2.1 Overview

Opus Dei (which is Latin for God's Work, or familiarly The Work) is an institution of the Roman Catholic Church which aims to encourage ordinary people of all backgrounds to seek holiness 'in the middle of the world': that is, wherever life finds them, without changing their normal way of life, their daily work, their ambitions, their family and social relations, their responsibilities, their hobbies, and so on. Rather, the message of Opus Dei is that they can aspire to becoming saints (no less!) in and through all these twists and turns of their daily lives, and in particular through the sanctification of their everyday work.

2.2 The sanctification of work

Over the centuries people came to regard work as a distraction from the development of a deep relationship with the Creator. Immersion 'in the world' was seen as incompatible with complete dedication to God. So if you were really serious about your faith you were expected to escape from the hubbub to concentrate more or less 'fulltime' on the things of God.

Those who did not have a vocation to leave the world in this way were often understood implicitly to be settling for a lower level of holiness, expected to get along as best they could, somehow scraping home to Heaven. In this vision of things, the laity were almost second class citizens in the kingdom of God. Finding 'the things of God' in the world just didn't arise.

By contrast, the message of Opus Dei is that, not only is work in the world not an obstacle to holiness, but it can be the very stuff of sanctity. Here 'work' is understood in its widest sense, as all the things that go to make up one's daily activity -- mostly little, ordinary things -- and one's occupations in life. So all kinds of work are understood here, including for example that of the retired, the incapacitated, and the unemployed (for whom 'work' might for example consist mainly in seeking employment).

When the young Fr. Escrivá first starting talking about these ideas in the 1920s and 30s, many people, including fervent Christians, felt he was talking nonsense, and dangerous nonsense at that. Did he not realise what he was saying? How could the ordinary man or woman, scrambling to get to work on time in the morning, struggling to pay the rent or to meet mortgage repayments, trying to raise a family, following a career, immersed in the rough and tumble of commercial, social, trade, political or artistic life, ... how could he or she be able to stop to think about God in a regular way, let alone grow in holiness? They felt he was asking the impossible, and badly misleading people. In fact some felt he was preaching heresy.

Monsignor Escrivá fully realised that for lay people in the world to grow in holiness, they needed strong, vibrant interior lives, nourished by prayer, sacraments, and a cheerful self-denial. He was not saying this was an easier route to holiness, but yes that it was accessible to all who wanted to follow it, no matter what their situation. All honest work could be a meeting place with God, a cooperation in the work of creation, something which can be sanctified, and something which can sanctify.

When Christ preached the sermon on the mount, the majority of his listeners were ordinary folk: yet he was asking them (just as much as he was asking clergy and religious) to 'be perfect' (Matt 5:48): in fact they also were called to the highest possible sanctity, 'perfect as my Heavenly Father is perfect.' And they did not have to change the externals of their lives to achieve it, nor abandon ties of work and family. Genesis says that man was created 'to work' (Gen 2:15), so work was there not as a punishment, but as something natural, or inherent in his nature. Christ himself, the God-Man, spent most of his life working at a very ordinary job. And for ordinary lay people, if they do not try to find God in their work, they are keeping him out of what occupies most of their lives. A type of spiritual split personality arises, in which their life becomes divided into two almost watertight compartments: on the one hand their life of faith, and on the other all the other occupations that fill the rest of their days and their minds and their hearts.

'Work is not a penalty or a curse or a punishment: those who speak of it that way have not understood Sacred Scripture properly. It is time for us Christians to shout from the rooftops that work is a gift from God.'

2.3 Work and Opus Dei

What does work mean to most people? Many things, no doubt. It is a source of income for self and for one's dependants; it is a service to others, and to society; it helps shape the world in some small way; it is an environment in which one establishes social relationships and makes friends; it helps form character and personality and sharpens wits and skills; it defines one's role in society ('Joe's a farmer: Jane's a teacher'); it can be boring, exciting, satisfying, frustrating, challenging, draining, elevating, ... and sometimes all these at once. And it fills most of one's waking existence. Well, the central message of Opus Dei is that, on top of all these, or rather in and through all these, work can also be a path to holiness -- that is real, heroic holiness -- nothing less than canonizable holiness.

The theology behind all this is based on a Christian analysis of man's nature and purpose (as fish are made to swim, and birds to fly, man is made to work), and of God's invitation to him to cooperate not just in his work of redemption but also in His work of creation . In practice, sanctifying one's work, whatever it may be, means doing it with the greatest perfection possible (doing a competent, professional job) at the natural or human level, and at the same time with christian perfection (for love of God's will and as a service to mankind) at the supernatural level, raising it to the order of grace. Thus the humblest task can be sanctified, and become God's work, or Opus Dei.

One consequence of this is that the value of a job is not measured by the value society places on it, or by the financial reward, or by the power or influence it has, or by the fame it brings. The real value of work is measured by the love of God with which it is done. In absolute terms, that is in the eyes of God, the most menial task may thus be worth more -- be more important -- than the work of a chief executive or a prime minister.

Then what is the institution (or Prelature) of Opus Dei for? As an institution Opus Dei exists as a service to the Church, to promote this ideal of the universal call to holiness, especially through work, and to provide its members (and anyone else who wants it) with the spiritual and doctrinal support they need to follow this high ideal of seeking sanctity through work.

2.4 The spirituality of Opus Dei

There has been an evolution of the religious state which has been contemporaneous with the founding and development of Opus Dei. But the two approaches to holiness are quite distinct phenomena. In fact they are movements in opposite directions.

The evolution of the religious state is a movement towards the world, beginning outside it, and seeking a presence in it: members of Opus Dei by contrast have never left the world. Their bonds of work, family, and social relationships remain intact. Their work, their situation in the world, these very bonds, constitute their only path to holiness and apostolate. It is the same situation they would have had if they had never met Opus Dei (and where they would remain if they ever decided to leave Opus Dei). Their occupation is not some kind of cover, part of some strategy to have a presence in the world. Lay members are not religious or clergy pretending to be just like their colleagues at work, and pretending to be ordinary layfolk. They are the same as their colleagues, and (canonically) just ordinary layfolk.

Thus their vocation is not some kind of compromise, a desacrilization of the religious life, following a watered-down version of some monastic spirituality. Rather it is a radically new phenomenon, based on a secular spirituality, and it represents a revolution in spiritual thinking. Yet, paradoxically, it is also very old, because, if a point of comparison is sought, it can be found in the early Christians who were fully integrated into the society of their time and externally indistinguishable from their pagan friends and colleagues.

This immersion in the world of work, this total involvement in secular activity, is the essence of the lay state. The role of the laity in the Church and in the world is so enormously wider and deeper than, for example, getting a few representative lay people to play ecclesiastical roles and do jobs formerly reserved for priests: rather it consists in knowing, loving and serving God, and loving one's fellow man, in and through the whole wide worlds of social, professional, trade, business, and public life. Thus the spiritual schizophrenia gives way to a radical unity and simplicity of outlook, finding the divine element hidden in the ordinary material things of daily life.

The spirituality of Opus Dei is built around a sense of being a son or daughter of God, and all that follows from this reality, especially serenity, cheerful optimism, and a desire not to offend, but to do the will of, a celestial Father who not only provides, but also forgives, sends a Redeemer, and loves beyond the strongest human love. Monsignor Escrivá had many simple yet deep ways of describing this spirituality, for example as that of 'contemplatives in the middle of the world', or a 'Christian materialism' (in a homily the evocative title of which is Passionately loving the world), or as having a 'priestly soul and a lay mentality', or 'finding God in little things', or as 'sanctifying work, sanctifying oneself in one's work, and sanctifying others through one's work.' Each of these phrases alone has sufficient richness and depth to deserve a whole book.

2.5 What Popes have said about Opus Dei

From its beginning in 1928, its founder, Father (now Venerable) Josemaría Escrivá obtained all necessary permissions, firstly from his local bishop in Madrid, and later from the Holy See. He always claimed his only desire was to serve the Church, abiding by its laws and obeying ecclesiastical authority.

Opus Dei's objective is admirably summed up by the following words of Pope John Paul II in 1979:

'Your institution has as its aim the sanctification of one's life, while remaining within the world at one's place of work and profession: to live the Gospel in the world, while living immersed in the world, but in order to transform it, and to redeem it with one's personal love for Christ. This is truly a great ideal, which right from the beginning has anticipated the theology of the lay state, which is a characteristic mark of the Church of the Council and after the Council.'

The aims of Opus Dei were given a first approval as a worldwide organisation by Pius XII in 1943. Successive approvals in 1947 and 1950 made it an institution of pontifical right in accordance with the legislation available at the time. All the Popes since then, at one time or other, have encouraged Opus Dei to continue in its mission, recognising it as indeed a 'Work of God', the outcome of divine inspiration and not merely of human effort and planning.

In an audience granted to Monsignor Escrivá on 27 June 1962, Pope John XXIII showed great interest in the apostolates of Opus Dei which by then had members from some fifty nationalities. He praised the desire of its members 'to serve the Church as the Church wants to be served', and their love for the Pope and for the bishops in communion with the Holy See.

The teaching of the Second Vatican Council (1962-5) included fundamental ideas on the sanctification of work and the apostolate of the laity, ideas which had been a constant teaching of the founder since the 1920s. It also provided the basis for a suitable juridical structure for Opus Dei, one which safeguarded its secular nature, while ensuring that its members remain ordinary faithful in the diocese, under the jurisdiction of the local bishop the same as the rest of the faithful.

Later (1 October 1964) Pope Paul VI, in an official letter to Monsignor Escrivá, described Opus Dei as a 'living expression of the perennial youthfulness of the Church.'

At the founder's death in 1975, many of the 1,300 bishops who asked the Pope to open the process of beatification of the founder used expressions similar to the words of Christ recorded in the Gospel: 'By their fruits you shall know them.' Although some did not know him personally, they still recognised his holiness simply by his contribution to the building up of the Church, and the help he gave to so many and so different people to improve their lives as Christians.

2.6 By divine inspiration

Opus Dei was established as a personal prelature by John Paul II on 28 November 1982. In the Apostolic Constitution Ut sit the Pope declared:

'With very great hope, the Church directs its attention and maternal care to Opus Dei, which -- by divine inspiration -- the Servant of God Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer founded in Madrid on 2 October 1928, so that it may always be an apt and effective instrument of the salvific mission which the Church carries out for the life of the world.'

The abundant fruit and service that Opus Dei has rendered the Church in some sixty years since its foundation could not be explained without the grace of God.

To understand what Opus Dei is and what its aims are, it is worth noting how the Church has defined it, and studying the founder's own words -- and he wrote extensively on the subject -- on what God was asking him to do.

From its beginnings, Opus Dei 'has in fact', Pope John Paul II says, 'striven, not only to illuminate with new lights the mission of the laity in the Church and in society, but also to put it into practice.' He also mentions two other characteristic aims: 'the teaching of the universal call to sanctity' and 'promoting at all levels of society the sanctification of ordinary work, and by means of ordinary work.' The Pope points out as well that 'through the Priestly Society of the Holy Cross', Opus Dei has helped diocesan priests to sanctify their work, 'in the exercise of their sacred ministry.'

2.7 The Prelature

It is to carry out this particular pastoral activity throughout the whole Church, in each diocese -- or local Church -- presided over by its local bishop, that the Pope established the personal prelature of Opus Dei, which is 'international in scope.' As an apostolic organisation it is made up of priests and laity, men and women, 'endowed with a unity of spirit, of aims, of governance and of formation.' The Opus Dei Prelature is an institution within the hierarchical structure of the Church established to provide a service to dioceses throughout the world. It is governed by its own statutes (called the 'Code of Law proper to Opus Dei') laid down by the Holy See, statutes that are in keeping with the theological characteristics which the founder envisaged and clearly outlined.

Opus Dei has its own priests (ordained exclusively from among its lay members) who are thus incardinated (as a diocesan priest is incardinated in his diocese) in the Prelature.

2.8 Unity with the local bishop

The lay members of the prelature continue to be under the jurisdiction of the local bishop in all that Church law lays down for all the faithful, just the same as other Catholics who are not members. Their vocation to Opus Dei in fact demands that they continue being ordinary, secular, lay people, without any juridical or canonical change of state. So, for example, on becoming members they do not take vows of any kind. The extra obligations they undertake, through a contractual link with the prelature, are in areas of free and responsible action of members of the Church, and fall beyond the jurisdiction of the local bishop over the faithful.

This aspect becomes clearer on examining the nature of these commitments and the content of this contractual link. The member, on his or her part, undertakes to seek holiness and to try to do apostolate following the spirituality of Opus Dei: that is, primarily in and through his or her daily work, while using prayer, the sacraments, self-denial, and an ongoing training in matters spiritual and doctrinal. The prelature, on its part, undertakes to provide this training and the spiritual support the member needs to fulfil these commitments, and the pastoral services of the prelature's priests. The contract is made simply on one's honour, as a Christian. (For further information on this area, see for example What is Opus Dei?)

With the formation and encouragement they receive from the prelature, lay members play their full part in the parish or diocese -- a fact often praised by ecclesiastical authorities. The fruit of their apostolic activity obviously remains in the diocese, helping to build up the local Church.

When writing on the occasion of the sixtieth anniversary of the founding of Opus Dei, Cardinal Poletti said:

'… as Vicar of the Holy Father for the Diocese of Rome, this joyful anniversary provides me with an occasion to express the debt owed to the Holy Spirit for all the fruits of personal sanctity, of new evangelization, of a constant and capillary catechesis among the people of God during these sixty years of Opus Dei.'

And Cardinal Sin of Manilla:

'I cannot but rejoice that a beloved institution of the Catholic Church, the Prelature of the Holy Cross and Opus Dei, has been working in the Archdiocese of Manila for more than twenty years.'

Also relevant on the topic of unity with the local bishop is something Archbishop Gaetano Alibrandi, Apostolic Nuncio in Ireland had to say:
'To the myopic, and often jaundiced, eyes of some self-styled liberal critics, the establishment of Opus Dei as a personal prelature seemed to be prejudicial to the diocesan jurisdiction of bishops. Nothing could be farther from the truth: Opus Dei, in its new legal situation as a personal prelature, maintains the respect for established ecclesiastical authority it always had, following the teaching of its holy founder.'

2.9 Priests

Special mention must be made of priests who are ordained from among the members, although they constitute less than two per cent of the total membership. They are incardinated in the prelature and constitute the 'presbyterium', or clergy, that the prelate has at his disposal to help carry out the specific pastoral tasks the Church entrusts to the prelature. They receive their priestly faculties from the prelate and come under his ordinary jurisdiction.

In addition there is a separate association for diocesan, secular clergy, the Priestly Society of the Holy Cross, founded in 1943, which allows diocesan priests to participate in, and benefit from, the spirituality and formational activities of Opus Dei, without becoming priests of the prelature, and without in any way weakening their jurisdictional dependence on, and obedience to, their bishop. On the contrary, the message of Opus Dei for them is that they should continue to seek holiness precisely in and through their diocesan, priestly work, in close union with their bishop. When in 1982 Opus Dei was established as a personal prelature it was specifically stated that 'The Priestly Society of the Holy Cross is erected as an Association of clergy intrinsically united to the Prelature.'

2.10 The same vocation for all

As the founder always maintained and as the statutes clearly affirm, that while different personal, family or professional circumstances of members render them more or less available for the work of apostolate and formation required of all members, this never means that there are different classes of membership: they all share the same vocation.

The Apostolic Constitution Ut sit also described Opus Dei as 'an apostolic organism made up of priests and laity, both men and women, which is at the same time organic and undivided.' The lay men and lay women of Opus Dei, each in their own social environment and in their own professional spheres, carry out their personal apostolate reaching out to areas priests would not normally reach. Lay people are often able to attract people to the Church, or pave theway for their return to the Church, by encouraging them again to take up the practice of their faith and the reception of the sacraments, or by facilitating their instruction in the faith.

Note that, in doing this apostolate, lay people, whether members of Opus Dei or not, are not acting as the 'long arm' of the clergy, nor do they need a mandate from the clergy before acting. Rather they are trying to live up to responsibilities which they, like the clergy and all the faithful, acquired at Baptism, when they joined the Church, and later had them confirmed at Confirmation. In the work of evangelisation, the role of lay people is clearly different from that of clergy (and of religious), but all alike share in the responsibility.

Added to this personal apostolic activity of the members there are also corporate apostolic undertakings -- technical institutes, schools, secretarial colleges, medical centres in rural areas, student residences, conference centres, youth clubs, and so on. These are mostly lay in character, run by the lay men and women of Opus Dei, with the help of friends and colleagues (lay people like themselves who may have no connection with Opus Dei other than their shared ideals). These undertakings are

'directed as professional activities by lay citizens who are the same as their colleagues at work; they are open to people of all classes and conditions; these centres have made many sectors of society appreciate the need to offer a Christian solution to problems which arise in the exercise of their profession or job.'

What mattered most to the founder of Opus Dei was that its members would become saints and be faithful to their apostolic vocation by sanctifying themselves in the fulfilment of their own jobs and duties, whatever these might be. It does not make sense to make status distinctions between blue or white collar workers, for example -- or, for that matter, between men and women -- when the central aim of members is holiness:: all the rest is circumstantial to this central aim, the one thing that really matters.

2.11 Secrecy?

The truth once known is simple. But because it takes time to know things intimately and thoroughly, it is easy to see why there are people who do not understand, or misunderstand, Opus Dei.

One mistaken view is that Opus Dei is 'secretive.' Monsignor Escrivá explained the origin of this myth which first arose when members of a well-known religious society
'insisted on considering us monks or friars, and asked, "Why don't they all think the same way? Why don't they wear a religious habit or at least a badge?", and came to the completely illogical conclusion that we were some sort of secret society.'

This was later taken up by the media and the description of Opus Dei as a 'secret society' has been in the top drawer of press files ever since. It would seem that any form of personal privacy, or perfectly justifiable and natural reluctance to broadcast to the world intimate, personal details, is to be labelled 'secretive.'

This confusion was more understandable in the context of the pre-Vatican II Church, when seeking sanctity was almost synonymous with 'leaving the world.' So on coming across Opus Dei, and on hearing talk about 'vocation' and 'striving for sanctity', people often assumed this was another religious order of some kind, and looked for the appropriate signs. On finding none, they assumed that members were hiding them! Curiously, despite all the talk about the universal call to holiness, the same mistake is still being made today.

As might be expected, Opus Dei does not publish the names of people who approach the Prelature for help in their spiritual lives. Any such action would of course be an unwarranted breach of privacy and confidentiality. Some have naively alleged that this makes Opus Dei a secret organisation. It would make as much sense for Opus Dei to publish a list of members as it would for the Diocese of Westminster, for example, to publish a list of all Catholics in the diocese. In any case, if non publication of membership lists makes asociety secret, then there are an enormous number of secret societies around, from building societies to trade unions, from schools to hospitals, from hobby clubs to charitable institutions. Misconceptions in this area arise from a confusion of two distinct concepts: secrecy and privacy.

Cardinal Heenan, Archbishop of Westminster, commented in 1975:

'One of the proofs of God's favour is to be a sign of contradiction. Almost all founders of societies in the Church have suffered. Monsignor Escrivá de Balaguer is no exception. Opus Dei has been attacked and its motives misunderstood. In this country and elsewhere an inquiry has always vindicated Opus Dei.' It would be good to mention briefly some of those 'misunderstood motives.'

2.12 Freedom

The formation, encouragement and support Opus Dei provides for its members have been interpreted on occasions as taking away their freedom. To anyone who believes in the beneficial influence of education, or of spiritual counselling, suggestions regarding so-called 'brain-washing', 'indoctrination', or 'rule by fear' are absurd.

No-one who has taken the trouble to investigate the matter can deny that members of Opus Dei are totally free to make up their own minds in professional matters and family affairs. This is perfectly compatible with the fact that, as conscientious Catholics, members' actions and opinions are influenced by the teaching of the Church on charity, justice, truthfulness, honesty, and so forth. This is the moral influence the prelature 'exerts', and nothing could be less sinister.

Another mistake, made by some authors who have claimed to 'investigate' Opus Dei as if it were an ideological or political movement, is to confuse relations established through work or through friendships with affiliation to Opus Dei. Time and again some cultural -- or even political or commercial -- activity in which a member of Opus Dei was involved, along with others who were not members, is made out to be run or sponsored by Opus Dei: but these activities are their own affair, not Opus Dei's. The same mistake has led others to invent a theory of an 'old-boy' network, arguing that there is concerted action by Opus Dei as a whole on the political or financial scene. The connections that might in some circumstances be established only show that individual members of Opus Dei, like everybody else, do meet up with people with whom they get along well and with whom they share certain beliefs. But to allege sinister intent requires proof which is simply not there, because the reality is otherwise.

Members generally have at least as strong a sense of freedom and personal responsibility as their colleagues. When Opus Dei has given them the spiritual help they need, its job is finished. From then on, as far as the prelature is concerned, members are on their own, as they make up their own mind in all professional, family, social, political and cultural matters, matters which the Church leaves open to the free decision of the faithful. Opus Dei does not get invovled, indeed cannot get involved. Even hostile ex-members agree that this is so, not just in theory, but also and always in practice.

2.13 Other aspects

With regard to finances, Opus Dei does not own the properties it uses for its apostolic undertakings. They belong to trusts or charitable companies, set up by members with others who share their ideals. They are financed by whatever rent or income is possible from the activity itself (hostel, school, hospital, or whatever), although invariably this is not enough and has to be further supported by contributions from members, and donations from private or public sources.

It has also been said that Opus Dei attracts a certain type of person; those who say this try to find a common ideological or psychological trait among its members. The human mind is fond of neat classifications and is always ready to pin labels. The universality of Opus Dei's appeal is illustrated by the fact that people from all cultural backgrounds, professions, trades, and interests are to be found among itsmembers. One common trait is, however, undeniable -- a sincere belief in Jesus Christ and a desire for faithful obedience to the teaching of his Church.

Finally, a few words to answer a number of loose remarks that are sometimes made on ideological grounds. Opus Dei began in Spain, the founder was Spanish, and the first members were from Spain. The deeply ingrained nationalism and prejudice of some people leads them to conclude that Opus Dei is 'not English', or 'not Irish', or foreign to English-speaking countries. When looked at carefully however, it can be seen that the deep Catholic spirit with which it is imbued has allowed it to spread to all kinds of environments and cultures. It is true that it is 'not English', but only in the sense that it is also 'not Spanish': it is not tied to any specifically national characteristic. From the moment it was founded it was, of its very nature, universal in spirit, and now it has also become universal in reality.