Opus Dei founder canonized...whither the Church?

[jayjay]

Story here

Josemaria Escriva, the founder of the ultraconservative Catholic organization Opus Dei, is being canonized tomorrow. Opus Dei has been a long-time pet cause for John Paul II, and several Opus Dei members have been appointed to high positions in the Vatican hierarchy.

On the one hand, I don’t even have a dog in this race. I’m quite firmly agnostic (at least in this swing of the spiritual pendulum) and haven’t attended a non-wedding/funeral Mass in at least the last ten years. But as my mother insists, once a Catholic, always a Catholic, and Opus Dei worries me.

It may just be my inherent tendency to chafe at restrictions on human freedom (even voluntarily chosen restrictions) that makes me give the hairy eyeball to a group that insists on celibacy, corporal penitence, the surrender of financial means to the community, personal “confessions” of not only past sins, but all of one’s actions in any given period of time, and total spiritual surrender to a religious superior. Add in rumors of blackmail against those who wish to leave the organization, cult-like fostering of psychological dependence (“your family don’t love you…they’re just jealous of your greater spiritual development with us and that’s why they want you to leave us”), and a very, very conservative belief system (within the greater Catholic system) and we have a classic case of “Society That Drives Jayjay Batty Just By Existing”.

I’m very worried what JPII’s favorable opinion of Opus Dei means for the greater Church. It doesn’t look good from here…

[tomndebb]

It is hardly unexpected. As long as JPII is around, the RCC will continue to champion social justice issues in most arenas while continuing to champion a narrowly-defined theological conservatism. If Opus Dei actually begins hiting the news with its cult-like activities, it will probably implode. (Several earlier ventures of the same sort have happened throughout church history.)

Beyond that, JPII has demonstrated a serious penchant for looking at his view of an individual’s personal spirituality, regardless of the context and ramifications of that individual’s actions in the world, so that, again, is not a change from the direction that the RCC has been going for twenty years.

Aside from a “friend of Franco” charge that has never seemed to amount to much, Escriva does not seem to have much personal baggage, however badly his movement seems to be going.
(I have only seen the “cult like” charges lodged against a couple of chapters. Is there information that the same pattern of behavior is persistent throughout the entire organization? Not that it would change my opinion that these folks are simply the most recent example of a recurring fad in the RCC.)

[beagledave]

Escriva canonized while Giuseppe Roncalli is parked at “Blessed”.
:Sigh:

[tomndebb]

Well, it’s like packing the courts: JPII wants as many conservative/reactionary saints up there as he can get before the church gets overwhelmed by the third world bishops and their liberal ideas.

[beagledave]

*Originally posted by tomndebb *
**Well, it’s like packing the courts: JPII wants as many conservative/reactionary saints up there as he can get before the church gets overwhelmed by the third world bishops and their liberal ideas.
**

Well then, in the spirit of a Vatican II backlash…let me be the first to propose that Escriva be considered as the patron saint for closed windows.

[jayjay]

I must admit that sites that are objective about Opus Dei are thin on the ground on the Web. It appears that most of what’s out there is of the disgruntled ex-member type. Preferring not to use that genre as definitive proofs, I’ll concede that the more cult-like claims are apocryphal (or localized) for now.

And it may be faddish, Tom. Why Opus Dei bothers me when Lefebvre’s much more theologically/ritually reactionary (hell, at least Opus Dei acknowledges Vatican II) schism group didn’t is kind of puzzling…

[beagledave]

Actually, I found a pretty good primer on Opus Dei here.

It’s written by an associate editor at America magazine…so seems fairly credible.

OPUS DEI IS THE MOST CONTROVERSIAL group in the Catholic Church today. To its members it is nothing less than The Work of God, the inspiration of Blessed Josemaría Escrivá, who advanced the work of Christ by promoting the sanctity of everyday life. To its critics it is a powerful, even dangerous, cult-like organization that uses secrecy and manipulation to advance its agenda. At the same time, many Catholics admit knowing little about this influential group. Moreover, because of the dichotomy of views on the group, and perhaps because of its influence in Vatican circles, it is difficult to find balanced reporting on Opus Dei.

“Is Sainthood Coming Too Quickly for Founder of Influential Catholic Group?” read a January 1992 New York Times headline, echoing other critical articles appearing around the same time. An article in The London Spectator, for example, included allegations by former close associates about Escrivá’s less than saintly behavior. “He had a filthy temper,” said one, “and pro-Nazi tendencies, but they never mention that.”

Nice healty view of women as well…

Another common criticism is that men and women numeraries are separated not only in housing but even in work. Numerary Jim Gabriel, who lives in Opus Dei’s Riverside Study Center in Manhattan explained: “There is pretty much no interaction. They do things that they have to do and we do what we have to do.”

According to two former numeraries, women numeraries are required to clean the men’s centers and cook for them. When the women arrive to clean, they explained, the men vacate so as not to come in contact with the women. I asked Bill Schmitt if women had a problem with this. “No. Not at all.” It is a paid work of the “family” of Opus Dei and is seen as an apostolate. The women more often than not hire others to do the cooking and cleaning. “They like doing it. It’s not forced on them. It’s one thing that’s open to them if they want to do it. They don’t have to do it.”

mail is monitored

For numeraries living in the centers, mail—incoming and outgoing—is read by the director. But for most numeraries this is not a problem. “If you’re in an organization and part of the group, where you go to the priest in confession and tell him everything that’s on your mind, what could you possibly receive in a letter that would matter?” said one. But he also admitted that he wasn’t sure if his friends knew their mail was being read. “But they never say anything that couldn’t be read by other people.”

Fun on college campuses

[quote]

Donald R. McCrabb is executive director of the Catholic Campus Ministry Association (C.C.M.A.), an organization of 1,000 of the 1,800 Catholic chaplains in the United States. What was he hearing about Opus Dei from his members? “We are aware that Opus Dei is present at a number of campuses across the country. I’m also aware that some campus ministers find their activities on campus to be counterproductive.” One of his concerns was Opus Dei’s emphasis on recruiting, supported by an apparently large base of funding. “They are not taking on the broader responsibility that a campus minister has.” He had other concerns as well. “I have heard through campus ministers that there’s a spiritual director that’s assigned to the candidate who basically has to approve every action taken by that person, including reading mail, what classes they take or don’t take, what they read or don’t read.”
/quote]

THIS is a group to be admired?
Escriva is a guy to admire enough to elevate to sainthood?

Give me a break.