Opus Dei

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Opus Dei

The Prelature of the Holy Cross and Opus Dei—known best simply as Opus Dei ("The Work of God")—was founded by Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer y Albas, a Spanish priest born on January 9, 1902, in Barbastaro, Spain. Escrivá was ordained to the priesthood in March 1925. During a retreat in Madrid in 1928, he allegedly "saw" God's expectation of him in the creation of Opus Dei. Originally a males-only organization, after 1930 it opened a section for women.

In 1943, the Priestly Society of the Holy Cross, the association for lay affiliates of Opus Dei who aspired to the Opus Dei priesthood, was founded. In 1946 Escrivá moved to Rome. Two years later he set up the Roman College of the Holy Cross for training members of the men's sections. In June of 1950, Opus Dei received its definitive status as the first secular institute approved directly by the Pope.

Throughout his life, Escrivá worked on behalf of Opus Dei. On June 26, 1975, he died suddenly in Rome. At the time of his death, Opus Dei was in all five continents and comprised some sixty thousand members of eighty nationalities.

In 1982 Opus Dei was made a personal prelature. This means that its clerical and lay members take spiritual direction from their own prelate in Rome and not—like other Catholics—from their local bishop. In May of 1992, "the Founder," as he is known by members, was beatified by Pope John Paul II.

The hallmark of Opus Dei spirituality, found in Escrivá's best-known work, The Way (1939), is the emphasis on laypeople seeking holiness in the context of their ordinary life, through the free and responsible exercise of their everyday work, and through an apostolate carried out within the ordinary structures of society. The broader objective of The Work, as members call it, is to seek a new Christendom through spiritual and apostolic ferment in the spheres of civil society and professional activities.

Opus Dei operates an international network of universities, schools, study and health care centers, student residences, and professional and vocational training institutes of various kinds. In addition to the membership ranks of Opus Dei (numeraries, associates, supernumeraries) and its priests, "cooperators" help the movement through prayer, work, and financial assistance.

Opus Dei has grown under the special favor shown the movement by Pope John Paul II. Like several other such phenomena in the postconciliar church (Cursillo; Neocatechumenal Way), Opus Dei is a highly ascetic revitalization movement that draws together idealistic people.

Although Opus Dei purportedly prefigured the reforms of Vatican II—notably the rehabilitation of the laity and the call for all Catholics to achieve holiness—critics of the organization have charged it with sectarianism and cultlike activity regarding some of its practices.

Controversy has centered on Opus Dei's hierarchical and secretive corporate structure, its subordination of women to secondary roles, its control of the minutiae of members' lives, and its alleged clandestine manner of recruitment. Objections have also been raised regarding the organization's rigid ultra-conservatism and association with elites of wealth and power along with its members' excessive devotion to the founder.

Active concern over Opus Dei's "questionable practices" among American Catholics has come primarily from the Opus Dei Awareness Network, an organization of former members, concerned individuals, and families of some Opus Dei members.

Opus Dei came to the United States in 1949. There are currently over three thousand Opus Dei members with over sixty centers or residences for members in seventeen cities, typically located near large college campuses. The organization also operates a small number of high schools and sponsors retreat houses, programs for married Catholics, and outreach initiatives to the poor.