Opus Dei gains cabinet post, parish in the UK.

THE ULTRACONSERVATIVE Catholic sect, Opus Dei, was in the headlines in the UK, and for reasons that had nothing to do with The Da Vinci Code. First, it was given its own parish by Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor who said that Father Gerard Sheehan--one of 17 Opus Dei priests in Britain--would take over pastoral care of St. Thomas More Church in Swiss Cottage, north London. Then Ruth Kelly, the new Secretary of State for Education, admitted after weeks of speculation that she was a supernumerary in the group.

Opus Dei was founded in Spain by Josemaria Escriva de Balaguer, in 1928, and rose to prominence under Franco's Fascist regime where its members filled as many as nine cabinet posts. In 1982, Pope John Paul II gave the group the unique status of a personal prelature, meaning that it was above Catholic law and reported directly to the pope. Escriva was canonized by the pope in 2002. In 1981, Murphy-O'Connor's predecessor, the late Cardinal Basil Hume, imposed restrictions on the workings of the sect in his diocese, stating that members should be 18, the parents of young candidate members should be notified, members should be free to leave and that its activities should carry clear indications of sponsorship.

Ms. Kelly insisted in an interview with the UK's Daily Mirror that her faith was a private matter which had nothing to do with her job. "I have a private spiritual life and I have a faith. It is a private spiritual life and I don't think it is relevant to my job," she said. Those familiar with the workings of Opus Dei are not likely to be convinced, as one of the most quoted of Escriva's sayings is: "Have you ever bothered to think how absurd it is to leave one's Catholicism aside on entering a university, or a professional association, or a scholarly meeting, or a congress, as if you were checking your hat at the door?"