Opus Dei in society
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Opus Dei in society refers to the social mission, general social strategy, social activities, work, relationship with politics and other aspects of
Opus Dei Opus Dei, formally known as the Prelature of the Holy Cross and Opus Dei ( la, Praelatura Sanctae Crucis et Operis Dei), is an institution of the Catholic Church whose members seek personal Christian holiness and strive to imbue their work an ...
.


Mission in society and general strategy

According to Catholic officials and scholars, Opus Dei is God's Work performing a divine operation in society which mobilises Christians to sanctify secular realities from within. Opus Dei does not act as a group, they say. It is a spiritual, catechetical agency of the Catholic Church in charge of forming people so they can act with personal responsibility "to put Christ on top of all human activities," as their founder says. Escriva said that Opus Dei evangelises people of all social classes: "Out of a hundred souls, we are interested in one hundred." Opus Dei’s ''Statutes'' says that the goal of Opus Dei is to bring about that persons of all walks of life, first of all the intellectuals, practice Christianity through the sanctification of their work "so that all things will be put in order according to the Will of the Creator." According to Vittorio Messori in his book ''Opus Dei: Leadership and Vision in Today’s Catholic Church'', Opus Dei’s manner of influencing society is based on the principle that "there is no way of improving humanity other than improving human beings—one by one, and profoundly." Thus it has what it calls apostolate of friendship. Also, it follows the strategy of emphasising the evangelisation of the intelligentsia because, he says, "society arrives at the majority of its ideas and modes of behavior by way of the intellectuals." So that the sanctification of society can take place through sanctification of work, the Opus Dei provides "professional formation." This stresses hard work, cultural and professional development, human warmth and refinement, ethical behaviour, respect for freedom and pluralism, personal and collective humility, and personal prayer as the highest priority in one's daily schedule. The main strategy, according to Escrivá's teaching, is that each Christian must strive to become a "canonizable saint", another Christ redeeming all men and women, and thus also a responsible citizen who works for the common good. Because if Christians are not well ordered from within, he says, if they do not put God first through a life of contemplation, they will be merely spreading their disorder to other people. "These world crises", he says, "are crises of saints." Thus, evangelization in Opus Dei is done one-on-one through its "apostolate of friendship and confidence."
Peter L. Berger Peter Ludwig Berger (17 March 1929 – 27 June 2017) was an Austrian-born American sociologist and Protestant theologian. Berger became known for his work in the sociology of knowledge, the sociology of religion, study of modernization, and theor ...
and Samuel Huntington calls the attempt of Opus Dei an "alternative modernity," a work towards a modern world which is "faithful" to the Christian traditions, as distinguished from other secular interventions in modernity. (''Many Globalizations: Cultural Diversity in the Contemporary World'' 2002)


Activities and work

The largest part of the apostolic activity of the prelature is what the individual members do with their friends and colleagues in their respective communities and workplaces. Collective formative activities consist of religious retreats, recollections, and classes in Catholic doctrine. A big percentage of the undertakings of members of Opus Dei, if not the majority, are youth development centres: schools, youth clubs, study centres. There are also a good number of training centres for women. In Spain, Saint Josemaría Escrivá himself founded the
University of Navarra , image = UNAV.svg , latin_name = Universitas Studiorum Navarrensis , established = 17 October 1952 , type = Private, Roman Catholic , chancellor = Fernando Ocáriz Braña , president = María Iraburu Eliz ...
in 1959 which confers 27 degrees and administers more than 300 post-graduate programs and includes a teaching hospital.


Opus Dei academic institutions


Schools

*PARED Harkaway Hills College, Melbourne, Australia *PARED Montgrove School for Girls, Sydney, Australia * PARED Redfield College, Sydney, Australia *PARED Tangara School for Girls, Sydney, Australia * PARED Wollemi College, Sydney, Australia *
PAREF Southridge School Parents for Education Foundation (PAREF) is an educational foundation established by parents that administers schools for basic education in the Philippines. It owns several single-sex Catholic school Catholic schools are pre-primary, primar ...
, Muntinlupa, Philippines *
PAREF Woodrose School Parents for Education Foundation (PAREF) is an educational foundation established by parents that administers schools for basic education in the Philippines. It owns several single-sex Catholic schools that are closely affiliated with Opus Dei. P ...
, Muntinlupa, Philippines *PAREF Springdale School, Cebu City, Philippines *PAREF Westbridge School, Iloilo City, Philippines *PAREF Rosehill School, Antipolo, Philippines *
PAREF Northfield School Parents for Education Foundation (PAREF) is an educational foundation established by parents that administers schools for basic education in the Philippines. It owns several single-sex Catholic schools that are closely affiliated with Opus Dei. ...
, Antipolo, Philippines *PAREF Southcrest School, Cebu City, Philippines *Rosevale School, Cagayan de Oro, Philippines * Seido-Mikawadai College, Nagasaki, Japan * Tak Sun Secondary School, Hong Kong * The Heights School, Maryland, USA


Universities

Universities operated by or related to Opus Dei are * Centro de Extensão Universitária, São Paulo, Brazil * IAE Business School, Buenos Aires, Argentina *
IESE Business School IESE Business School is the graduate business school of the University of Navarra. Founded in 1958 in Barcelona where its main campus is located,López, T. & Pampliega, J“La fundación del IESE (1956–1958)” Universidad de Navarra, Bibliotec ...
, Barcelona, Spain * Instituto Panamericano de Alta Dirección de Empresa (IPADE), Mexico D.F., Mexico * ISE - Instituto Superior de Empresa, São Paulo, Brazil * PAD: Escuela de Alta Dirección de la Universidad de Piura, Lima, Peru *
Pan-Atlantic University Pan-Atlantic University is a private, non-profit educational institution in Lekki, Lagos State. Timeline The university had its origin as the Lagos Business School (LBS), established in 1991. The federal government approved the university a ...
, Lagos, Nigeria *
Pontifical University of the Holy Cross Pontifical University of the Holy Cross ( la, Pontificia Universitas Sanctae Crucis, it, Pontificia Università della Santa Croce) is a Roman Catholic university under the Curial Congregation for Catholic Education, now entrusted to the Prela ...
, Rome, Italy *
Strathmore University Strathmore University is a chartered university based in Nairobi, Kenya. ...
, Nairobi, Kenya * Universidad Austral, Buenos Aires, Argentina * Universidad Bonaterra, Aguascalientes, Mexico * Universidad de La Sabana, Chía, Colombia * Universidad de Los Hemisferios, Quito, Ecuador *
Universidad de Montevideo The Universidad de Montevideo (in English: ''University of Montevideo'') is a private (catholic, Opus Dei) university located in Montevideo, Uruguay Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Ur ...
, Montevideo, Uruguay *
Universidad del Istmo Universidad del Istmo (University of the Isthmus), commonly referred to as UNIS, is a private university in Guatemala. UNIS was officially founded in 1997 as the successor institution of the Instituto Femenino de Estudios Superiores (IFES), (I ...
, Fraijanes, Guatemala *
Universidad Monteávila Universidad Monteávila is a private, Roman Catholic - Opus Dei - University in Caracas, Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the ...
, Caracas, Venezuela *
Universidad Panamericana The Universidad Panamericana (Spanish: ''Universidad Panamericana''), commonly known as UP, is a private Catholic university founded in Mexico City. It has four campuses: the main Mixcoac campus in the Benito Juarez borough of south-western Mexi ...
, Mexico D.F., Mexico * Università Campus Bio-Medico, Rome, Italy * Universitat Internacional de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain *
University of Asia and the Pacific The University of Asia and the Pacific (UA&P; Filipino: ''Pamantasan ng Asya at Pasipiko'') is a private university in the Philippines. It traces its beginnings to the Center for Research and Communication (CRC), which was established on August 1 ...
, Pasig, Philippines *
University of Navarra , image = UNAV.svg , latin_name = Universitas Studiorum Navarrensis , established = 17 October 1952 , type = Private, Roman Catholic , chancellor = Fernando Ocáriz Braña , president = María Iraburu Eliz ...
, Pamplona, Spain *
University of Piura The University of Piura ( es, Universidad de Piura; "UDEP") is a private university in Peru. It has two campuses, the main one is in Piura, while a more recently built one is located in the Miraflores District of Lima. In 1964, Josemaría Es ...
, Piura, Peru * University of the Andes, Santiago, Chile *
Villanueva University Universidad Villanueva is a private university located in Madrid (Spain), affiliated to the Catholic organization Opus Dei. It is the smallest university in Madrid by number of bachelor's students. It started teaching in the year 2020, although i ...
, Madrid, Spain


Membership profile

The Vatican Yearbook indicates that Opus Dei has 85,000 members about 1,900 of whom are
priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particu ...
s. Of these 1,900 priests, 25 are
bishop A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...
s working in various dioceses. Members are distributed as follows: Africa 1600; Asia and the Pacific 4700; Americas, North and South 29,000; Europe 48,700. In terms of educational level, income and social status, V. Messori says that there is a predominance of middle-to-low levels among the members of Opus Dei. In Spain and Latin America, for example, Opus Dei is predominantly popular among laborers and ''campesinos''. Gomez Perez, in ''Opus Dei: Una Explicación'', says that Opus Dei's social composition shows a correspondence with the local situation, because, he says, all honest trades can be sanctified. He also says that there are more teachers and professors among its ranks than the normal social composition because of Opus Dei's emphasis on the intellectual apostolate. Critics, however, accuse Opus Dei of elitism, and say that Opus Dei has amassed both power and wealth. On the other hand, John Allen in ''Opus Dei: Secrets and Power in the Catholic Church'', says that Opus Dei's assets in the World are estimated to be at $2,800 million minimum, compared with an annual revenue for the Catholic Church in the US of $102 billion. By comparison, General Motors has assets of $455 billion. The worldwide revenue of Opus Dei is that of a mid-sized American diocese. He also says that Opus Dei has only 39 bishops out of the 4,564 in the world. And there are only 20 members out of 3920 working in the Vatican. As to real estate holdings, Opus Dei's holdings are notably inferior to those of the religious orders, says V. Messori. "Monks live in communities that require houses, while the great majority of Opus Dei members continue to live their everyday lives in their own homes."


Revolutionary or conservative?

Opus Dei's influence in society, said Escrivá, is not socio-economic but ethical: rich and poor work together to build a society that is more human, just, and progressive. However, in "Preserving Power and Privilege," a report of Catholics for a Free Choice, Opus Dei is categorised together with
Neocatechumenal Way The Neocatechumenal Way, also known as the Neocatechumenate, or NCW (colloquially, The Way or Neo-Cats) is an association of the Christian faithful within the Catholic Church. It was formed in Madrid in 1964 by Kiko Argüello and Carmen Herná ...
,
Focolare The Focolare Movement is an international organization that promotes the ideals of unity and universal brotherhood. Founded in Trent, northern Italy, in 1943 by Chiara Lubich as a Catholic movement, it remains largely Roman Catholic but has s ...
,
Legion of Christ The Congregation of the Legionaries of Christ ( la, Congregatio Legionariorum Christi; abbreviated LC; also Legion of Christ) is a Roman Catholic clerical religious order made up of priests and candidates for the priesthood established by Marci ...
, Community of St. John,
Charismatic Renewal The Catholic Charismatic Renewal is a movement within the Catholic Church that is part of the wider charismatic movement across historic Christian churches. The Renewal has been described as a "current of grace". It began in 1967 when Cath ...
, and
Communion and Liberation Communion and Liberation (Italian: Comunione e Liberazione, often shortened to CL) is an International Catholic movement founded in 1954 by Fr. Luigi Giussani. The official name is the Fraternity of Communion and Liberation. Its aim is to pres ...
, among Catholic groups having "neoconservative or fundamentalist moral and political beliefs," "extremely traditionalist," and "pre-enlightenment" messages for society. In contrast,
Benedict XVI Pope Benedict XVI ( la, Benedictus XVI; it, Benedetto XVI; german: link=no, Benedikt XVI.; born Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger, , on 16 April 1927) is a retired prelate of the Catholic church who served as the head of the Church and the sovereign ...
praises the catechetical work of these lay organizations and commented on the profile of Opus Dei as "this surprising link between absolute fidelity to the great tradition of the Church and to her faith, with a disarming simplicity and unconditional openness to all the challenges of this world, in the academic world, in the world of work, in the world of economics, etc." There are also modern historians, many of whom are non-Catholics, who are now stating that the
Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
supports reason and progress, putting it "at the center of the development of the values, ideas, science, laws, and institutions which constitute what we call Western civilization," in the words of Paul Legutko of
Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...
in his review of
Thomas Woods Thomas Ernest Woods Jr. (born August 1, 1972) is an American author and libertarian commentator who is currently a senior fellow at the Mises Institute.Naji FilaliInterview with Thomas E. Woods, Jr. Harvard Political Review, August 16, 2011. Wo ...
' book ''How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization'', Woods refers to both non-Catholic and Catholic historians of science: J.L. Heilbron,
Alistair Cameron Crombie Alistair Cameron Crombie (4 November 1915 – 9 February 1996) was an Australian historian of science who began his career as a zoologist. He was noted for his contributions to research on competition between species before turning to histor ...
,
David C. Lindberg David Charles Lindberg (November 15, 1935 – January 6, 2015) was an American historian of science. His main focus was in the history of medieval and early modern science, especially physical science and the relationship between religion and sc ...
,
Edward Grant Edward Grant (April 6, 1926 – June 21, 2020) was an American historian of medieval science. He was named a Distinguished Professor in 1983. Other honors include the 1992 George Sarton Medal, for "a lifetime scholarly achievement" as an histori ...
, and Thomas Goldstein,
Stanley Jaki Stanley L. Jaki (Jáki Szaniszló László) (17 August 1924 in Győr, Hungary – 7 April 2009 in Madrid, Spain) was a Hungarian-born priest of the Benedictine order. From 1975 to his death, he was Distinguished University Professor at Seton H ...
; economists:
Joseph Schumpeter Joseph Alois Schumpeter (; February 8, 1883 – January 8, 1950) was an Austrian-born political economist. He served briefly as Finance Minister of German-Austria in 1919. In 1932, he emigrated to the United States to become a professor at Ha ...
and Raymund de Roover; art historians:
Kenneth Clark Kenneth Mackenzie Clark, Baron Clark (13 July 1903 – 21 May 1983) was a British art historian, museum director, and broadcaster. After running two important art galleries in the 1930s and 1940s, he came to wider public notice on television ...
, Samuel Edgerton; historian of hospitals:
Guenter B. Risse Guenter B. Risse (born 28 April 1932) is an American medical historian. He has written numerous books, including his most recent "Driven by Fear: Epidemics and Isolation in San Francisco's House of Pestilence." The American Association for the H ...
. Wood's book supports
Christopher Dawson Christopher Henry Dawson (12 October 188925 May 1970) was a British independent scholar, who wrote many books on cultural history and Christendom. Dawson has been called "the greatest English-speaking Catholic historian of the twentieth century ...
's thesis about religion "as the dynamic element in history and as a real world-transforming power." The debate about Opus Dei and its role in society continues. The two diametrically opposed positions are reflected in how one interprets point 353 of Escrivá's ''The Way'': Critics say this type of counsel makes it impossible for Opus Dei members to be free in political matters, since it creates ideologies such as "National Catholicism", according to Alberto Moncada, or "Catholic Totalitarianism," according to Argentine
Marxist Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...
historian Emilio Corbiere. Thus, Opus Dei members are placed squarely on the political right, becoming a conservative influence in world affairs, promoting the Vatican's traditionalist policies against
divorce Divorce (also known as dissolution of marriage) is the process of terminating a marriage or marital union. Divorce usually entails the canceling or reorganizing of the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage, thus dissolving the ...
,
abortion Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. An abortion that occurs without intervention is known as a miscarriage or "spontaneous abortion"; these occur in approximately 30% to 40% of pregn ...
,
euthanasia Euthanasia (from el, εὐθανασία 'good death': εὖ, ''eu'' 'well, good' + θάνατος, ''thanatos'' 'death') is the practice of intentionally ending life to eliminate pain and suffering. Different countries have different eut ...
,
gay marriage Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same sex or gender. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 33 countries, with the most recent being Mexico, constituting ...
s,
contraception Birth control, also known as contraception, anticonception, and fertility control, is the use of methods or devices to prevent unwanted pregnancy. Birth control has been used since ancient times, but effective and safe methods of birth contr ...
, etc. “The claim that Opus Dei is merely a humanitarian organization with no political agenda is simply not credible,” said
Frances Kissling Frances Kissling (born 15 June 1943) is an activist in the fields of religion, reproduction, and women's rights. She is the president of the Center for Health, Ethics and Social Policy. She was president of Catholics for Choice (founded 1973) from ...
, president of Catholics for a Free Choice. Opus Dei, according to its critics, serves as the Vatican's instrument to oppose the liberal and secular thought expressed by John Stuart Mill's classic statement: "The only freedom which deserves the name, is that of pursuing our own good in our own way," and lately put into American jurisprudence in ''Planned Parenthood vs. Casey'' 1992, “At the heart of liberty is the right to define one’s own concept of existence, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life." On the other hand, while espousing respect for each person's freedom of religion and search for truth, Ratzinger says that when there is rebellion against the light of truth revealed by Christ on man's origin and purpose, man is imprisoned in a meaningless existence. The "attempt to be our own god, creator and judge," he stated in ''The Way of the Cross'', leads to self-destruction. The "choice of error does not liberate," says Escrivá, and brings instead the "slavery of sin." His supporters say that the Catholic Church ''per se'' is beyond earthly power struggles and is engaged in a fundamental struggle for the peace and happiness of each soul: the battle between the powers of evil and the God-man Jesus Christ who, in the words of Opus Dei's founder, "never loses battles." According to Escrivá, "face-to-face with God, there is no room for anonymity: either one decides to be his friend or his foe." He also states in a key teaching: "Many great things depend — don't forget it — on whether you and I live our lives as God wants." His supporters say that if Christians throughout the world are completely faithful to the Beauty of Truth, Jesus Christ, then "the greatest revolution of all time would take place," according to what they see as the prophetic vision of Opus Dei's founder, a vision altogether dismissed by its many critics.


References


External links


Vatican Official Assails a Myth About New Church Movements: Sees Them as Committed to Social and Charitable Work
{{Opus Dei Opus Dei