What is Opus Dei?

Thanks to Zoies2 for suggesting this subject. Check out her beautiful poetry. You won’t be disappointed.

Opus Dei means Work of God. In this case it’s work of the Catholic Church. This is another one of those secret organizations that have become controversial. Again, this is something that was made popular by Dan Brown in his top selling thriller ‘The Da Vinci Code,’ which portrayed a battle between the Priory of Sion (another secret society) and Opus Dei over the idea that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene and that their child was the Holy Grail. Keep in mind that this is a work of fiction.

Opus Dei was founded in Spain in 1928 by a Catholic priest, Josemaría Escrivá, and was made official in 1950 by Pope Pius XII. Originally called The Prelature of the Holy Cross and Opus Dei, the name was shortened to Opus Dei. I can see why. The long name was too hard to remember. The term Prelature refers to a Prelate, or a high official in the priesthood, such as a Abbot or a Bishop. However, most Opus Dei members are laypersons, better know as ordinary non-clerical people.

The premise of the society is to call everyone to holiness in everyday life. What this boils down to is applying spirituality to daily life. Opus Dei’s main mission is to train people who run institutions, such as universities, schools and organizations that train people in technical and agricultural jobs as well as those that run publishing houses. In other words Opus Dei promotes the sanctity of ordinary secular work as a ‘universal’ call to holiness and has as its mantra that everyone should aspire to be a saint, but as you can see it has its hands in many media and educational institutions. Opus Dei members are urged to practice mortification. What this means is that members are suppose to offer up discomfort (such as fasting) and pain (such as self flagellation) to God.

It’s obvious that the Catholic Church supports this organization, but it has come under a lot of criticism, mostly things that other secret societies have been accused of, organizations such as freemasons, Yale Skull and Bones society, Rosicrucians, The Knights Templar, and the Bilderberg Group, to name a few.

Opus Dei is criticized for its recruitment practices, strict rules, misogyny, and it support of right wing organizations and governments.

Firs of all, Escrivá did admit women, but the Spanish Civil War got in the way when Franco assumed power and Opus Dei was allowed to flourish despite reports of atrocities during the war.

After Escrivá’s death in 1875, his successor Alvaro del Portillo moved the organization to Rome and made it a personal prelature, meaning that it was part of the universal church with an absolute leader. John Paul II made Opus Dei another official structure of the Catholic Church; appointed two Opus Dei members as cardinals; and he canonized (made a saint) Escrivá. So, you can see that the Catholic Church likes Opus Dei a lot. As of 2013, Opus Dei had 92,575 members, most of which are laypersons.

Critics of Opus Dei include the Jesuits because they are more liberal and Opus Dei is conservative. Women are treated as equals but are separated from men during personal spiritual training in which women cook the men meals and then leave. These criticisms sound more political to me.

Opus Dei has a web site, and a cursory observation of it doesn’t show any controversial issues. All I see is spiritual and inspirational messages and articles about prayer, spiritual development and the sanctity of life. I have no association with the organization and don’t know anyone that is a member. I believe that any highly spiritual oriented organization that is also a secret society will come under intense criticism and suspicion. Dan Brown made Opus Dei a controversial organization aligned with the ultra right wing of the Catholic Church, but he was only trying to use it as fictional plot idea. I doubt that he’s anti-Catholic. Personally, I think this controversy had been blown out of proportion.

Thanks for reading.