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Opus Dei: The Work of
God?
by Nicole
Sotelo
Kim Schiel
remembers swimming with her Catholic friends during college and noticing a row
of scabs on the upper thigh of one of the females. This female was a
member of Opus Dei
, a Catholic organization that encouraged her to wear a cilice, or spiked
chain, around her thigh once a week to cultivate discipline and suffer like
Christ. Kim, now a mother and a family physician, says, "God gives us a
healthy body so we can respect it, not abuse it. There are plenty other
ways to cultivate discipline."
Although Kim
decided not to join Opus Dei, more than 80,000 other Catholics around the world
have committed themselves to this organization as a way to live out their faith
in Christ.
So what is Opus
Dei?
Opus Dei, Latin for "work of God," was founded
in 1928 by Josemaria Escriva de Balaguer. He believed that all
people are called to sainthood and crafted an organization to help lay Catholics
live out their faith. The organization's active members now number several
thousand in the United States.
Getting to know
you
It was not until I began divinity school at Harvard that I came to
encounter members of the 75 year-old organization. Two months ago, I
received an e-mail from a Harvard Catholic Student Association member announcing
that the first openly gay Orthodox rabbi was going to speak at Harvard. In response to this announcement,
Dan Tapia, a Harvard undergraduate student and member of Opus Dei, wrote to the
listserve:
By
understanding what the Church teaches,
and understanding it very well, we
are able
to be better Catholics…. This may be very hard
to do,
especially at Harvard, when it comes to
matters of homosexuality….
As a fellow
student at Harvard, I do not find it difficult to reconcile my Catholic identity
with my acceptance of the gay community since the catechism urges Catholics to
follow one's
conscience
when you disagree with Church
teachings. However, some students like Dan Tapia agree with the Church
teaching that homosexuality is "intrinsically disordered" and find support for
this view as members of Opus Dei.
Opus Dei
at Harvard
Some student members live at Elmbrook
Center, a house sponsored by Opus Dei that stands about
three blocks from campus. Harvard is just one of several prestigious
universities where Opus Dei has a strong presence. Other schools include
Brown, Columbia, Princeton, and Stanford. The organization's active
recruitment of Catholic laity from elite universities came under criticism in
two articles (article 1 and article
2)published in the Harvard Crimson
last April.
Kim Schiel, who was recruited during her college
years but left the organization, confirms that Opus Dei utilizes aggressive recruitment
practices at universities. She also said that Opus Dei "decided
where my friend was going to go to college based on where they needed more
recruiting power." However, despite these criticisms, some Catholics
believe that Opus Dei has a unique mission in the Church.
Your (lay ) mission…if you chose to
accept it
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| So how do I cultivate my lay
vocation? |
Opus Dei is just one
of many organizations that support young Catholics in their faith
journeys. Other organizations include:
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As a member of Opus Dei, you are encouraged to live out your lay vocation
as an active participant in Church and society. The organization's mission
"harnesses the great traditions of prayer and study of our Catholic faith and
shows lay people how to integrate a life of prayer and study with all sorts of
normal lay lifestyles and professions," says Bornwen McShea, a student at
Harvard Divinity School and a close friend of several Opus Dei members.
Similarly, Dan Tapia says he likes Opus Dei because
as an ordinary lay man he believes he may "become a saint through its
formation."
Oh when the saints go marching
in
So what is the harm in an organization whose
members strive for sainthood?
Some Catholics
who joined and later left Opus Dei believe that the organization
encourages practices that may be harmful to some of its members. ODAN, the Opus Dei Awareness
Network, was founded in 1991
to educate Catholics about Opus Dei and to support Opus Dei members who
have left the organization. This growing group of religious and laity
disagree with certain practices of Opus Dei including:
-
corporal
mortification -
aggressive recruitment,
-
undue pressure to join,
-
control of environment such as
giving their entire salaries to Opus Dei, having their
reading material monitored, and submitting their incoming
and outgoing mail to scrutiny by Opus Dei directors, -
and alienation
from families (according to ODAN website, www.ODAN.org).
Melissa Moschella, a Harvard teaching
fellow and Opus Dei member, asserts that she has not encountered many of ODAN's
concerns, such as alienation from family. In fact, she says that since
entering Opus Dei her "relationship with [her] parents is much closer
now." Additionally, she says her spiritual life has deepened from the
religious practices encouraged by Opus Dei. She devotes time to "mental
prayer each day, as well as daily Mass, the rosary, frequent confession,
spiritual direction, regular study of the Catholic faith and the Church's
teachings on morality, etc."
As a young woman in the
Church, I often wonder how I might deepen my own spiritual life. My path
does not include membership in Opus Dei, but I have found faith enrichment from
other Catholic organizations (see sidebar).
As Christians, we follow
in the footsteps of Jesus who
chose to live out his faith in a nontraditional manner to his Jewish
heritage. Like Christ, we must each decide for ourselves
how to live out our faith and hope that the path leads us to do the "opus dei,"
the work of God. However, whether or not our faith is lived out with the
actual organization "Opus Dei," is up to each of us.
More views on Opus Dei:
Nicole Sotelo writes from the Boston
area.
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