Rise of Opus Dei under Pope has liberals concerned over succession

[emad]

FT.com
By Tony Barber
Published: March 5 2005 02:00 | Last updated: March 5 2005 02:00

According to Roman Catholic Church rules, the choice of the next Pope will rest with the cardinals, currently numbering 118, who are under the age of 80 and who will hold a conclave in the Vatican's Sistine Chapel after John Paul II's death.

But some Church-watchers are asking to what extent the cardinals' decision will be guided by a conservative Catholic movement that has steadily increased its influence at the Vatican in the twilight years of John Paul's papacy.

Opus Dei, a movement founded in Spain in 1928, is often criticised by liberal Catholics for being secretive, elitist and tolerant of seemingly bizarre acts of physical self-punishment on the part of its devotees.

"One of the most powerful and reactionary organisations in the Roman Catholic Church today" is how Catholics For a Free Choice, a Washington-based liberal group, describes the organisation.
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/c80da488-8d1c-11d9-9d37-00000e2511c8.html

[lumpy]

1. Catholics should be concerned

about this reactionary bunch who believe it is absolutely necessary to abuse their bodies (self-flaggelate) in order to gain true spirituality. Sickos

[UTUSN]

2. Their Self-beating Would Be Fine, Their Sickness Is What They Do to Others

Think: SCALIA, NOVAKula, Laura INGRAHAM, the FBI spy-guy - all members. Notice how the FBI dude could go to stripper bars and INGRAHAM could have an affair with Asa HUTCHINSON while castigating CLINTON - while being members of this coven. She coverted later, about 3 yrs ago, but there is NO noticeable improvement in her hatefulness as a result of her newfound "spirituality".

Hmm: Good site:: "Catholics for a Free Choice" http://www.catholicsforchoice.org/lowbandwidth/grayblackjava4.htm

[Vladimir]

3. As is Britain's current education minister

Ruth Kelly is a member, which has raised concerns over her ability to implement the government's sex-education programmes effectively...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/religion/Story/0,2763,1400404,00.html

[skippythwndrdog]

4. If the Pope supports it, I have no problem with it.

John Paul II is a great and honorable man, and if he Canonized the founder of Opus Dei, there can't be much wrong with it. on edit, I just checked their website...seems like a fine organization to me. Perhaps I'll join the local Opus Dei at my church.

[Dorian Gray]

10. I don't think

that there are "local Opus Deis" at local churches.

I am Catholic. I am religious. I am also left on some social issue, but more conservative on others. I don't have a problem with the idea of Opus Dei and self-flagellation. But, I do not like how they target the wealthy and powerful to become members, and I do not like how they keep women and men separate in their "churches." (In NYC, they have separate entrances for men and women.)

I have very mixed emotions about Opus Dei. Conservatism is okay in small doses, but the more liberal orders are necessary in order to counter the possibly dangerous precedent that Opus Dei could pose to Catholicism.

[emad]

14. A church in Swiss Cottage, North London, has just had it's first

Opus Dei priest appointed.....

Locals in NW3 have voiced concerns that this is just a cover for a kinky sex club that was shut down in the 80s.....

[skippythwndrdog]

15. Where is this self-flagellation stuff?

I've not seen much on it, how do you know it is true?

[Misunderestimator]

16. There can't be much wrong with Opus Dei?!?

Do you always blindly believe things like that? That was a sarcastic
post, right?

[Mari333]

5. heh..well if the Catholic church is worried

about the thousands of enlightened parishioners leaving the church because of their misogynistic and archaic stance on so many things, they will lose even more people (especially women) if they go the Opus Dei route.
Even many of the nuns I know think Opus Dei is a crock..they roll their eyes at it..
Women wont put up with that. They can kiss their parishioners in the US goodbye.

[UTUSN]

6. Yep, I'm Googling for the Abuses of Founder ESCRIVA

So far this is the only thing, but there's more:
*******QUOTE*******

http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/lifestyle/chi-040204opusdei-story,1,1473148.story?ctrack=1&cset=true

Some critics alleged that Escriva's character faults made him ineligible for sainthood. An English priest, and former member, claimed that Opus Dei's founder told him Adolf Hitler had been "badly treated" because "he could never have killed 6 million Jews. It only could have been 4 million at most." Supporters say Escriva would not have said such a thing, and they note that a third of all Catholic bishops supported his candidacy for sainthood, which was proclaimed in 2002. ....

Some observers think the pope, a conservative, saw the movement as a useful ally in the church's version of the culture wars--the struggles between progressives and traditionalists ongoing since Vatican II.

Escriva sought recruits at Spain's universities, judging that there was a critical mass of alienated students put off by the secular atmosphere of modern education. His movement still follows that approach, proselytizing on college campuses and operating high schools, including two in the Chicago area. Opus Dei also runs charitable programs locally and nationally.

"They appeal to the idealism of youth," said William Dinges, a professor at Washington's Catholic University.

"What I didn't realize was that I was a target for recruitment," DiNicola said. "But when I joined, they said you should have 10 to 15 friends that you're working on. You had to fill out forms each month and have meetings to develop strategies to get them to join."

Maria del Carmen Tapia was Escriva's personal secretary and a regional director of Opus Dei in South America. In a memoir, "Beyond the Threshold: A Life in Opus Dei," she recalls an Escriva far different from the movement's reverential portrait. The "Founder," by her experience, was dictatorial and threw temper tantrums.

"I gradually realized that by isolating its members Opus Dei makes them overly dependent, even childish," Tapia wrote. "Similarly, its lack of ecumenical spirit makes its members inflexible in human relations."

********UNQUOTE*******

[UTUSN]

7. ESCRIVA Was a Flying Monkey for FRANCO

*******QUOTE*******

http://www.guardian.co.uk/spain/article/0,2763,805176,00.html

Escriva's ultra-conservative movement, which recruited many of its members from Spain's wealthy and powerful families, flourished under Franco and eventually provided ministers to his governments. ....

Recently published biographies of Escriva have produced conflicting visions of the new saint as either a loving, caring charismatic person or a mean-spirited, manipulative egoist.

Jesus Ynfante, author of the critical Founding Saint of Opus Dei, says that he was an unashamed fascist. "He had Madrid under his control, starting with the dictator. Under Franco the clerical fascism of Opus Dei won out over the true fascism of the Falange ," he wrote.

http://www.takeheed.net/Opus%20Dei.htm

http://www.odan.org/index.htm

The Opus Dei Awareness Network, Inc. (ODAN) was founded in 1991 to meet the growing demand for accurate information about Opus Dei and to provide education, outreach and support to people who have been adversely affected by Opus Dei.

ODAN challenges many of Opus Dei's Questionable Practices because of the way they affect an individual's personal freedom, choices and family life.

Since 1991, ODAN has been in contact with countless individuals, families, the secular and religious press, clergy, religious, cult awareness organizations, campus ministers, home-schooling parents and more.

ODAN is a worldwide community of people who have had painful experiences as a result of their association with Opus Dei.

********UNQUOTE*******

[UTUSN]

8. "Take down her panties & WHACK her on her behind"

*******QUOTE*******

http://www.takingfive.com/opus_dei_4.htm.

In May, Tapia was called in for having given a letter to a numerary, Gladys, to mail to a friend in Venezuela. Gladys was summoned, as well.

At the conclusion of Escriva’s tirade, she was dismissed, and he shouted to the directress: "After this, take that one (meaning Gladys), lift up her skirt, take down her panties, and whack her on the behind until she talks. MAKE HER TALK".

To Tapia, he shouted, "You’re a wicked woman, sleazy, scum!"

After months of interrogations and solitary confinement, Monsignor Escriva summoned Tapia for the latest insult: "Either you request your release or bring dishonor to everyone, including yourself. There is no other solution for you but the street! Out!"

She was instructed to write a letter to Escriva saying that she had been happy in Opus Dei, but now felt unable to live the life of the Work.

********UNQUOTE*******

[UTUSN]

9. "God has nothing to do with Opus Dei"

from the same link:

*********QUOTE*******
On the morning Tapia left, she appeared before Escriva for the last time, who told her that if she spoke out against Opus Dei, he would publicly disgrace her and her family on the front page of every newspaper.

Throughout the community, the founder’s temper tantrums were both known and feared, but nothing could have prepared Tapia for his final slanderous abuse: "You’re wicked! Wicked! Indecent! Hear me well. Whore! Sow!"

Tapia was paralyzed, as if in a nightmare, though in her mind, while Escriva was shouting, she said she thought of Jesus, silent before his accusers, and that God had liberated her.

Later, when she went to confession to a Dominican priest, he asked her, "May I ask you one question? How do you go on believing in God?"

Tapia answered, "Because God has nothing to do with Opus Dei.

*********UNQUOTE********

[UTUSN]

11. JP Called Legion's MACIEL "efficatious guide to youth" -Could He Be WRONG?

*******QUOTE*******

http://www.takingfive.com/defrockLegion.htm

Why hasn't Legion founder been defrocked?

By Ruth Bertels

In the last month or so, on a Friday evening, Peter Jennings presented a documentary of the Legionaires of Christ's founder, Rev. Marciel Maciel Degollado, who had been accused of sexually abusing nine men when they were young seminarians.

There, in living color, was Maciel, garbed in beautiful and costly vestments, at the altar in St. Peter's, exchanging the kiss of peace with Pope John Paul II. ....

Like Opus Dei, though on a more modest scale, the Legion of Christ is a wealthy, highly conservative religious order with special allegiance to the pope, who has praised the leader "as an efficacious guide to youth."

The men accusing Maciel say that the crimes began when they were young boys or teenagers, between the ages of 10 and 16: At times, Maciel would tell the boys that he had permission from Pope Pius XII to engage in sexual acts with them in order to gain relief from pain related to an unspecified stomach ailment.

********UNQUOTE*******

[UTUSN]

12. Am Quitting Now. Need to Take a Shower. n/t

[emad]

13. Opus Dei: just an excuse for kinky sex or sinister political cult?

"According to one Church-watcher, it is also noteworthy that the prelate who will be the most powerful figure in the Vatican between John Paul's death and the election of his successor has connections to Opus Dei. He is Cardinal Eduardo Martinez Somalo, the Vatican's Spanish-born "camerlengo", or chamberlain.

The cardinal, whose nephew is an Opus Dei priest, will have the responsibility of administering the Holy See's money and property until the next Pope is elected.

He will also arrange John Paul's funeral and prepare the conclave.

Some Catholic academics in Rome caution against reading too much into Opus Dei's influence at the Vatican. The outcome of conclaves, they emphasise, is all but impossible to predict, and Opus Dei is not especially powerful in the Italian Church, which will provide 20 of the 118 cardinal-electors."

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/c80da488-8d1c-11d9-9d37-00000e2511c8.html

[DeepModem Mom]

17. kick

[UTUSN]

18. Well, One Good Kick Deservves Another n/t