Opus Dei.

A look behind the myths and reality of the most controversial force in the Catholic Chuch

Written by John L. Allen, Jr. PUBLISHED BY Doubleday, New York, 2005, ISBN: 09385514492, Hardcover, pp. 403, $34.95 CAN

OPus Dei (the name means "the work of God") is an organization in the Catholic Church founded in 1928 by a Spanish priest, Saint Josemaria Escriva de Balaguer. Its members are both lay persons and priests. At present there are 83,641 lay members and 1,850 priests. Besides this distinction in the membership there are further distinctions among the lay members based solely on their activities as members, since their involvement with Opus Dei need not be the whole of their life. All members of the organization are equal, though their tasks may differ. The names of these distinctions of membership are rather strange to us, but originally were ordinary Spanish names when they were adopted.

The supernumeraries (about 70% of the members) are the least available of the members for Opus Dei activities since they are usually married or have other family commitments. Both a husband and wife can be members or simply one of them. The numeraries (about 20% of the members) are committed to celibacy and live in an Opus Dei centre. Some of them work full-time for Opus Dei; others have their own profession or work. Numerary assistants (about 5% of the membership) are full-time workers who look after the upkeep of the Opus Dei centres. Associates are similar to numeraries but do not live in a centre, usually because of family responsibilities. Priest members care for the spiritual needs of the other members and come from the ranks of the numeraries; they are under an Opus Dei bishop. Or they are diocesan priests under the bishop of their diocese, and work for Opus Dei only partly. These last however are full members of Opus Dei and are called the Priestly Society of the Holy Cross.

In addition to members there are Co-operators, who help Opus Dei by prayer, by involvement in its activities, and sometimes financially. Some of these are not Catholics. There are 164,000 cooperators, 57% of whom are women. There are also about 900,000 people around the world who take part in Opus Dei meetings and means of formation, some of whom may eventually become co-operators.

In Canada there are 600 members. Of these, 150 are numeraries, of whom two-thirds are women.

Opus Dei exists in sixty-two countries. Its members follow a plan of daily, weekly, monthly, and annual activities. Each day the members go to Mass and Communion and say the Rosary and other prayers. They attend a weekly class on spirituality. There is a monthly meeting with talks, and an extended period of study annually.

Opus Dei members run schools and hospitals and other institutions. Opus Dei is not financially responsible for these undertakings, which are under boards of directors, but it does own its own buildings for the numeraries or for its central activities. Each year the members, according to their ability, make a donation for the expenses of the whole organization.

A leading principle of Opus Dei is that any honest work can be sanctified, and its members strive to sanctify their work, sanctify themselves, and sanctify the world. They strive to be "contemplatives in the middle of the world." They are aware that they are the sons and daughters of God the Father, and brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ, that Christ dwells in them, where he brings them joy and asks them to help others to come close to Christ.

The title of this book indicates that Opus Dei is a controversial enterprise. There are a number of questions, friendly and unfriendly, concerning it. It is to the credit of the writer of this book that he has presented them fairly and, in the same unbiased manner, has given them the answers or explanations that are offered to them by himself or by members of Opus Dei.

The complaints concerning Opus Dei are: (1) that it does not make public many aspects of itself and seems to thrive on secrecy; (2) that, besides the ordinary forms of corporal penance, such as fasting, it requires some of its members to use unsuitable forms; (3) that women members are given certain types of work that would indicate that males are superior to females; (4) that Opus Dei is very wealthy and disguises this fact; (5) that it is really a church within the Church; (6) that it tries to store up political power; (7) that it requires blind obedience from some of its members; and (8) that it is bent on recruitment of new members and is aggressive in its recruitment methods.

It seems that some of these complaints are made because of insufficient knowledge of the facts. And that Opus Dei did make some mistakes years ago but that they have been corrected over time.

This is a very good book, easy to read, thorough in its message, and most enlightening.