among many others, devised for public consumption, which give wide berth to fantasy and to bad habits on the subject of social doctrine. In doing so, we shall deduce the illogic so typical of the Opus Dei. During an interview granted to an American journalist, Msgr. Escriva declared, "On this matter, the attitude of Opus Dei directors is to respect freedom of choice in the temporal sphere.... It is a question of setting forth each member’s responsibilities and inviting him to assume them by following his conscience, doing so in complete freedom." ⁴³

The body of the Church’s social doctrine, which is especially rich as taught by Pius XII, does not seem to be the source of temporal conduct for the members of the Opus. Not even taken into consideration are the conciliar Church’s pontifical directives. When interviewed the day after the beatification, one Spanish Opus Dei spokesman44 told a journalist from Courrier de l’Ouest, "In Spain, the Opus Dei has always refused to take official part in the campaign against abortion. This is not its role."

A comparison between certain principles, written in an ostensibly traditional style, and the directives underlying the organization of "corporate apostolic works" resonates over and over again with the Opus’ internal contradiction. This encourages the view that it has two faces, as well as en