Opus Dei

by Walsh, Michael J.

• ISBN13: 9780060750688
• ISBN10: 0060750685
• Format: Paperback
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publications

Summary

An Inside Look at the Secretive Catholic Organization Made Famous by "The Da Vinci Code Is Opus Dei a spiritual institute dedicated to preserving Catholic orthodoxy in the face of modernist assault? Or is it an independent society, a "church within the Church," promoting its own allegiances and preserving an antiquated set of spiritual and penitential practices? This small organization wields enormous power within the Catholic Church. Due to its status as a "personal prelature" of the pope, it operates independently of local Church authority. The influence of Opus Dei has only grown since this book first appeared. Opus Dei's founder, St. Josemari a Escriva , was beatified and canonized over the vehement objections of many in the Catholic Church. Powerful members of the Vatican hierarchy, including the pope's own spokesman, are members. The bestselling novel "The Da Vinci Code has made millions aware of Opus Dei. This classic investigation is needed now more than ever. It tells the real story of this mysterious organization -- a probing but balanced examination of the organization, its charismatic founder, its practices, and its effect upon the Catholic Church at large.

Author Biography

Michael Walsh, a former Jesuit and renowned Church historian, is the author of many books on Church history and Catholicism

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	v
Introduction to the Paperback Edition	vii
1. In Search of Opus	1	(20)
2. The Origins of Opus	21	(22)
3. The Years of Expansion	43	(24)
4. A Change of Status	67	(14)
5. The Constitutions of 1982	81	(24)
6. The Spirit of Opus	105	(26)
7. Politics and Business	131	(30)
8. Sectarian Catholicism	161	(28)
9. The Apotheosis of the Founder	189	(12)
Notes	201	(8)
Bibliography	209	(8)
Index	217

Excerpts

Opus Dei
An Investigation into the Powerful, Secretive Society within the Catholic Church

Chapter One

In Search of Opus

It is only some 200 kilometers from Cuzco, Peru's second cityand former capital of the Incas, to the town of Abancay, yet so badwas the road that my journey in a Toyota land cruiser took all often hours. Abancay itself is a frontier town, deep in the Andes.Soldiers guard the entrances. Its inhabitants prefer to drive jeeptypevehicles or pick-up trucks, if they can afford any vehicle atall. Only a handful of the streets are metaled roads; most are littlemore than dirt tracks.

The building I had come to visit was just off one of thesetracks. The wall around it was broken by an imposing gateway.Inside the wall there were a swimming pool and elegant flowerbeds. Two fountains were playing, one into a basin containinggoldfish. I visited one of the two chapels standing in the garden.Behind the altar, set in an elaborate gold frame, there was a pictureof the Holy Family: Mary and Joseph teaching Jesus to walk.It was painted in the Cuzceña style derived from the art theSpanish conquistadores had brought to Peru in the sixteenth century.The contrast between the world I had entered when I passedunder the gateway arch, and the world along the dirt track outsidecould hardly have been greater.This was like the hacienda ofsome wealthy landowner. It was, in fact, a seminary, a place fortraining Roman Catholic clergy.

I was visiting it at the suggestion of Ken Duncan, an aid anddevelopment consultant who had heard that I was interested inthe Catholic organization Opus Dei. Duncan, not himself aCatholic, had been taken aback by the activities of Opus in Peruand wanted to tell his experiences to someone who might drawattention to what he saw as unacceptable behavior on the part ofthe Opus clergy.

Despite its isolation I was able to make my way to Abancayand call at the seminary, the luxury of which, when comparedwith the bitter poverty of the people outside its walls, Duncanhad found scandalous. The seminary, run by a handful of OpusDei clergy from Spain in well-cut soutanes -- the long black gownwhich was once the everyday wear of Catholic priests inEurope -- was just as Duncan had described it. Like him, I wasstartled by the contrast between the poverty and squalor outsidethe walls and the comfort within, and by the incongruity of findingsuch an institution in the depths of the Andes.

Ken Duncan had often worked with Catholic organizations.He had high praise for many of them. He was, however,alarmed at the growing influence of Opus in Peru. He waseven more alarmed when I told him of the size and complexity...

Opus Dei
An Investigation into the Powerful, Secretive Society within the Catholic Church. Copyright © by Michael Walsh. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.

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Excerpted from Opus Dei: An Investigation into the Powerful, Secretive Society Within the Catholic Church by Michael Walsh
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