Opus Dei

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Title: Opus Dei – Secrets and Power Inside the Catholic Church

Author: John L Allen, Jr

Publisher: Allen Lane 2005 (First)

ISBN: 0-7139-9911-X

Pages: 387

Opus Dei (latin for God’s Work) is part of the Roman Catholic Church and is directly responsible to the Pope. The group had attracted public attention for the thick veil of secrecy surrounding their members and its modus operandi. The frenzy reached its zenith after the publication of Dan Brown’s immensely successful work, The Da Vinci Code, in which the author has protrayed an assassin motivated by religious ideals and a member of Opus Dei as an important character in the story. John L Allen, who is an American journalist based in Rome and specializes in news about the Catholic Church is ideally placed to comment on the sect and its roots that run deep inside it. He is senior correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter and vaticanologist of CNN. Allen is also the author of several books about the Catholic Church.The maxim, knock and it shall be opened unto you (Matthew 7:7) is very true as regarding Allen’s research for this book. The archives of Opus Dei which is comparable to a national secret service agency as far as efforts of privacy are concerned open effotlessly before him. That’s the power of contacts in a religious set up – you’ve to know at which door to knock to open another specific door!

The foundation of Opus Dei may be dated to Oct 2, 1928 in a vision experienced by Josemaria Escriva in Spain, revealing God’s wish that a secular order, consisting only the laity may be established which is quite different from other religious orders. Ordinary members treat their day to day work as dedicated to God and sanctify their efforts in the physical world. By this, Escriva proclaimed, laity can achieve holiness equally well as that of the clergy. The sect, which is known as The Work among its members profess equal status for women. Curious initiation rites are prescribed for newcomers. A person, aspiring to become a member of the sect has to inform the local director, which is called whistling – akin to a teacup which is heated for a time and is near boiling. A member has to be at least 16 and a half years old at whistling and the admission ceremony is on attaining 18 years of age or 1 year later, when oblation takes place. Every year, on March 19, they renew the pledge and inform the prelate of their intention to stay in the fold. After 5 years, they reach fidelity, permanent membership. There are 5 kinds of members in the organisation – supernumeraries (members leading secular lives who can marry),  numeraries (members leading celibate lives and whose income from work is appropriated by the sect), associates (celibates like numeraries but doesn’t stay in centres), numerary assistants (women selected for domestic chores in a centre and for helping out priests who are only men) and cooperators (non-members, but who take part in the holy work).

The membership of Opus Dei is not numerous by any standards. There are about 85,000 members in the world and 1850 priests, 40% of whom are from Spain. Centre in India was opened in 1993, but nothing much is discussed about this centre. Reverence to the founder who died in 1975 exceed all limits in the sect. Escriva was beatified in 1992 and canonized in 2002. During his working life, he took particular care not to align on the wrong side of powers that be in Spain of that era – General Francesco Franco. The sect was not at all fascist, but they found that keeping their mouths shut was the safest proposition. A prominent ex-member allegedly quoted Escriva as saying, “Hitler had been badly treated by world opinion because he could never have killed 6 million Jews. It could only have been 4 million at the most” (p.66). Opus Dei promptly deny these allegations.

The author waxes eloquent about the non-interference of the organization on the vocations of adherents. Politicians and businessmen interviewed for the book deny they were any way influenced by the Work. Freedom of Thought, offered by the sect is much trumpeted in many places, but doesn’t faithfully reproduce actual practice. As in any other religious order, on matters relating to doctrine and ecclesiastics, no dissenting voice is allowed as attested by quotations from Escriva himself. This, however, does not surprise the reader as enlightenment of such calibre is not to be expected from a mere church functionary. Opus Dei strongly condemns birth control measures, cloning, abortion and stem cell research. All member families, including in poor countries, are expected to raise a litter with consequent nosediving in living standards. The use of contraceptives is strongly prohibited even when not using it may lead to fatal diseases like AIDS. Escriva stressed the believers to recognise their identity as ipse Christus (Christ himself), advocating a perverse lust for suffering and celebration of avoidable pain, which he himself practiced to maniacal proportions.

Opus Dei is steeped neck deep in secrecy. Members’ names are confidential, even innocuous publications don’t go out of the fraternity. Unless some unlawful intentions are present, the stubborn urge to secrecy seems only to keep up an aura of intrigue to attract potential members. Allen whitewashes Dei’s practice by arguing that senior functionaries were more than willing to share the documents requested by him while researching for the book. But this argument proves nothing, as he was writing their own manifesto and the sect was determined to see that it falls to its lot. Even then, he was not allowed to take the documents home, nor to take copies of it!

The most peculiar thing about Opus Dei is the corporal mortification practiced by numeraries. They wear a cilice (a spiked chain, whose spikes are turned inwards) worn around the upper thigh for 2 hours a day, except on Sundays and feast days. They also perform self-whipping, using a string called Discipline, on the buttocks once a week while reciting Lord’s Prayer or Hail Mary. Once a week they sleep on the floor or without a pillow. Abstinence from tasty foods, avoiding television and electronic entertainment also form part of the rigorous lives of numeraries. It treats them practically like slaves, as it gobbles most of their income, sometimes their inheritance too and their mails are delivered opened. Such censoring has now become relaxed owing more to the impracticality of doing it in the modern technological context like cell phones, email and instant messaging.

The fraternity is accused to be immensely wealthy though the author takes great pains to establish that it is not indeed so. Robert Hutchison, a Canadian journalist’s 1997 book titled ‘Their Kingdom Come’ describes the nefarious particulars in shocking detail. The sect manages to abrogate responsibility to the revealed facts with a strange claim that those institutions are not directly owned by them, which is legally valid. Michael Walsh’s 1989 book, ‘The Secret World of Opus Dei’ claims that the businesses run by numeraries are in fact proxies of the sect, as any way, all the money owned by numeraries belongs to the order. Here again Allen manages to find fault with Walsh with the accusation that he has sided with Jesuits, who always had a grudge against Opus Dei. The sect also has links to politics, generally leaning to the conservative right. They manage to rope in promising future politicians too. In the 100^th birth anniversary celebrations of Escriva held at Rome in 2002, U.S. Republican Senator Rick Santorum, who aspires to run for Presidency in 2012 elections was the most noted participant. He openly espoused a daring stance on more religious control of government – a mild form of American Taliban, to be precise.

The book brings out some curious facts about Opus Dei too. In order to show to the public that the order is not different from ordinary conceptions of priesthood, Escriva was said to have asked one of the first three ordained priests in Spain all of whom were non-smokers, to take up smoking! Also, in contrast to its preaching equal status to men and women, the latter are treated at best as domestic servants of the numeraries and priests. Boastful claims about equality are not tenable. There are two separate policy making bodies for men and women at all levels, whose members are not even allowed to talk to each other! In the General Congress, the supreme policy making body, convened every 8 years, only the men has voting rights (as a consolation, women are allowed to propose candidates).

Throughout the book, Allen continues apologetic justification of the Work, in the guise of neutral presentation. Whenever a criticism had to be accomodated in the text, he comes with four or five counterpoints to weigh the scale towards the sect. The most ridiculous argument comes when Allen prepares to justify corporal mortification, by claiming that many other Christian religious orders perform them. He says that even Mother Teresa used a cilice and whip (p.171). The book is nothing but thinly veiled propaganda material. It has bulleted lists to expound each operating principle of Opus Dei one after the other and in detail. It even plays down the psychologically aberrant practices like corporal mortification with a ludicrous assertion that Allen himself used a cilice, to get a feel of it, and didn’t find it uncomfortable! He maintain that it is often a lot easier than physical exercise regimen like running a mile (p.169). The most laughable declaration to counter accusations of former members is that ‘when I visited, I didn’t find anything amiss’. The objectivity of the author is also clouded with a purely one-sided narrative which is found everywhere in the text.

The book is recommended.

Rating: 3 Star