A Closer Look at Opus Dei

Dear CIOT Participants,

Many of us voted to take a closer look at Opus Dei this year, and that is what we’re going to do next month. As a controversial movement within the Church and, most recently, as portrayed in the bestselling RAG The DaVinci Code, it is inevitable that there is a wealth of information available both positive and negative on Opus Dei. More difficult is the task of finding information that is objective. But I’ve done my best, and extend as always my thanks to the many of you who have provided me with leads.

Before getting to the links below, I need to advise everyone about a change in topic schedule. Vince, who suggested the topic “Theology of the Body”, also took it upon himself to help prepare our readings. I’m very grateful for this, since the topic is utter terra incognita for me. Given Vince’s busy schedule (not to mention residence in Ohio), he has requested some more time, which I would need for this topic as well. Therefore we’ll need to change our May and December topics, so that now the schedule looks like this:

May 1 Women in the History of the Church
Sept. 4 Living the Faith in the 21st Century
Oct. 2 Science and the Faith: Stem Cell Research, Cloning, and Evolution
Nov. 6 Theology and Public Policy
Dec. 4 Theology of the Body

See you Monday, 3 April!
John

Readings

Here are some links that I have found useful:

First, it is necessary to understand that Opus Dei is but one of several so-called “lay” movements in the Church, and that under Pope John Paul II several of these certainly increased their stature via special papal recognition. Whether or not this has come at the expense of traditional orders like Benedictines is a matter of debate. Nevertheless, it might first be useful to take a brief overview of the most prominent lay movements at present. I suggest R. M. LaReau. Super Catholics? Sizing up the new lay movements. US Catholic, Feb. 2006.

These lay movements, however, have had their critics, including ex-member of Focolare Gordon Urquhart, who in 1995 published The Pope’s Armada, his insider account and attack on Focolare and lay movements in general. See his article from The Tablet, A Dead Man’s Tale (3/23/1997).

With that overview in mind, perhaps the fairest place to start is the website of Opus Dei in the US. It is hardly objective, but as mentioned above, there is little that is!

Most recently, the National Catholic Reporter’s Rome correspondant, John Allen, has published a book noted for its objective presentation of the material. His book is titled: Opus Dei: An Objective Look Behind the Myths and Reality of the Most Controversial Force in the Catholic Church (2005).

There is an excerpt of Allen’s book that focuses on the movement’s so-called “secrecy” at the National Catholic Reporter’s website.

John Allen has provided an extensive set of anwers to common questions he receives regarding his book and Opus Dei in his column for the National Catholic Reporter.

And he has been interviewed several times regarding the book, including one (Decoding Opus Dei) in Newsweek (24 March 2005).

Likewise, I can highly recommend the lengthy interview with Allen at the “Godspy" website. To the right of the text of the interview there are several excellent links to other articles and resources, including Opus Dei’s official website. This is an excellent set of resources.

An extremely useful accessus to the book may be found at the website for Catholic News, which includes a brief summary and, more importantly, several excellent links at the end of the review.

Book reviews of Allen’s study include The facts and fiction about Opus Dei by John Jay Hughes in Nat. Cath. Rep, October 2005.

The more recent books on Opus Dei include:

• Robert Hutchison, Their Kingdom Come: Inside the Secret World of Opus Dei (1998). (review and summary)
• Maria del Carmen Tapia, Beyond the Threshold: A Life in Opus Dei (1997). (review and summary)

Among the many places to find fierce criticism of the movement, see the website of the Opus Dei Awareness Network (ODAN), which has hundreds of links to everything from Opus Dei’s portrayal in the the media, the upcoming DaVinci Code film release, a wealth of testimonials from former members, and about everything else you can imagine.