[Apologetics] Opus Dei Watching for Selection of Pope

[Art Kelly]

Opus Dei Watching for Selection of Pope 

Tuesday April 12, 2005 8:46 AM

By DANIEL WOOLLS 
Associated Press Writer 

MADRID, Spain (AP) - As cardinals prepare to elect a
new pope, one Catholic community in particular has
much at stake - Opus Dei, the ultraconservative
movement at the center of the furor generated by ``The
Da Vinci Code.'' 

Founded in Spain in 1928, the movement has more than
80,000 members worldwide, many of them lay people but
also hundreds of priests, bishops and even two
cardinals among those who will be casting votes in
Rome. 

Its mission, to give lay people a dynamic role in
spreading the word of God, enjoyed firm support from
John Paul II who championed the movement as a means of
confronting the secularization of society and
reinforcing his conservative doctrine. 

But Opus Dei - Latin for ``God's work'' - has also
been accused of secretive, cult-like practices,
brainwashing of members into blind devotion and murky
financial dealings. 

``There is obviously some concern over whether the
next pontiff will be open to something like Opus
Dei,'' said Anthony Figueiredo, a priest and professor
of theology at Seton Hall University near New York who
was once based at the Holy See. 

``I can be sure in this pre-conclave period, this is
one of the areas they are discussing,'' he said,
referring to the secretive gathering of cardinals that
begins Monday. 

Opus Dei is what is known as a ``personal prelature,''
which in practical terms means its leader, Monsignor
Javier Echevarria, does not answer to any diocese,
only to the pope himself. 

It plays a central role in Dan Brown's runaway
bestseller, which has provoked unprecedented protest
among Roman Catholic and Protestant conservatives.
``The Da Vinci Code'' depicts the movement as a
mysterious center of political and economic power that
tries to hide the historical truth on Jesus and Mary
Magdalene - namely, that they married and sired a
bloodline. An Opus Dei devotee commits the murder that
sets the plot in motion. 

Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, a former Vatican official
considered by some as pope material, has criticized
the book as espousing heresy and distorting the
origins of Christianity. 

Theologians in Spain and elsewhere say Opus Dei is
well ensconced in Rome and will probably emerge
unscathed from the conclave, although this is far from
certain. 

Figuereido said Opus Dei has ``enormous influence'' in
the Vatican through those cardinals and other
sympathetic clergy members who staff Vatican offices.
Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls is also a
member. But he has no guarantee of being reappointed. 

Nor do cardinals who held jobs as heads of Vatican
offices. They automatically lose their jobs with the
death of the pope, and it is up to the next one to
rename them or appoint someone else. 

``I can be sure that someone like the prelate of Opus
Dei is probably talking to his cardinals now who are
from Opus Dei,'' Figuereido said. Officials at Opus
Dei's office in Madrid declined to be interviewed for
this article. 

Juan Maria Laboa, a priest and Catholic church
historian in Madrid, said Opus Dei is so well
established the new pope might not be able to curb it
even if he wanted to. ``In the life of the church,
when a religious congregation is already very
established, popes clearly have their preferences but
they have a hard time influencing how it is run,''
said Laboa, a professor emeritus at Comillas
Pontifical University in Madrid. 

The two cardinals known to belong to Opus Dei are the
archbishop of Lima, Peru, Juan Luis Cipriani, and
Julian Herranz, a Spaniard based at the Vatican. 

Another cardinal, the archbishop of Milan, Dionigi
Tettamanzi, is known to be sympathetic to Opus Dei and
is a possible papal candidate, according to Figuereido
and Spanish theologian Enrique Miret Magdalena. 

Figuereido cited three reasons to watch Tettamanzi: he
played a prominent role at a bishops' meeting called a
synod that was dedicated to Europe and in 1993 he was
influential in the writing of a major papal encyclical
on morality that was called the Splendor of Truth. 

But most importantly, a few years ago John Paul II
transferred Tettamanzi from Genoa to Milan, one of the
world's largest Catholic diocese. And such a shift is
rare for a church leader who was already a cardinal,
Figueiredo said. 

``That is very significant,'' he said. ``He was almost
saying, 'this is my man.''' 


Art


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