OPUS DEI:

A STRANGE PASTORAL PHENOMENON

In this exclusive English translation of an article appearing in Le Sel de la Terre (No. 11), Nicolas Dehan probes the organization
referred to as Opus Dei and its beatified founder, Josemaria Escriva de Balaguer. This dossier concludes with a response from
the Opus Dei, Mr. Dehan’s counter-response, and a commentary regarding the approbation of Opus Dei by the Catholic Church.
Translated by Suzanne Rini.

AVAILABLE AS AN ANGELUS PRESS REPRINT >

On May 17, 1992, a grandiose ceremony in St. Peter’s Square in

Rome revealed to, and thrust upon the world a man’s name and
that of his work, both up until then relatively unknown to the WHO WAS FR.
general public. VALLET?

In the presence of 46 cardinals, 300 bishops and 300,000 In the 1920’s, the
pilgrims, John Paul II celebrated the Mass of beatification of Jesuit priest, Fr.
Josemarie Escriva de Balaguer, founder of the Opus Dei. François de Paule
Vallet (1883-1947),
having discovered the
For over sixty years, "God’s Work" has labored very discreetly, power of conversion
so much so that some of its opponents —and it does have some possible through the
—have defined it as clerical Freemasonry. 30-day Ignatian
Exercises, made them
Josemaria Escriva, who died in 1975, hurtled over the various available to more
stages of the beatification process and was pushed up to the people, especially laity,
altar with amazing speed: 17 years. Certainly, the media seized by condensing them
upon this sensational aspect of the event, so rarely seen in into a 5-day format. In
Church history. For instance, think of the time it took —170 years 1928, Fr. Vallet
—to define the heroic virtue of an authentic popular apostle like founded the Parochial
Louis-Marie Grignon de Montfort. Co-operators of Christ
the King with the
Thus, logic based on Church history prompts attempting to express purpose of
discover a reason justifying the urgency surrounding the presenting this
introduction of Msgr. Escriva’s beatification process, and its abbreviated form of the
acceleration. His cause was opened in 1981, six years after his Exercises to laity, who
death. for reasons of time,
money, and physical
During the years of the process, the Opus Dei, which has no and mental capacity
media antennae of its own, and conforming to its principle of found the 30-day
discretion, reached its affiliates in the intellectual and regimen too difficult.
professional classes through an annual Information Bulletin, The 5-day retreat was
addressed to select cadres. This private publication exalted the an "adaptation to
Spanish priest’s deep interior life and his apostolate; it reviewed modern man" while still
and commented on his written and social work; it informed preserving the
readers of the progress of his cause in the Roman Curia; and masterpieces of the
gave a brief overview of the Opus Dei’s expressions and its original 30-day format.
international activities. Although not much, this was enough to
get and keep the attention of the Bulletin’s readers, who might be The Cooperators’
curious about, or interested in, restoring the social order upon apostolate went
spiritual foundations. Nothing written in this publication, a priori, international, and in
arouses any suspicion of an orientation deviating from the France and Spain
traditional teaching of the Church. Thus, the reader faithful to spawned "La Cité
Church teaching remains trusting. Catholique," a network

The same Bulletin also serves as a remembrance for those who

knew the apostolate and work, some decades ago, of another
Spanish priest, Rev. Fr. Vallet.
of lay cells in France
and Spain which
Information on the Opus Dei leads to comparing the two works, studied Catholic
as well to deducing two facts: doctrine and worked
practically to restore
1. an obvious similarity in style of apostolate of Rev. Fr. Christ as King over
Vallet’s work, founded in 1922, and that of Fr. Escriva in society. (Some 5,000
1928. former retreatents died
2. a coincidence of the dates of the suppression of Fr. fighting for a Catholic
Vallet’s work, his expulsion from Spain at the hierarchy’s Spain against the
order, and the birth of Fr. Escriva’s work only a few Communists in the
weeks later during the same year, and supported by the Spanish Civil War,
same hierarchy. 1936-39).

The grand silence maintained by the Church on the missionary Edited from Issue Nos.
and social work of Jesuit Fr. François de Paule Vallet and, over 44, 55 of the Verbum.
these many years, the great amount of discretion enveloping Fr. (the monthly bulletin of
Josemaria Escriva’s work, is enough to whet the curiosity, to the SSPX’s St. Thomas
incite lifting the veil by investigating all documentation on these Aquinas Seminary in
works. Let us begin with what the Conciliar Church today exalts: Winona, MN)

Historical
HE "SAW" OPUS DEI
The history of the Opus Dei has been investigated for several
But what did God want? Spanish, Italian, German and French studies. We shall begin
On October 2, 1928, he our investigation with the first French work aimed at the public,
(Msgr. Escriva —Ed.) written by an Opus Dei member, recommended by its
1
was pondering that Information Bulletin, and titled The Opus Dei. The author,
question as he’d often Dominique Le Tourneau, who has a Ph.D. in canon law and a
done, while making a degree in economics, paints a 120-page, complimentary portrait
retreat in Madrid. of the Founder and an idealized exposé of the spirituality of The
Suddenly, while bells Work. It is an account without warts of the Opus Dei’s work and
pealed in the nearby its ensuing fruits. The book was given the Nihil obstat and
church of Our Lady of Imprimatur of the Archdiocese of Paris.
the Angels, it became
clear: God made him The first chapter is devoted to the background and life of
see (emphasis in Josemaria Escriva, the founder: born in 1902 in Barbastro
original —Ed.) Opus (Aragon, Spain), he is revealed as having been a precociously
Dei. pious, as well as a sweet and generous person who, at sixteen,
abandoned the idea of becoming an architect to enter the
An institution which, as seminary. In 1922, the Archbishop of Zaragoza, Spain, named
he put it, was to "tell him superior of the seminary; he was 20 years old. At 23, he
men and women of was ordained a priest. In 1927, in Madrid, he prepared for a
every country and of doctorate in civil law, all the while plunging himself into intense,
every condition, race, charitable work among the sick, the poor, and abandoned
language, milieu, and children. While on retreat in 1928,
state of life...that they
can love and serve God Fr. Escriva "saw" —that is the term he later used —what God
without giving up their expected of him. He saw that Our Lord was asking him to
ordinary work, their devote all of his energy to accomplishing what was to become
family life, and their Opus Dei, to urge men in all works of life —beginning with
normal social relations." university people so as afterwards they could reach all men —
to respond to a specific vocation to seek holiness and carry out
Taken from Ordinary apostolates in the world’s midst, through the exercise of their
2
profession or skills, without any change in state.
 Christians in the World.
What is Opus Dei?
(p.2.)

Fr. Escriva was only 26 years old when The Work was created. He was long on desire for action,
short on experience, but: "Fully aware of the Opus’ spirit, aims, means and ends, the Bishop of
3
Madrid had encouraged the Founder from the beginning, and had blessed his work." This is the
same bishop who, later, in June 1944, would ordain The Work’s first three priests, all of whom
had been lay members of the Opus Dei. Fr. Escriva’s disciples say he was "inspired by God";
others thought he was "mandated by the hierarchy." Father preached retreats, recruited
members, and organized his Work. He chose his priests for The Work from the ranks of his
disciples. He spoke of having clearly seen, while celebrating Mass on February 14, 1943, the
canonical solution: the ordination of lay members of the Opus. At that moment, "The sacerdotal
society of the Holy Cross was born, representing in the Church a new pastoral and juridical
4
phenomenon, the ordination of men with university degrees and engaged in a profession..."

In 1946, Fr. Escriva moved to Rome, was appointed a domestic Prelate by His Holiness in 1947,
and received various appointments: member of the Pontifical Academy of Theology; consultor to
the Congregation of Seminaries, etc. He toured the world, preached his doctrine, "sanctity
through work," and died suddenly, in Rome, on June 26, 1975.

5
Through reading issues of the Information Bulletin, the reader develops an unsuspicious belief in
the Opus, since each issue reports on the impressive record of the worldwide dissemination of
"Msgr. Escriva’s doctrine," particularly through Camino (The Way), his only work published during
his lifetime. First published in Valencia, Spain, in 1934, Camino is the Opus Dei’s veritable rule.
Under the title, Consideraciones, the first edition of The Way appeared in 1934. Since then, 250
editions have been published in 39 languages, with sales of nearly four million copies.

Opus Dei’s Spirituality: Sanctification Through Work

On October 2, 1928, Fr. Escriva de Balaguer knew the will of HISTORY OF OPUS DEI
God in all its implications.... The light received was not a
general inspiration, but a precise illumination; he knew from Josemaria Escriva de
the outset that The Work was not a human one, but a great Balaguer was born in
supernatural undertaking; ...the founder was able to describe Barbastro, Spain, on
it, presenting its total newness: all men are called to holiness January 9,1902, son of a
and to apostolate, "without leaving the world, on the condition cloth merchant and a
that they supernaturalize, above all, the temporal realities in pious housewife. He was
which they are immersed: professional work, family and social ordained to the priesthood
6 in Zaragoza on March 28,
responsibilities."
1925.
If this proposition is not false, it is essential to know how to
interpret this phrase: "provided that he supernaturalize the On October 2, 1928, in
temporal realities above all." Madrid, Father Escriva
founded the first Opus Dei
"What took shape was a veritable pastoral phenomenon," institute, inaugurating a
writes Dominique Le Tourneau. In the 1920’s, the wind was women’s branch on
favorable to novelties, echoes of which were found at all February 14, 1930, also in
ecclesiastical levels. In the beginning of the century, Madrid.
modernism was condemned but not neutralized. Taking
refuge in clandestinity, it flourished, fostering a climate of In 1939 the first edition of
return to novelties, or of a favorable reception to them: Camino (The Way) was
liturgical change, pastoral novelties, the marriage of the published, setting forth
Church and the world.
The Opus Dei Refutes Ten Centuries of Tradition
Escriva’s 999 maxims to
One of the next chapter’s subheadings, "The religious serve as a guide for Opus
concept," is instructive: Dei members. On May 24,
1941, the Archbishop of
In the lives of the early Christians, work was not seen as Madrid, Leopoldo Eijo y
something "good in itself" and, above all, was considered an Garay, publicly defended
ascetic means for combating pride...Among the Fathers of the Opus Dei against
Church, St. John Chrysostom, who paid great attention to accusations of secrecy
work, was the last prominent Churchman to speak of the from some sectors in the
sanctification of the ordinary life in the same terms as Vatican Spanish Church.
II. After him, one gets the impression that the ordinary
Christian is not called to fully live the Gospel. This prevailed The Priestly Society of the
up to the fifth century; regarding apostolate, it does not seem Holy Cross, the
to have been part of the Christian’s obligations. In the Rule of association for lay
St. Benedict, it is more the monastery than the monk who affiliates of Opus Dei who
7
carries out apostolate.(!) aspired to the Opus Dei
priesthood, was founded
After this quotation, which inspires amazement and on February 14, 1943. On
uneasiness, the author outlines the horizon where he wishes June 25, 1944, the first
to lead the reader: ordinations of Opus Dei
priests took place.
The appearance of the mendicant orders brought with it an
emphasis on preaching, with preacher-monks traveling from Escriva came to Rome on
city to city. This did not imply any affirmation of the value of June 23, 1946, returning
professional work. On the contrary, above all, it seems to have to Madrid in August with
increased the distance from it ...The theologians of the Holy See encouragement
mendicant orders did not reflect much upon the fundamental for his initiatives. Pope
dimension of work; they affirmed the non-obligatory character Pius Xll’s promulgation
of manual work. St. Thomas presents the secular occupations Provida Mater Ecclesia
as an obstacle to contemplation. St. Bonaventure and others (February 2, 1947) gave
express a similar opinion. juridical status to secular
institutes such as Opus
Some other institutions more directly present in the world Dei. Finally on June 16,
(military orders and medieval guilds) furnished scant ascetic 1950, Opus Dei received
and doctrinal preparation favorable to an awareness of the its definitive approval from
need to sanctify work. the Holy See. The
organization became the
Over the course of subsequent centuries, attention was first secular institute
deflected from work. The author of The Imitation of Jesus approved directly by the
Christ judged work even more negatively than had the Desert Pope and took on the title
Fathers. But the polarity that they erected between work and "Priestly Society of the
pride underwent a basic distortion in that work was seen as a Holy Cross and Opus
constraint upon the effort implied in the ascetic struggle. This Dei." In 1962, Father
8 Escriva pleaded in vain
is the conception of Cisneros in his Exercitatorio and of St.
Ignatius Loyola in his Spiritual Exercises.
9 with Pope John XXIII to
grant Opus Dei a different
status from other secular
The Opus Dei: Liberalism’s New Antenna
institutes, which were
answerable to the
After having disposed of the Church’s tradition, the Opus Dei Congregation for
prudently sets forth its doctrine’s spirit: The Opus Dei’s Religious and Secular
theologian’s following quotation sums it up: Institutes. A few years
later, Pope Paul Vl also
A certain positive evolution was begun during the set aside the request,
10
Renaissance by some men like Thomas More and saying the time to grant it
11
Erasmus (...) However, the Catholic theology of the
12
Renaissance and of the Baroque eras were in part
contaminated by the ideas of an aristocracy which, by way of
a narrow and badly founded moralism, held manual labor in
contempt...
13 had not yet come.

Comparing the religious vocation in the traditional orders to Escriva passed away on
the Opus’ vocation, the author quotes the founder: June 26, 1975, and on
May 12, 1981, the process
for his beatification was
initiated.

In spite of the opposition

of a large part of the
Catholic clergy and a
majority of the Spanish
bishops (55 of 56), the
Vatican announced on
August 23,1982 that Pope
John Paul had decided to
grant the status of
Personal Prelature to
Opus Dei.

Taken from 30 Days,

June-July 1995.

The path of the religious vocation seems to me blessed and necessary in the Church, but it is not
mine, nor that of the members of the Work. One can say of all of those coming to the Work that
14
each and every one of them has done so on the express condition of not changing his state.

To be more precise, and using progressivism’s now official vocabulary:

The basic difference between the two can be expressed as movements in opposite directions.
One answers [the call to vocation] from outside the world and moves toward it, bringing its
presence toward it. This is the evolution of the religious state. The other is a "being in the world";
it starts from being of the world. Such is the Opus Dei’s secular spirituality....This is what made
Card. Luciani, the future Pope John Paul I, say that while St. Francis de Sales proposed a
15
spirituality for lay people, Msgr. Escriva proposes a new lay spirituality.

Dominique Le Tourneau remains imprecise as to the Opus’ spirituality, declared unambiguously

16
lay by the transitory Pope. A thirty-page Spanish study, written by one Juan Morales, very
usefully completes the documents already studied here. The author bases his critique on seven
17
works, all published by Rialp, the Opus’ publishing house in Madrid. In his introduction, he does
not hesitate to write that the Opus Dei is "a real Trojan horse at the heart of the Church." Through
sections taken from texts written by Opus Dei members, and the quotations by Fr. Escriva cited
by the authors themselves, Morales demonstrates that the latter had the lay spirit to such an
extent that he based some of his proposals on a fundamentally anticlerical mentality.

Morales quotes from Peter Berglar’s book, Opus Dei: "Escriva was happy when his first three
18
priests were ordained, but he was also very sad that they did not remain laymen."

He also quotes Salvador Bernal in Monsignor Escriva de Balaguer: "For us, the priesthood is a
circumstance, an accident, because at the heart of The Work, the vocation of priests and that of
19
the laity is the same." As well, he says, "[As to] the way that apostolic works are organized by
the Opus Dei..., these are planned and governed from a lay mentality;...by so doing, they are not
20
confessional."
Juan Morales reports the work of another Opus Dei author, Ana Sastre, in Tiempo de caminar,
who, speaking of the Opus Dei’s characteristics, writes, "The climate of secularism and of
personal initiative resulted in the Founder having been accused of being a progressive, a heretic
21
and crazy."

Vasquez de la Prada, in El fundator del Opus Dei, says the same thing, recognizing that the spirit
of the Opus Dei formerly qualified as being innovative and heretical, but is today ratified by
Vatican II. He writes:

His [Escriva’s] collaborator and successor —Msgr. Alvaro del Portillo —[recently deceased —
English Ed.] —who is faithful to the Council, and who contributed to its development, made this
comment, "On many occasions during the approval of conciliar documents, legitimizing them
while speaking with the founder of the Opus Dei, I repeated to him: ‘Congratulations: Because
what is in your soul, and what you have unfailingly taught since 1929 has been solemnly
22
proclaimed by the magisterium of the Church....’"

Vasquez adds: "This doctrine which thirty years ago would have been considered to be folly and
heresy has been invested with official solemnity."

This is an unvarnished admission of the upheaval of the Church’s traditional doctrine. The Opus’
new doctrine was ratified yesterday by the Council and glorified today by the beatification.
Because we are not fools, [we must say that] the beatification is the integration of Opus’
principles into the conciliar Church’s doctrine.

Opus members know, and have no compunction about this destruction of Tradition. In the book,
Estudios sobre camino [Studies on The Way —Ed.], in a chapter titled, "A Silent Revolution,"
José Miguel Ceja makes this comment:

The novelty of the teachings of Msgr. Escriva consisted not only in being a new way of making an
apostolic task practical, this being more or less similar to what, in previous times, the Church
undertook through the concept and praxis of apostolate..., [Rather], The Way represented a quasi
23
—and even non-quasi —scandalous novelty.

On the Way of Fantasy, Utopia and Heresy

Ordinary Christians
By this subtitle we allude to Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange’s judgment
in the World. What
on the "new theology."
does the Opus Dei
say about itself?
Let us return to the work of Le Tourneau.
While Opus Dei is
people far more than it In the paragraph discussing the Opus’ "great principles" on the
is institutions, there sanctification of work, the author cites Msgr. Escriva: "‘In effect,
are a certain number for us, work is a specific means of sanctity. Our interior life —
of institutions contemplative amid the street —finds its source and impetus in
conducted by this external life of each one’s work.’ Msgr. Escriva
members on their own demonstrates the latchkey of the passage in Genesis (2:15)
initiative, which in one where it is written that man was created ut operaretur, in order
24
way or another to work."
embody the spirit and
purpose of the Yet another novelty! This interpretation of the Bible is not the
organization. Church’s. Dom Calmet, Crampon, and nearly all of the exegetes
translate this verse 15 from Chapter 2 of Genesis thusly: "The
Although these Lord God took man and placed him in the Garden of Delights to
institutions – cultivate and take care of it." Not, God "created man in order to
universities, schools, work," but "to know Him, to love Him, to serve Him and thus to
obtain happiness in heaven," as the catechism has always
taught. Throughout the centuries, the various religious orders
 and spiritualities within the Church have pursued this singular
goal through different means. Certainly, work was one, but
study centers, student without it ever having been erected into an absolute value, as is
residences, attempted throughout the 130 pages of its codification by the
conference centers, Opus Dei:
and professional or
vocational training
Professional work becomes the pivot on which the entire task of
institutes of various
kinds –have an sanctification turns. This is what led the Founder of the Opus to
apostolic purpose, sum up life on earth by saying that: it is necessary to sanctify
they are not officially work, to sanctify oneself in one’s work, and to sanctify others
25
‘Catholic,’ since through one’s work.
members of Opus Dei
conduct them on their Dominique Le Tourneau does his best to demonstrate that the
own and in universal way to health and holiness is the Opus’ discovery and
collaboration with prerogative:
others who are not
only not members of Holiness cannot be reserved to a privileged few, neither to those
Opus Dei but, in many who have received the priesthood, nor to those whose religious
cases, not even profession sets them apart from the world. The message of
Catholics. Opus Dei Opus Dei’s founder demonstrates itself to be much more
itself takes optimistic and open. And when it was proclaimed, it was seen
responsibility only for as being even revolutionary: All men...can and ought to seek
the spiritual and holiness, as the Second Vatican Council affirmed thirty years
26
doctrinal aspects of later.
the programs of these
institutions, not for Did we have to wait for Fr. Escriva and Vatican II to proclaim
their practical and that holiness is not reserved to the privileged few? This is the
professional constant preaching of the Church, Tradition, missionaries and
management.... preachers. This was what the founders of the various works of
Catholic Action proposed long before the world snatched them
In addition to the up. Well before 1928, in order to facilitate and make
members of Opus Dei sanctification available to all, Rev. Fr. Vallet, faithful to papal
and the priests teaching, was preaching the necessity of the social royalty of
associated with the Our Lord Jesus Christ, otherwise called the Christian social
Priestly Society of the order.
Holy Cross, there are
also ‘Cooper-ators’ The counsel to search for sanctity is nothing revolutionary, it is
who help through their perfectly traditional in Christianity. What is revolutionary is the
prayers, work, and modernist spirit which the Opus provokes by infiltrating
financial assistance. In societies, as we shall go on to verify, in order to create a lay
return, they benefit mentality, completely contrary to the social kingship of Our Lord
from the prayers of Jesus Christ, a mentality which is effectively that of the Second
members and other Vatican Council.
spiritual helps. If they
wish, they can
In a chapter on freedom, pluralism, and understanding others’
participate in various
opinions, Msgr. Escriva says: "With our blessed liberty, the
spiritual and
Opus Dei can never be, in any country’s political life, a type of
educational activities.
political party. There is a place —and there will always be a
Non-Catholics as well
place —in the Opus Dei for all of the viewpoints allowed by a
as Catholics can be 27
Christian conscience."
Cooperators. (Opus
Dei was the first
Church institution to In the above, there are two questionable, debatable points
have non-Catholic which are illusionary, utopian and mistaken:
Cooperators.)
1. "The Opus Dei is not a type of political party." Yes, it is!
(Taken from Ordinary And we shall eventually prove it here.
2. "...all of the viewpoints allowed by a Christian

Christians in the World. What
is Opus Dei? pp. 12, 14.
Available from: 99 Overlook
Circle, New Rochelle, NY
10804)
The houses of Opus
Dei are inter-
confessional
residences where
‘students of all
religions and
ideologies live.’
(Conversaciones con Msgr.
Escriva de Balaguer,
Conversations with Msgr.
Escriva de Balaguer, Rialp,
p.117).
The affirmation of
pluralism for Catholics
in the first years of the
Opus was an
incomprehensible
novelty to many,
because they had
been formed in a
totally opposite
direction. (Ibid., p.311).
The Work was the first
association of the
Church which opened
its arms fraternally to
all men, without a
distinction as to their
creed or confession"
(Tiempo de Caminas, Ana
Sastre, Rialp, p.610).
These are not only
words: our Work is the
first organization to
have authorization
from the Holy See to
admit non-Catholics,
Christians or not. I
have always taken the
defense of liberty of
conscience.
(Conversaciones, p.296).
It is only after many
years and with the
debut of the
ecumenical trend that
this audacious step,
which would have
conscience."
Since conscience has been lately defined by natural morality as
the "interior sentiment by which man gives witness to himself as
to the good and evil that he does" (Larousse), the winds of
liberalism have completely deformed this ethic beyond
recognition. Conscience, still claiming to be Christian, seduced
by the world, arrives at its aggiornamento: it is now elastic and
permissive. It allows today what was inadmissible yesterday.
Examples abound. Thus, the Opus puts Christian conscience on
a very long leash by allowing those with every viewpoint, of all
religions, and even non-believers in its ranks, and above all, in
its "corporate apostolic activities."
Le Tourneau states:
For the Founder, the Catholic solution to various problems in the
world does not exist.
All solutions will be Christian if they respect natural law and
Gospel teaching. He therefore does not put the emphasis on the
materiality of the solution, but on the spirit which should inspire
it.
28
These sentences are laden with meaning, power, and
destruction. It is necessary to stop here. The Catholic solution is
cast aside. Thus the door is open to every solution, all vaguely
tinged with ecumenical religiosity.
Meanwhile, pontifical documents reveal the solution to the social
question, to the problems of work, to the social order, all of
which were in circulation during the first years of the Opus Dei.
The encyclicals Mens Nostra (12/20/1929) and Quadragesimo
Anno (05/15/1931) are specific enough. The solution is Catholic.
For example, Pope Pius XI declares that the Spiritual Exercises,
in conjunction with retreats, are proper means for resolving the
social question: "We have declared these to be very useful for
all laymen, for workers.... In this school of the spirit is formed,
through the love of the heart of Jesus, not only excellent
29
Christians, but true apostles for all states of life."
Let us again ask: Why, at the time of these clear pontifical
directives, was Fr. Vallet’s work destroyed, especially since it
conformed to this teaching? The internal disintegration of the
Church had begun. The modernists installed in the Curia
successfully surrounded and beat down St. Pius X’s faithful
heirs, who were the artisans of the social kingship of Our Lord
Jesus Christ.
Rev. Fr. Vallet was among these faithful heirs and his work was
an excellent means for "restoring all things in Christ."
Fr. de Balaguer’s fledgling work took a totally other direction
through its being pushed and protected by Msgr. Eijo y Garay.
We find this direction defined in our reference work’s Chapter
IV, where its nature is presented in paragraph four, under the
heading, "Corporate works of apostolate" :
 caused so much
incomprehension, took
place naturally in
contemporary history.
(El Fundador del Opus Dei,
The Founder of Opus Dei,
Andres Vasquez de Prado,
Rialp, p.235).

[The apostolate of its own members is primarily] a personal apostolate of friendship and trust.
Nevertheless, members of the Opus, joining with their friends, who may be non-Catholics or even
non-Christians, sometimes set up corporate works of apostolate. These are always professional
and civil in character, radiate a Christian spirit, and contribute to the resolution of contemporary
world problems. In any case, these works are not ever official works, nor even officially
30
Catholic...[T]hey are carried out and directed with a lay mentality.

This is aberrant! It is the very apostolic mentality condemned by Popes Pius X, Pius XI, and Pius
XII.

"Moreover," continues Le Tourneau, "these activities are open to men and women of all
backgrounds, without discrimination against their social status, race, religion or ideology. This
also applies to The Work’s benefactors, as well as to its administrative personnel.... It is in co-
31
existence that the person is formed."

This professional and civil character between people of different religions and ideologies, with the
same skills or same business, or in the same association, resembles an organization based on
similar interests, such as a sports club, a theater troop, but in no way resembles an apostolic
work. It is truly a tissue of contradictions; it is to desacralize apostolate, it is apostolate’s negation,
as well as the negation of the propagation of the faith, whose mission is conversion; it is to
pervert the very sense of the word apostolate.

In Conversations with Msgr. Escriva de Balaguer, one is not astonished to read: "Long live
32
students of all religions and all ideologies." In the same document, he says, "Pluralism is not to
be feared but loved as a legitimate consequence of personal freedom."

This passion for freedom prompted Escriva to make some of the Opus’ residences
interconfessional. Thus freedom comes before the truth. The truth is an obstacle. Escriva is really
the precursor, the inspiration and doctor of the new world order, whose working model we saw at
Assisi.

The Opus Dei is a contemporary modernist manifestation, and, as such, falls exactly under the
sentence pronounced against modernism and reiterated by the magisterium, particularly by St.
Pius X’s Encyclical, Pascendi Dominici Gregis, promulgated on September 8, 1907 and, more
precisely, by his August 25, 1910 Letter on the Sillon, condemning these utopias:

At once alarming and saddening are the audacity and the shallowness of spirit of men who call
themselves Catholic, who dream of reshaping society ...with workers coming from everywhere, of
all religions or without any, with or without beliefs, provided only that they forego whatever divides
them.... The Church, which has never betrayed the happiness of the people by making
compromising alliances, has no need to free herself from the past; all that is needed is to take up
again, with the help of the social restoration’s true workers, the organisms shattered by the
Revolution and to adapt them, in the same Christian spirit that inspired them, to the new milieu
created by the material development of contemporary society. For the true friends of the people
are neither revolutionaries nor innovators, but traditionalists.
There are numerous Opus Dei texts that are similar to those of The Sillon. Here then are some
examples from our reliable authors:

De Berglar: "When in 1950 the founder finally obtained permission from the Holy See to admit
non-Catholics and non-Christians into the work, as ‘cooperators,’ the spiritual family of the Opus
33
Dei was complete."

De Vasquez: "It was something unheard of in the pastoral history of the Church, it was to tear out
the locks and to throw open the doors, integrating the souls of protestant, schismatic, Jewish,
34
Muslim and pagan benefactors."

Berglar, Vasquez, Sastre and others give details regarding the very friendly relations between
Escriva and these cooperators from other religions, who were very good financial brokers for The
Work; it was already an active and political ecumenism. Essentially, and in all areas, Escriva was
a precursor.

This is the mentality and conduct which Pius XI condemned in his 1928 encyclical Mortalium
Animos, where he addressed himself to those who:

...set to work organizing congresses, meetings, lectures, attended by all types of persons,
unbelievers of every sort, and even those who have, unhappily, rejected Christ.... Such efforts
can in no way be approved by Catholics since they presuppose the erroneous theory that all
religions are more or less good and laudable.... Truly, the partisans of this theory have not only
strayed into error, but have perverted the idea of true religion, repudiating it; and by stages, they
fall into naturalism and atheism; ...this is tantamount to abandoning revealed religion.

Yet, this is the way, "the spirituality which Msgr. Escriva has laid out in unaltered form since
35
1928," writes Dominique Le Tourneau, who quotes Card. Poletti: "This is why he [Escriva —
36
English Ed.] has been unanimously recognized as a precursor of the Council."

This is really why, so quickly after Escriva’s death, i.e., on February 19, 1981, his beatification
cause was introduced. On April 9, 1990 he was declared "venerable," and on May 17, 1992, he
was beatified. Only a saint could cover and justify the acts of the Council, in order to authenticate
them.

An appraisal of Msgr. Escriva’s interior life and virtues is not within our ken. On the other hand, it
is completely legitimate to cast doubt upon, and to refute, his revolutionary doctrine. Virtue and
piety may not automatically confer doctrinal and pastoral orthodoxy.

Opus Dei’s Internal Organization and Life

THE APPROBATION OF
The Opus is organized like a religious order, comprised OPUS DEI —DEFINITIVE
overall of priests and laity. Entering the Opus is considered OR NOT?
37
to be a vocation and there are a rule and vows, although
married members take different ones. Without examining the detail
of the criticisms (of the Nicolas
Here is how vocations are born: Dehan article —Ed.), some of
which are solid and others
When Opus Dei members enter their professions, they less so, it must be observed
begin their personal apostolate, make friends, organize that they bear fundamentally
formation chats in their homes. [What formation?] Vocations upon the very conception of
arise, and, little by little, a nucleus is formed. An Opus Dei the work as intended by its
priest comes to preach.... Soon, it becomes necessary to founder, and expressed in
find a temporary lodging and, eventually, a permanent its official publications. It
center. Thus they put into practice the Founder’s must be observed —as is
recommendation: "You must spread out, disperse worldwide
through all of men’s honest occupations; you must open into
38
a fan."
pointed out on p.139 (in the
original Le Sel de la Terre version;
The number of vocations has continually increased. In 1989 p21 in this English translation from
the Opus Dei had 76,000 members in 87 countries. In Angelus Press —Ed.). —that this
France, there are about 1,400 members with ten centers in work was officially approved
Paris and 15 more provincial ones. Some "corporate by Pope Pius XII in 1947.
activities" have been created there, i.e., a hotel training Now, whatever may have
school in Aisne (France), youth clubs, meeting centers, been the maneuvers of
residences for domestic employees, etc. Msgr. Montini (Pope Paul
VI), it is theologically certain
By adorning its actions with the word "apostolate," the Opus that the definitive
Dei warps the general meaning of the term, understood in approbation of a religious
Catholicism as the propagation of the Faith. But this is foundation (and there is no
exactly what it does not wish, what it does not do, and what theological reason to hold
it expressly forbids. It contradicts itself when it says: do the otherwise for a secular
work of the Church and do not proselytize. But to which institute) is covered by the
Church does this refer? The ecumenical Church? God’s Church’s infallibility.... A
Church? Assisi’s? letter from a reader
published in Le Sel de la
Terre, No. 13
The Opus Dei is a work which opens, as it describes, into "a
fan." This is exactly correct, for it is everywhere at work. It
possesses a prestigious international university, the Here is the commentary
University of Navarre, in Pamplona, Spain, created in 1952, published in Le Sel de la
which has faculties of law, medicine, philosophy, letters, Terre on the points raised:
pharmacy, the sciences, theology, a language institute,
schools of architecture, economics and business, as well as It is correct that the
a school of hospital work, etc. Over 40 years, 30,000 definitive approbation of a
students have completed their studies at the University of religious order by the pope
Navarre. In 1988-1989, more than 15,000 were enrolled. In is covered by the infallibility
Spain, eight residences for high school students are of the Church. This doctrine
attached to the University. Also part of the University is its is not of faith, but it is
500-bed clinic. In 1988, more than 80,000 consultations considered as certain.
were given there, and 12,000 patients admitted.
Nevertheless it is necessary
This is only a sketch of what’s been done in Spain at the to understand it correctly.
university level. There are similar universities in Peru and
Colombia. We shall not list the full quotient of Opus’ The approbation must be
worldwide works (Latin America, Australia, Japan, etc.). definitive. Was this the case
Knowing the Opus’ scope promotes understanding the with the approbation of
reasons for its discretion, why it has been effective, and the 1947? It does not seem so,
methods of its success. since modifications came
about in 1950 (if there was a
Recruitment of Members definitive approbation of the
statutes, it was at this date
This is primarily carried out in the universities, schools, that it was given); then in
sports camps, clubs, and circles directed by The Work, all of 1982 there was a significant
which, in theory, are open to everyone; it is, in fact, also modification of the juridical
carried out in the intellectual and upper strata of society, statute of the institute.
among young high school and college students, in groups
involved in academic, scientific, legal, military, medical, But especially, the
financial, commercial and political activities. In effect, this is approbation must bear upon
Msgr. Balaguer’s "fan." a religious order (cf.
Zubizarreta, Theologia dogmatico-
scholastica, Bilbao, 1947, vol. 1,
Membership in The Work p.420); for the Church is then
infallible because she uses
There are four degrees of membership:
  Numeraries: The elite, who take vows, or promises
—of poverty, chastity and obedience. Some live in
communities and turn over their financial revenues the means of sanctification
to The Work which then takes care of their needs. given by Our Lord himself
Numeraries are both priests and laity. (the religious life). Yet,
precisely, the Opus Dei
 Associates: They make the same promises. They
refuses to be classed as a
are not from the same class nor of the same
religious order, and
intellectual rank as the numeraries.
demands that its special lay,
 Supernumeraries. These are the most numerous,
secular character be
many are married. Their promises are less
recognized.
constraining.
 Cooperators. These take no "vows," but participate
in "corporate apostolic works." It is possible they One could point out as well
may be non-Christians. that the infallibility of the
Church only concerns the
doctrinal judgment: this or
Despite its liberal doctrine, the Opus has been, and is, the that religious rule is apt to
object of critics and opposition coming from different points sanctify; but it does not
of view. It has been treated as clerical Freemasonry concern the prudential
because of its hierarchical structure and the great discretion judgment: it is prudent or
surrounding its members’ activities. It absolutely denies this. opportune to accept this
Secularists classify it as right-wing or conservative because religious order (cf. Sacrae
of the members’ piety and social class. This too is denied. theologiae summa, B.A.C., vol. 1,
Traditionalists define it as modernist. 1962, p.724). If, and such does
not seem to us to be the
The Opus’ doctrine, and its self-described "revolutionary" case, one demonstrated
position, and its distance from the secular principles that the infallibility of the
professed by the Church, the Fathers and the Doctors of the Church were engaged in
Church, have not prevented many Spanish bishops known this matter, one would still
as conservatives from offering their support to Msgr. be free to criticize the Opus
Balaguer and his Work. In the 1970’s, among these were Dei and to demand its
Archbishop Gonzales Martin, Primate of the Spanish suppression for reasons of
hierarchy; Bishop Garcia Lahiguera, Archbishop of Valencia; prudence (for example, this
or Bishop. Lopez Ortiz, Vicar of the Armed Forces. Others, institute foments a liberal,
such as the progressive Swiss theologian, Urs von conciliar mentality).
Balthasar, accused them of perverting the Gospel through
blind conformism, and of contemporary integrism unto ...To maintain it (the Work)
theocracy. The critics of both extremes haven’t hurt them; and the members of Opus
on the contrary, they have made them the beneficiary of a Dei, there are other
reputation for moderation, for exemplifying the golden mean, individuals who help, some
conciliation and cohabitation. In Rome, modernist Rome, of these are not Catholic
which has unceasingly cooperated with the Opus Dei, such and a large number, a very
a position of openness is much needed —that type of large number, are not
openness which attempts to satisfy some, the progressives, Christians... (Msgr. Escriva de
and to reassure others, the conservatives —after the failure Balaguer, Tiempo, p.615).
and disorder engendered by the Council.
For Popes John Paul I and
The Opus Dei clergy is formed exclusively of priests who John Paul II, Opus Dei and
were former lay members of the Opus. The priests answer its founder were already
solely to the Prelate. In August, 1982, John Paul II objective historical facts that
constituted the Opus as a Personal Prelature. The announced the beginning of
Prelature’s jurisdiction embraces all of the members of the a new era of Christianity
Opus worldwide. The current Prelate is His Excellency (Opus Dei, Peter Berglar, Rialp, p.
243).
Alvaro del Portillo, one of Msgr. Escriva’s first collaborators.
(Bishop Alvaro del Portillo died on March 23, 1994. Bishop
Javier Echevarria was elected Prelate of Opus Dei on April One must be satisfied with
21, 1994, following Bishop del Portillo’s death. —English the end of this Council.
Ed.) Portillo was a civil engineer. Thirty years ago this month,
In 1991, there were about 1,400 priests in the Opus. By way
of example, here are some ordination facts:
I was treated as a heretic for
having preached a certain
1964: 22 members of the Opus were ordained in Madrid, spirit that is now solemnly
Spain. Among them were journalists, engineers and welcomed by the Council in
magistrates. the Dogmatic Constitution
De Ecclesia. One sees that
1969: 20, from ten countries. we have shown the way,
that you have prayed a lot.
1971: 29 were ordained in Barcelona, Spain, by Msgr. (Tiempo, p.486).
Gonzalez Marin. Among these were marine officers,
engineers, architects, lawyers and university professors. You certainly have a great
ideal, because, since the
1973: In Madrid, 51 Spanish, French, English and Italian beginning, he (Fr. Escriva)
numeraries were ordained. anticipated the theology of
the laity that characterized
the Church at the Council
In the recent past, about sixty Opus members had their
and after the Council
priestly orders conferred on them by the highest authorities: (Allocution of Pope John Paul II,
Cardinal Koenig, Cardinal Oddi, Cardinal Etchegaray, and August 19, 1979).
Pope John Paul II. This is proof of the grand and then
grander pride of place taken by the Opus Dei in the conciliar The very ordinariness of the
Church. members of Opus Dei —the
fact that they don’t look or
The priests of the Opus Dei are all aggregated into "an act or speak differently from
association of clerics who respond to the exhortations of anyone else (because in
Vatican II....They seek to promote priestly holiness and full fact they aren’t different) —
39
submission to the ecclesiastical hierarchy of the diocese does not imply any type of
where they were incardinated. This is the Sacerdotal secrecy. But while members
Society of the Holy Cross." of Opus Dei do not
advertise their membership,
neither do they conceal it.
As one expressed it, "We
never hide what we are or
what we do, but we don’t
carry a sign saying that we
are good Christians or want
to be" (Ordinary Christians in the
World. What is Opus Dei? p.12).

The discretion and mystery enveloping the Opus Dei do not permit knowing who or where their
most important and influential members are. What is certain is that their stock is high, by virtue of
the important social and political positions that they hold in every country, in the intellectual and
action capitals of the world, where the thinkers and the technocrats reign.

Without being able to affirm their membership in The Work, one can at least say that some
persons are known to be powered by the engine of the Opus: For instance, in France, there are
politicians such as Maurice Schumann and Antoine Pinay; some members of the Academy such
as Jean Guitton, and Professor Jean Roche of the Institute, Rector of the Sorbonne, who was
made an honorary doctor by the University of Navarre in 1967; and [now deceased —French Ed.]
Professor Jerome Lejeune who in 1974 received the same distinction from Msgr. Escriva de
40
Balaguer.

February 2, 1947 was a great day for the Opus Dei. Rome published the constitution Provida
Mater Ecclesia, providing the norms for the creation of secular institutes; on the 24th of the same
month, the Opus received approval as a secular institute.

As the first secular institute, the Opus was the first Catholic association to cooperate with non-
Catholics and even with non-Christians. Why this act, contrary to doctrine, contrary to the thought
and will of Pius XII?

What we know today from archives which were opened, and from revelations written by intimates
41
or disciples of Msgr. Montini (the future Pope Paul VI), allow us to answer this question. We
know how the substitute Secretary of State betrayed the actions and decisions and of his
superior, the Holy Father. How? By falsifying his letters (in particular, a December 2, 1944 one by
Blondel); by providing interpretations contrary to Pius XII’s directives (in particular, to Humani
Generis, in 1950); by making contacts, as well as compromising and scandalous alliances without
the knowledge, but in the name of Pius XII (among others, the 1942 secret Montini-Stalin
accords).

From Msgr. Montini’s now-known, disloyal conduct on so many occasions, it is not improbable to
think, for example, that the decision to create secular institutes, which immediately benefited the
Opus, was extorted according to the habitual practice of the disloyal servant.

Under Pius XII, nearly twenty years before the "French Revolution of 1789 in the Church," the
Catholic Church’s immutable and traditional doctrine was already changed through the filter of
Msgr. Escriva’s Opus Dei, a useful instrument in the hands of Msgr. Montini for proselytizing,
among the ranks of the international elite, the "new theology" condemned by Pius XII.

The Opus Dei’s Doctrine

We have already observed some of the doctrinal aspects. Above all, the Opus’ doctrine is
transmitted orally to its members. However, it is written down for members’ use as a breviary in
The Way, a compendium of 999 maxims.

The Way exalts the dignity of the human person independently of religion. In Estudios sobre
camino42 [Studies on The Way], Msgr. Escriva’s successor comments:

This human dimension of The Way explains the capacity, as demonstrated by the book, of
reuniting the hopes and aspirations of all men and women who are conscious of their own dignity,
independently of their religious convictions. [The Way] offers the reader the inspiration to live a
clearly more human and nobler life.

In the same document, he reveals how the indoctrination was fashioned prior to the Council.
Although hidden, this indoctrination was thoroughgoing, reaching well beyond the cadre of Opus
initiates:

At that time, The Way prepared millions of people to come into harmony with, and to imbibe, on a
deep level, some of the most revolutionary teachings which thirty years later would be solemnly
promulgated by the Church at Vatican II.

Thus is revealed a favored revolutionary mission, subsequently integrated by the modernist

Church. This sums up the very effective Opus’ Father’s thinking on the self-destruction of the
Church.

Peter Berglar, quoted earlier here, relates some very important things which promote an
understanding of the enormity of the crisis. Like a propagandist for the Opus Dei, Berglar writes:
"We know that Paul VI used his book, The Way, for his personal meditation. As well, John XXIII
told his secretary that, ‘The Work is destined to open the Church to unknown horizons of
universal apostolate.’ For Popes John Paul I and John Paul II, the Opus Dei and its Founder were
already objective historical facts on which were based the beginning of a new epoch of
Christianity."

The reader of The Way is deceived because, if the Opus exalts the lay mentality, The Way stifles
the laity:

Maxim 61: "Whenever a layman sets himself up as an arbiter of morality, he frequently errs;
laymen can only be disciples."

Maxim 941: "Obedience, the sure way. Blind obedience to your superior, the way of sanctity.
Obedience in your apostolate, the only way: for, in a work of God, the spirit must be to obey or to
leave."

These are authoritarian principles, for internal use, which bear heavily on the spiritual life of these
"religious-laity."

Let us compare these maxims with some remarks, among many others, devised for public
consumption, which give wide berth to fantasy and to bad habits on the subject of social doctrine.
In doing so, we shall deduce the illogic so typical of the Opus Dei. During an interview granted to
an American journalist, Msgr. Escriva declared, "On this matter, the attitude of Opus Dei directors
is to respect freedom of choice in the temporal sphere.... It is a question of setting forth each
member’s responsibilities and inviting him to assume them by following his conscience, doing so
43
in complete freedom."

The body of the Church’s social doctrine, which is especially rich as taught by Pius XII, does not
seem to be the source of temporal conduct for the members of the Opus. Not even taken into
consideration are the conciliar Church’s pontifical directives. When interviewed the day after the
beatification, one Spanish Opus Dei spokesman44 told a journalist from Courrier de l’Ouest, "In
Spain, the Opus Dei has always refused to take official part in the campaign against abortion.
This is not its role."

A comparison between certain principles, written in an ostensibly traditional style, and the
directives underlying the organization of "corporate apostolic works" resonates over and over
again with the Opus’ internal contradiction. This encourages the view that it has two faces, as
well as encourages some of its adversaries to say: It is Freemasonry.

Le Tourneau does not conceal these accusations. Rather, he treats them in a short chapter
where the following is found: "The founder had also been denounced before the special military
tribunal for the repression of freemasonry, his detractors defining the Opus Dei as ‘a Jewish
branch of Freemasonry.’" Later, Msgr. Escriva was accused before the Holy Office; however, this
45
was after the Holy See had bestowed its definitive approval on the Opus Dei. Salvador Bernal
46
also reports that event in much the same terms.

The Opus Dei’s protests have not convinced the most informed.

Dominique Le Tourneau spends a chapter on the Opus Dei’s defined and lived freedom:

A characteristic of the Opus Dei’s spirit that is often touched on by its spokesmen, and about
which the Founder was, unfailingly, most insistent, is the value put on freedom. This love of
freedom is intimately related to the secular mentality inherent in the Opus Dei by which
...according to his state in life, each member acts according to his well-formed conscience, and
accepts all of the consequences of his actions and decisions. He learns not only to respect, but to
love, in a positive and practical sense, true pluralism.47

Thus is seen that contrast between The Way’s maxims and the secret character imposed on
Opus Dei’s members by their "constitutions." It is this contrast that supplies great amounts of grist
for the Opus’ critics’ mill. These constitutions, certain articles of which were necessarily modified
since the erection of the Opus Dei into a Personal Prelature in 1982, are the Work’s governing
charter. Written in Latin, following is a translation of the most probative articles:

Article 189: "In order to carry out its proper goal in the most efficient way possible, the institute,
inasmuch as it wishes to be hidden, ‘occultum vivere,’ also abstains from participating in
corporate acts ...Given the nature of the institute, it agrees not to appear as a society to the
outside world; its members shall not take part corporately in certain public cultic acts, such as
processions."

Article 190: "...The fact of even being a member of the institute disallows any exterior
manifestation; and one shall not reveal the names of members to outsiders; further, our members
shall not talk to outsiders about [the institute —French Ed.]."

Article 191: "...Let numerary and supernumerary members fully know that they must always
observe a prudent silence as to the names of others [who are] associated, and that they must
never reveal to anyone that they themselves belong to the Opus Dei, not even for the sake of a
perceived advancement of the institute."

If prudence is always a good, is such secretiveness licit for a "work of God" aimed at the laity? Is
such secretiveness compatible with apostolic mission? Here is conduct quite removed from the
spirit of Pius XI’s encyclical, Quas Primas, on the universal kingship of Christ.

The investigative study of Dominique Le Tourneau’s manual, The Opus Dei, which we just
inventoried, finally leaves the reader puzzled as to know which page to consult in order to situate
the Opus Dei, since so many are contradictory. However, it seems that Le Tourneau has painted
this work’s true, two-headed portrait.

And to those who have just placed The Work’s founder on the summit, we ask St. Pius X’s
question: "What are they hiding, those who fear the light and the truth?"

48
A critical work on the Opus Dei, written by Arnaud de Lassus, makes a comparative study,
which he calls, "the two images of the Opus Dei." The first one is its official identity, set forth for
outsiders; the second is the conduct actually lived inside the Opus Dei. We quote one example
taken from De Lassus’ comparisons:

1st image: The Opus Dei exacts neither vows nor promises (Msgr. Escriva).

2nd image: Obligatory engagement in the form of vows (up until 1982), and (since 1982)
contractual obligations, e.g., celibacy for numeraries and associates.

Since De Lassus sheds light on the danger of the Opus Dei’s deceptive "apostolate," we quote
this part of his text in full:

There are two remarks that relate to these two images of the Opus Dei:

The second image, based on the constitutional texts, necessarily corresponds to the reality: the
first, the one most aimed at the general public, is presented for appearances sake. It is a
semblance of the reality.

Thus, in the Opus Dei one finds a contrast between appearance and reality, a characteristic
constituting one of the patently distinguishing marks of a great number of the modern world’s
institutions.

As many families have discovered, this results in a misunderstanding about the nature of the
Opus Dei. Seeing the Opus Dei according to its first image, these families send their children to
its youth clubs, student residences, ski camps, etc., all created by the Opus’ initiatives, and
directed by it as well. Yet, the families don’t see it as such. Some years later, they realize that
their children have joined an organization of a religious nature, and have made "engagements."
(According to the statutes, specifically Article 20, in the Opus Dei, promises can be made from
age 18.) These youth clubs, student residences, ski camps, all served as instruments for
recruiting them to the Opus Dei. And so it is, little by little, that the second image of the Opus
unveils its face to them.

These recruitment practices, revealed and denounced by families deceived in this way,
corroborate revelations made by former Opus Dei numeraries, and published in works that shed
light on the Opus Dei’s hidden side, e.g., El Opus Dei: anexo a una historia (The Opus Dei: An
Addendum to its History) by a Spaniard, Maria Angustias Moreno, and published by Ediciones
Textos, and Das Opus Dei, eine Innenansicht, (The Opus Dei: An Inside View) by Klaus
Steigleder, a German.

Revealing even more methods of betrayal, both of the above explain how numeraries recruit
among families who still live the traditional principles, because the Opus Dei only wants well bred
and educated people in its midst; how young people are solicited through healthy and legitimate
activities, then indoctrinated, then brought fully into an occult atmosphere, and how, at last,
without their parents’ knowledge, they are bound by the "engagements." Yet their parents trusted
the Opus because of the recognition and seal of approval given to the Opus Dei by the Church.
And all of this is sanctioned by "The Father," the all-powerful and revered head.

A Necessary Operation for the Conciliar Church

In 1981, weren’t these grave and numerous contradictions, which had already come to light,
about the life of the Opus Dei, as well as this erroneous doctrine, these breaches of trust, all
sufficiently known by those responsible for initiating Msgr. Escriva’s beatification cause? Some
incompatibilities between the founder’s reputation for holiness and the spirit of certain of the
constitutional articles written by him must have reared their heads. There is every reason to
believe that the modifications carried out some months afterward, in 1982, were done in the
interest of making a necessary adjustment between the principles and the facts —putting it all in
order, so as not to obstruct his cause’s smooth road, was a necessary operation.

With the Bishop of Madrid’s 1941 approval of the Opus Dei as a "pious union," it was imprinted
49
with the secret seal. As we have seen, the 1950 "constitutions," comprising 47 articles,
confirmed the secret character, and Article 193 cast it in stone:

These constitutions, the instructions already promulgated, and those that could be promulgated in
the future, as well as the other documents relative to the government of the institute, ought not to
be divulged; moreover, those written in Latin shall not be translated into the vernacular without
the Father’s permission.

These constitutional articles’ severity, excess, and contradictions do not appear in the Opus
cadres’ topics, nor are they mentioned by them when recruiting new adepts. Thus in 1982, it was
necessary to modify some articles so as to shore up the breach between appearance and reality.

With this change in the writing, was there also a change in the spirit? These constitutions
themselves were set out from the first "founding of the work...; they must be considered as holy,
50
inviolable, perpetual." Is correcting them not tantamount to betraying the Founder? Msgr. A. del
Portillo, Escriva’s recently deceased successor, expressly treated these matters: "However, the
change is only —I repeat —in juridical trappings, and nothing which is essential in the Opus Dei
51
has been modified. I want to affirm that we have taken a very important step." Exactly what
makes this an important step? The Prelature? Msgr. del Portillo says nothing about that. Ten
years later, in his homily delivered during a Mass of thanksgiving three days after the
52
beatification, Card. Sebastiano Baggio, Church Chamberlain, would treat and explicate this:

For the blessed Josemaria Escriva, unity with the Church is not something external but the very
essence of all authentic apostolates.

A new reason to thank God comes to us through the spirit of this unity in apostolate which,
following the road forged by the blessed Josemaria Escriva, the Opus has lived with such
intensity since its founding. A unity which found its rightful institutional expression in the erection
of the Opus Dei into a Personal Prelature and which its Prelate’s ordination to the Episcopacy
served to demonstrate how anchored it is to the very source of apostolic unity; [for] the collegiality
of bishops —cum Petro et sub Petro —is based on the collegiality of the apostles.

The "pastoral phenomenon" [of the Opus Dei] is the heritage of the apostles. This is what had to
be said so as to claim that it was done via apostolic authority.

Ten years were sufficient for the more zealous among the artisans to assemble the means for
attempting to redecorate for the world the conciliar Church’s edifice. Yet, the operation wasn’t
able to do away with all of the Opus Dei’s contradictions, distortions and abuses. He who
invented the doctrine, "Work is the specific means from which springs the interior life" was
glorified right up to St. Peter’s Square. In his homily, John Paul II at once felt the need to praise
the blessed (Escriva) "who opened new apostolic horizons through evangelical and missionary
activity," and to correct: "Christ invites the whole world to sanctify itself in everyday concrete life.
That is why work is also a means of personal sanctification and of apostolate when one performs
53
it in union with Jesus Christ."

This ostentatious operation has not escaped the attention of perspicacious clerical and lay
observers who, grounded in sane Catholic doctrine, have not forgotten St. Pius X’s teaching:
"Always keep the doctrine pure."

Here, there, and elsewhere, what ought to be understood and known has been reported. For
instance, consider the following, so clearly expressed:

Whoever even cursorily knows the Opus’ history, and its role in the Church today, will see that it
is a matter of beatifying the Opus Dei.... It is the Opus which has been made a star here, because
it offers the Holy See’s politics a counterweight to the modernists’ fantasies. The priests of the
Opus Dei ...are the keepers of the conciliar Church. The Vatican needs the Opus Dei to provide
new equilibrium to the Church, which in so many places flounders, even unto anarchy. Thus it
seems evident that the motive for beatifying the Founder of the Opus Dei is the promotion of the
conservative and liberal wing of conciliar Catholicism ...The Church that emerged from Vatican II
54
needed a model.

The Opus Dei’s Political Power and Role

It is impossible to end this brief study without treating the role played by the Opus Dei in Spanish
politics for over half a century.

We have observed that, since the end of the Spanish Civil War, the penetration of the Opus
within the Spanish elite has continued to progress. Through its supports, methods, and means,
as well as through its directors’ psychology, the Opus Dei has morally and intellectually formed
men likely to assume all of the responsibilities within the structure of the state. Because of their
abilities, these men have normally risen to executive posts in banking, industry and commerce, in
the universities, the judicial system, and in the armed forces.

In their professional spheres, these men have applied methods to their work that reflect the Opus
Dei’s own internal and characteristic ones. They have compromised. In Spain and elsewhere,
their ability to lead well in business, elsewhere, has resulted in their gaining a legitimate
reputation.

The major documentation for this section on Spain is not found in sources from Opus bookshops.
Since such a study demands objectivity, the books used are those on contemporary Spain and
the Franco regime. The judgments set forth in them are sometimes biased, as well as
tendentious regarding Francoism, the monarchy, the Opus and Catholicism.

55
Two works deserve attention, since they devote quite a few pages to this "case," unique in
modern political and religious history. Aside from the two authors’ analysis, these works’ main
interest lies in their rich documentation: quotations, investigative reports, debate excerpts,
discussions, statistics, government decisions, etc.

How was the Opus Dei, this "religious" work, which is forbidden to engage in politics, also so
profoundly and radically able "to guide" this authoritarian regime? The genesis of its history and
development, and the record of some of its benchmarks, are all instructive.

In 1957, General Franco formed his sixth government. New ministers were brought in, most of
whom were known to be technocrats: some who belonged to the Opus Dei were not thought to
be supportive of the regime. Why? The reason appears to be simple. Since the Spanish economy
was in terrible shape from being handled by ministers from the nationalist movement and the
Phalange, the Caudillo looked for effective men; he brought into the government men whose
intellectual and technical expertise he’d heard praised. Among them were Fernando Castiella in
Foreign Affairs, Alberto Ullastres in Commerce, Navarro Rubio in Economics and Lopez Rodo in
the government presidium’s General Secretariat, which controlled all of the ministries.

Four were technocrats, the last three of whom were of the Opus. Lopez Rodo is an Opus Dei
numerary. They introduced reforms and got them quickly up and running. In December, 1957,
Foster Dulles, US advisor and negotiator, was received by Franco.

The more influential the Opus Dei became, the more the Phalange’s stock declined, and the
more Franco turned over the reins to the liberals. In February, 1953, two groups of foreign
"doctors" arrived in Spain, the first from the European Organization of Economic Cooperation
(EOEC) and the second financed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The two groups put forth a "stabilization plan" and promised that its acceptance would bestow all
sorts of advantages: the peseta would be stabilized; the American government, and the US, IMF
and EOEC banks would provide aid. Solidly backed by the Opus’ economists, the plan was
officially accepted by the government in July 1959. In December, Eisenhower arrived in Madrid.

Immediately, Spain became an active associate member of the EOEC. The peseta’s rate of
exchange went from 40 to 60 against the American dollar. At its new rate of exchange, the peseta
became one of the world’s strongest currencies. The 1958 $50 million deficit was transformed, in
1959, into a surplus of $80 million. The markets were thriving, but the speculators pulled out.
Businessmen were ruined, tens of thousands of workers were reduced to unemployment,
resulting in labor strife in the industrial region of Asturias.

The situation called for a forward looking man. On July 20, the liberal, Lopez Bravo, a 39-year old
naval engineer and Opus member, was appointed Minister of Industry. Coming into the
government with him, to the Ministry of Information and Tourism, was Fraga Iribarne, who was
not in the Opus, and who would later play an important role against the Opus.

Indeed, the Opus Dei is not a political party. In terms of the Spanish government’s official
composition, the Opus is not a participant. Rather, it is the men of the Opus who are.

Just as Freemasonry solemnly claims to give no political orders, it is the men of the Opus who
influence, effect, and supply policy. And behind their impetus lies that spirit so much in line with
the Opus’ doctrine. The Opus’ methods have created ministers as well as ministers compromised
by them. This is how these cultured, competent and numerous men, who are ready to serve, who
are so well educated and formed at the University of Navarre, are put into power. Nothing more
human, nothing more natural. But why is this forbidden? Therein lies the evidence!
For the last government reorganization, Franco named Lopez Rodo, the discreet but important
and brilliant Opus member, as Commissioner of the Four Year Plan. Scores of experts among his
friends completely supported this appointment. Lopez Rodo established a veritable encyclopedia,
in 31 volumes, on economic and social development.

The technocrats, driven and entranced by productivity and material success at any price–the
goods of the socialist spirit —sacrificed the high, noble, spiritual part of the individual in order to
obtain success. They summoned the international foreign affairs experts, the globalist politicians.
Spain, which for 20 years, at least officially by law, had been preserved from moral corruption and
subversive propaganda, opened wide its borders to let the money flow in.

The technocrats encouraged Spaniards to expatriate to the labor markets of prosperous

countries: France, Germany, England. The flight of capital "out of the country" was very important
and very useful to the Peninsula’s economy. The grossest receipt of return was the reverse
migration, especially in the form of a considerable rise of commerce via tourism beginning in
1961, and by 1964, reaching the level of 14 million foreign tourists, or nearly one half the
population of Spain. These Western hordes brought in $1 billion, and the bonuses were indecent
shows and exhibits, as well as "advanced liberalism’s" leaven of corruption. How did Spain truly
profit from all of this?

In subsequent years, the Christian technocrats pursued the actualization of their materialist plan.
In October, 1968, Franco received Henry Kissinger, the German Jew who became an American
citizen and a political advisor for Washington.

In a mere ten years, through the efforts of the men of the Opus, the Iberian peninsula flourished
economically. The philosophy of work, so dear to the Opus, bore its material fruits. But "to
sanctify others by work" ?, "to sanctify oneself by work" ?, "to sanctify work" ? Did Spain earn
sanctification thereby?

In August, 1969 a great scandal hit Spain. It concerned an important industrial conglomerate:
Maquinaria textil del norte (MATESA). Founded in 1956, in the Opus capital of Pamplona, this
company specialized in manufacturing textile looms under French licensure. The head of
MATESA was Juan Vila Reyes, an Opus member. The press presented MATESA as a model of
commercial dynamism. Reyes was an old friend of Rodo, the government Commissioner for
Economic Development.

Some financial irregularities were unable to escape fiscal oversight. Five million pesetas went out
of Spain and dozens of millions more having no connection to loom manufacture went to
subsidize entities such as the University of Navarre and the Institute of Graduate Business
Studies in Barcelona, both created and directed by the Opus Dei. This commercial empire of 75
Spanish subsidiaries, both overseas and in Europe, crumbled.

The scandal was caused by the misuse of public funds, a misdemeanor offense. From 1959 to
1969, MATESA received State export subsidies of 10 million pesetas from Banco de credito
industrial. In principle, this money was for loom exports, but the machines never left Spain, or
were put in foreign subsidiaries’ warehouses. Thanks to the phony deliveries, new government
subsidies were allocated in the name of the momentary technocratic slogan, "export."

In an awkward coincidence, the Ministers of Finance and Commerce, and the head of the Bank of
Spain, Navarro Rubio, were all in the Opus. Many were implicated.

Fraga Iribarne, the Minister of Information, profited from the situation. To appease his nationalist
minister friends, he had the Phalangist and Monarchist press orchestrate a campaign against the
Opus. This campaign did not expressly point to the "The Work," but rather to the "technocrats."
The campaign attacked the government’s reputation.

Franco accused Iribarne of injuring Spain’s prestige by exploiting "the MATESA affair" for
partisan ends. On October 29, 1969, Franco formed his ninth government, encouraged to do so
by Lopez Rodo and Admiral Carrero Blanco. The nationalists were again excluded. Among them
was Iribarne, who resigned his ministry to a former Vatican ambassador, Sanchez Bella, who was
also in Opus circles. Eight Opus members entered the government. The MATESA scandal only
served the Francoists. What an irony of history this was.

Since success is said to obtain by rendering to Caesar that which is Caesar’s, the Opus Dei
triumphed. In the summer of 1969, it had already walked off with a great victory. On July 22, the
"technocrat" ministers, the main artisans of "Operation Prince" heard Franco designate Juan
Carlos as his successor as head of state to the Cortes [the Spanish Parliament —French Ed.]
The next day, Juan Carlos was sworn in.

Surely the Opus in Spain doesn’t have any more power than do the political parties; but theirs is a
power that has never needed parties. Liberalism gained ground. On December 21, 1969, Minister
Lopez Bravo was in Moscow, where he signed accords. Well before Franco’s death, the way was
opened to socialism.

For 25 years, the Opus Dei has played a considerable role in Spanish and world politics. Its
disconcerting spirituality and its socialist doctrine have advanced. They contributed to the
establishment of the new world order, not to the restoration of the social kingdom of Our Lord
Jesus Christ.

By Contrast, a Missionary Work Shut Down

The work of Fr. Vallet can be compared to Fr. Escriva’s in terms of the similarity of their field of
action, their "clientele," the period in which they appeared, and their desire to transform society.
The comparison stops there. Essentially, the comparison’s basic interest lies in the fate of the two
works and on the diametrically opposed judgments pronounced upon their two founders.

If Fr. Escriva’s thought, doctrine, and work are difficult to pin down for lack of clarity, the spirit and
work of Rev. Fr. François de Paule Vallet are very simple to describe. Fr. Vallet’s doctrine is
unambiguous, nor does it oppose centuries of the Church’s apostolate. In fact, it is its heir. It is
direct. It is like a flowing channel of traditional Church doctrine, a channel without either
floodgates or tunnels. It contains no contradiction between Father’s thought and his action.
Having gleaned the first fruits of the new world order (yes, even then), he fought them with his
exceptional energy by tirelessly opposing them with the doctrine of the social kingship of Our
Lord Jesus Christ, as defined by the magisterium of the Church.

56
Who was this priest who, as the century comes to a close, is so little known? Spanish, born in
Barcelona in 1894 into a family of skilled workers, François de Paule Vallet attended the
university, then went on to engineering school. As an intellectual, he was interested in the
sciences as well as in arts and letters; he wrote, he painted. His friends were scientists, writers,
artists; he had a life full of activities, mostly all of them far from spiritual concerns. But a social life
devoted to being interesting, conformist, and worldly left him feeling deceived. He fled the city
and, providentially, found himself in Manresa, where Ignatius de Loyola, like Paul, was hurled
down. He "made" the famous Spiritual Exercises. Everything changed for him; he discovered the
divine plan for creation, man, and society.

He left the world in order to prepare himself to conquer it. At 24, he entered the novitiate of the
Company of Jesus in Gandia, Spain. He was passionate about the sacred sciences. Exploring
the immense possibilities of the Spiritual Exercises as a way to lead souls to God through the
interior life, he discovered their power to transform the family, as well as social and political life.

Brother François de Paule Vallet was convinced that this divine leaven, up until then reserved for
religious and a few other privileged souls, ought to be pressed into service for all, not only
Catholics, but also, and above all, for the most deprived, the indifferent, and unbelievers, so as to
lead them to the faith, to carrying out the Commandments, to the road of salvation forged by Our
Lord Jesus Christ. That is how he defined apostolate, as the Church had always uniquely and
truly defined it.

For him, there was nothing that had to be fabricated or invented. Rather he had only, profoundly,
to till, sow, and harvest Our Lord’s field within the existing structures of the Church. Inspired by
the story of the extraordinary, epic-making, popular retreats of Fr. Munoz of Colombia, which
transformed all classes of society and established the social regime of Christ the King, the
novice, François de Paule Vallet, threw himself completely into the task of obtaining permission to
immediately apply this spiritual therapy in Spain. He recruited all through Spain’s Valencia region;
he, the simple brother, helped by some novice priests, preaching the Exercises, amid that era’s
most precarious social and material conditions. His preaching was aimed solely at men: heads of
family and business and social leaders. To make them accessible to all, the Exercises were
condensed into five days. The retreats grew and grew, taking the country by storm.

Ordained a priest in 1920, Rev. Fr. Vallet returned to Manresa as retreat director. From there, he
went on to apprise Catalonia, not to create an independent work, but to resupply parish priests
with some committed, zealous men —Apostles.

San Andres, a parish in suburban Barcelona, became the radiant, extraordinary center. With no
distinction as to social class, company owners and workers, artisans and students, intellectuals
and peasants made, and then repeated the retreat, then went on to recruit. Wrote Maurice
Comat, "Like sparks from a fire, it spreads slowly, until the entire great capital of Barcelona is
alight, everyone out on an errand after grace."

From 1923 to 1927 more than 12,000 male enthusiasts formed permanent parish leagues. They
bought a big hotel in Barcelona, organizing it into an "exercising establishment" with a secretariat,
restaurant, hotel, meeting rooms and a chapel.

Fr. Vallet’s great idea was: "Through the Spiritual Exercises, to give the laity a sense of civic
responsibility, then, to take this, and vigorously transform it into a work of effective social
Christian restoration." Not at all to be a chapel, a Third Order: "I wish to be both of the Church
and healthily lay." The objective was not to create Catholic newspapers, a Catholic political party,
a Catholic labor union, a charitable work. The goal was precise: more and more retreatants, "an
army of retreatants," active in every milieu, working to transform and found Catholic newspapers,
parties, unions, and permanent works. "You shall not bring down the revolution, you shall
dissolve it from within and by your own converted elites."

An optimistic program, which could have been realized if it had been encouraged, supported, and
defended by the hierarchy. Later, an American bishop, Viola [Bishop Alfredo Viola of Salto,
Uruguay; 1893-1972 —Ed.], would say about this program that it was "the work of the twentieth
century."

In that remark resides the entire difference between the Fr. Escriva’s work and that of Fr. Vallet.

Miracles resulted from Fr. Vallet’s apostolate. Virulent heads of communist cells, union bosses,
agnostics, and even some Catholics of the same ilk emerged from the retreat one day and, the
next day, carried the processional banner.

The purpose here is not to retell Fr. Vallet’s life story. Rather, we wish only to say that the
success was not rewarded. It was the period of the revenge of that modernism condemned by St.
Pius X. Nothing of the labarum of this pontificate was to be permitted to survive.

Of course, there were the beautiful encyclicals, Quas Primas and Mortalium Animos; but at that
time in Rome, the liberals had become entrenched, the spirit of The Sillon was well represented,
progressivism was flying high there. Those who wanted "to restore all things in Christ" were
unable to gain access there.
Fr. Vallet was persecuted, expelled from his country. He tried to seed his work in America. After
many vicissitudes, and the creation of the institute "of parish cooperators of Christ the King," he
found asylum in France where, for 10 years, working against the tide, he reenacted what he had
done in Spain. Once more, the chaos of the liberation chased him beyond the Pyrenees. At
times, he recalled St. Jerome’s words, "If I had been content to weave jute baskets and fill my
stomach, I would have lived out my days in peace. But because I wanted to return Scripture to its
original Hebrew, everyone wants to tear me apart with bared teeth."

At 60, he was exhausted, but mustered his last energies to go out, once more, to preach Christ
the King. He was going to die, not in his easy chair at his desk, but in Madrid, preaching the
Exercises. So, final silence descended upon this peerless apostolic power. No one took a piece
of his cassock for relics; but at the time, his work spread rapidly in the French-speaking countries.
Through him, tens of thousands of men would discover the doctrine of the Catholic Church.

What was not forgiven Fr. Vallet was his profound psychology, his luminous prescience, and his
fidelity to immutable doctrine. He did not content himself with only forming pious men, faithful to
the sanctuary, but also men for the front-line, active and resolute, taking up their positions in the
cities as Catholics, in order to perform works of Catholic politics as against the spirit of the world.
He affirmed that the social question would be settled if men would stop wanting to build a society
estranged from God’s will. He dared to say that nations were marked on the forehead with the
sign of death for having rejected the Kingship of Christ.

Apostolate’s only goal is conversion.

This face to face encounter demonstrates the antimony, the unavoidable opposition between
these two men, between these two works.

The reigning modernism could only banish Fr. François de Paule Vallet so as to glorify Fr.
Josemaria Escriva.

RESPONSE

We received a letter from the Opus Dei in France concerning the article that appeared in Issue
11 of Le Sel de la Terre. This letter taxed the author with some factual errors, and then
continued by a plea pro domo (i.e., general information supportive of the Opus Dei work and
views —English Ed.). We thought that the first part of the letter, accompanied by the comments
of Nicholas Dehan, could be of interest to our readers, and show them that the Opus Dei has
nothing substantial to oppose to the article. On the contrary, we did not think it useful to publish
the second half of the article: readers who desire publicity releases on the Opus Dei can write
directly to their headquarters. (99 Overlook Circle, New Rochelle, NY 10804 —English Ed.)

N.B. This response from the Information Office of the Prelature of the Opus Dei in France is
translated verbatim from Le Sel de la Terre (No. 13). The page numbers, however, initially
referencing pages in the original article, have been changed to reference pages in this English
translation of Dehan’s article. The Editor has taken liberty to incorporate some of these
clarifications in the English text of the article. —English Ed.

Paris, January 25, 1995

Mr. Philippe Roulon, Editor
Le Sel de la Terre
La Haye aux Bonshommes
49240 Avrille, FRANCE

Sir:

It is with great surprise that I learned of the article by Mr. Dehan on the Opus Dei in your
issue Number 11.

Undoubtedly, the author is ill-informed about the prelature of the Opus Dei; perhaps he is
not personally acquainted with any of its adherents. This could in no wise excuse the levity
of his discourse, nor the factual errors that are contained in his study. I shall only expose
briefly the material errors:

1. "Camino, the only work published during the lifetime of the author" (p.11): five
works by the Blessed Josemaria Escriva were published during his lifetime (The
Way, Conversations, The Holy Rosary, When Christ Passes By, La Abadesa de
las Huelgas), without counting the numerous writings taken from sermons and
articles.
2. "D. Le Tourneau, spokesman for the Opus Dei" (p.28, footnote 6): Even if he has
published a book on the subject, Mgr. Le Tourneau does not have a role of this
sort.
3. The Opus Dei admitting "into its ranks (...) men of every religion, and even non-
Christians" (p.17): The Opus Dei can only accept non-Catholics as cooperators
(thus called, precisely, because they are not members of the prelature), this having
been accepted by the Holy See. (Moreover, these two details, among others, are
in the book by Le Tourneau cited by the author).
4. "Long live students of all religions and all ideologies" (p.17): The author,
undoubtedly translating directly from the Spanish, has simply cut off the beginning
of the sentence; by replacing the missing words, it reads: "There are [and it is I
who emphasize], in this residence, students of every religion and of every
ideology": that is not quite the same thing, is it?...; attached are photocopies of the
pertinent pages of the French and Spanish editions.
5. The quotation of Vazquez (and not Vasquez) de Prada made a little further on is
equally translated in a slightly inexact way (it would be necessary to put a colon
between "benefactors" and "protestants") and especially isolated from its context,
which is the same as for the preceding point: it concerns "cooperators who desire
to collaborate [and it is I who emphasize], materially or spiritually, in the
apostolates of the work"; the author speaks, moreover, of cooperators (in correct
terms, this time) on p.20; thus there is a contradiction between these two passages
of the article.
6. The numeraries do not make "vows" and the "associates" are not "oblates" (p.20);
none of them lives in "community," because they are not religious.
7. "The current prelate" is not Msgr. del Portillo, recalled to God on March 13, 1994,
nine months at least before the publication of this article; but Msgr. Echevarria,
named by the Pope on April 20, 1994.
8. The member of the Curia who had to know the most about the Opus Dei at the
time of its approbation by the Holy See was Cardinal Tardini (even if it is true that
the founder also knew Msgr. Montini very well), cf. p. 21.
9. The citation of the sermon on John Paul II during the ceremony of beatification
(p.24) is not a corrective of the Pope, but a paraphrase of the expressions of the
Blessed Josemaria Escriva, which could be summarized in the following words:
"Love God and men while doing with love the ordinary little things of the day"; or
else: "You do not work as you should do: out of pure love and uniquely to render to
God all His glory."
10. The few members of the Opus Dei who were ministers of Franco could not have
previously attended the University of Navarre, quite simply because, when it was
founded in 1952, they were no longer students...(they would have been, rather, of
the generation of the first professors of the University, but they were not even
 that!).

I move on to other points so as not to prolong this letter. (...)

COUNTER-RESPONSE

February 6, 1995

Dear Father,

Here are a few thoughts concerning the reactions of the Opus Dei. Replies to the ten
points:

1. Camino: Yes, it is the only doctrinal work of the Opus Dei written by Fr. Escriva.
The others are only collections of conversations or homilies, or meditations. La
Abadesa deals with a case of episcopal jurisdiction concerning an abbess. I
maintain, the only work, rule of the Opus Dei.
2. Le Tourneau does not present himself as officially a spokesman, certainly. But
when one writes for the collection What Do I Know?, of international scope for
popularization, to explain what the Opus Dei is, one speaks in its name. On p.36
the author, speaking of the spirit of the Opus, evokes its "spokesmen" ! He is one
of them.
3. "Can only accept non-Catholics as cooperators," I wrote. But they are still in the
ranks of the Opus Dei. Unicity of vocation and diversity of members:

A. Single vocation.
B. The diversity of the members:

a. The numeraries.
b. The associates.
c. The supernumeraries.
d. The cooperators...inseparable from the Opus Dei.

4. True, the sentence lacks "the residence where," but that changes nothing. "All of
the ideologies" are there.
5. On the contrary the author of the letter is embarrassed. Yes, everything is said by
Vazquez; one understands where are the sources of the financial power of the
Opus Dei, the five categories of benefactors!
6. I made it sufficiently clear throughout the text and especially on p.23 —citing De
Lassus, whom the author of the letter cannot possibly not know —that the
members subject to vows until 1982 would be afterwards subject to contractual
obligations. Vows and "engagements," isn’t it the same spirit?
7. The current prelate. Of course, my second revision dates from the summer of
1993. My study does not bear upon persons, but upon the banefulness of the spirit
of the persons. It matters little that the author of the letter thinks he can impress us
by pointing out that he was "appointed by the Pope." The author of the letter hasn’t
got much to sink his teeth into!
8. The reference to the conservative Cardinal Tardini seems to him more convincing
that the one to Msgr. Montini. That alters in no wise the inopportunity of the
constitution Provida Mater Ecclesia, were it signed by Pope Pius XII through
Cardinal Tardini.
9. The author of the letter does not want to understand the meaning and the point of
 my sentence which highlights the corrective of Pope John Paul II: "and also," that
is to say, another means, and not the unique means as Escriva teaches, as does
the Opus Dei.
10. The French authority for the Opus Dei does not contest the political role of the
Opus Dei which I describe, but he is making things up. I did not write that the
ministers of Franco had attended the University of Navarre (although those who
entered in the government in 1969 would be old enough to have studied there, I do
not affirm it). I said, on p.26: "The ministers single out and place in their service
these cultivated men (...) well educated at the University of Navarre." Yes indeed,
bureaucrats well formed according to the spirit of the day, in the spirit of the Opus
Dei, are not found among fifty-year-olds. That is very little to single out from a very
mordant and accusatory chapter on the political role of the Opus Dei in the
socialization of Catholic Spain.

The Rome of Pope John Paul II urgently needed a St. Escriva to hallow his doctrine. A
broad mobilization of the media, too, was necessary, just as it was for Pope John XXIII,
"the good Pope John," indispensable for establishing a mood of euphoria for the "good
Council."

FOOTNOTES
1. Dominique Le Tourneau, L’Opus Dei,
Presses Universitaires de France, collection
"Que sais-je?" No. 2207, 3rd edition, 1991,
(first edition, 1984); translated into German,
English, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Dutch,
Portuguese. It is interesting to know that in
1983, Number 57 of La Revue des sciences
religieuses published an article by
Dominique Le Tourneau, whose very title
sums up all that it reveals: L’Opus Dei,
prelature personnelle, dans le droit fil de
Vatican II (The Opus Dei: in the Direct Line
of Vatican II).
2. D. Le Tourneau, L’Opus Dei, p.6. The
author italicized sees.
3. Ibid., p.9. Would the Bishop also have
"seen," in order to be instantaneously and
fully convinced?
4. D. Le Tourneau, L’Opus Dei, p.9. We
emphasize "new pastoral and juridical
phenomenon."
5. Bulletin published by the vice-postulation of
the Opus Dei in France, 1991–5, rue
Dufrenoy —75116 Paris.
6. D. Le Tourneau, spokesman for the Opus
Dei, insists: Father, "knew the will of God,"
L’Opus Dei, ch.II, p.20.
7. D. Le Tourneau, L’Opus Dei, p.21.
8. Franciscan, Cardinal-Archbishop of Toledo
(1436-1517).
9. D. Le Tourneau, L’Opus Dei, pp.22, 23. Our
Holy Mother Church is reduced to next to
nothing in history: fifteen centuries of
lethargy, no apostolate, mankind was
abandoned. Finally, Fr. Escriva arrives!
10. Author of Utopia, who preached a
communist ideal. Put on the Index. (He was
canonized for his martyrdom and not for his
ideas —French Ed.)
11. Dutch humanist, prepared the way for the
29. Pius XI, Encyclical Quadragesimo Anno,
1931.
30. D. Le Tourneau, L’Opus Dei, Chapter 4,
"Les oeuvres collectives d’apostolat,"
["Corporate Works of Apostolate"], p.89 and
90.
31. D. Le Tourneau, L’Opus Dei, pp.91,92.
32. Entretiens avec Msgr. Escriva de Balaguer
[Interviews with Msgr. Escriva de Balaguer],
French edition published by Fayard;
Spanish edition published by Rialp (p.126).
33. Peter Berglar, Opus Dei, Rialp, p.244.
34. Vasquez de Prada, El fundator del Opus Dei
[The Founder of Opus Dei] p.258.
35. D. Le Tourneau, L’Opus Dei, p.51.
36. Introduction of the cause of beatification
decree.
37. Up to and including 1982, then replaced by
"engagements."
38. D. Le Tourneau, L’Opus Dei, p.16.
39. D. Le Tourneau, L’Opus Dei, p.79.
40. D. Le Tourneau, L’Opus Dei, p.48.
41. Cf. Paul VI et le coup de maître de Satan,
[Paul VI and Satan’s Masterstroke] Courrier
de Rome 148, July-August 1993. Address:
BP 156, —78000 Versailles, France.
42. Collected Works, (Madrid: Rialp, 1989),
pp.52, 53.
43. Interview with Peter Forbach in Time, April
15, 1967 and published in Entretiens avec
Mgr. Escriva de Balaguer [Conversations
with Msgr. Escriva de Balaguer], a collection
of seven interviews granted to Figaro, The
New York Times, etc., 1966-68, 46 Editions,
3rd French edition, Paris, 1987.
44. François Sartre, Paris lawyer.
45. D. Le Tourneau, L’Opus Dei, p.39.
46. S. Bernal, Mgr. Escriva de Balaguer, p.280.
47. D. Le Tourneau, L’Opus Dei, p.36.
48. A. de Lassus, L’Opus Dei, Textes et
 Reformation through his In Praise of Folly.
Luther only more thoroughly proclaimed and
applied what Erasmus had insinuated.
12. The author does not say, "counter-
reformation."
13. D. Le Tourneau, L’Opus Dei, p.23. Does the
author refer to the Council of Trent and its
catechism inspired by St. Charles
Borromeo?
14. D. Le Tourneau, L’Opus Dei, p.25.
15. D. Le Tourneau, L’Opus Dei, p.26.
16. Juan Morales, El Opus Dei: su verdadera
faz, Textos, citas y commentarios, [The
Opus Dei’s Real Face: Texts, Quotations
and Commentaries] December 1991.
Available from: Casa San José, Carretera
Navalcarrero a Grinon km 5, —28607 El
Alamo, Spain.
17. Several have also been published in other
countries. Authors and titles are in D. Le
Tourneau’s bibliography, in op. cit., p.125ff.
18. Peter Berglar, Opus Dei, Rialp, p.216. Also
published in Salzburg, Publisher, Otto
Muller, 1983.
19. Salvador Bernal, Monseigneur Escriva de
Balaguer, Rialp, p.153. Also published in
Paris, SOS, 1978.
20. Ibid., p.309.
21. Ana Sastre, Tiempo de caminar, (Madrid:
Rialp, 19890, p.95.
22. Vasquez de la Prada, El Fundator del Opus
Dei [The Founder of Opus Dei], (Madrid:
Rialp, 1983), p.336.
23. José Miguel Ceja, Estudios sobre camino,
[Studies on The Way], (Madrid, Rialp,
1988), p.100.
24. D. Le Tourneau, L’Opus Dei, p.27.
25. D. Le Tourneau, L’Opus Dei, p.28.
26. D. Le Tourneau, L’Opus Dei, p.33.
27. D. Le Tourneau, L’Opus Dei, p.37.
28. D. Le Tourneau, L’Opus Dei, p.41.
Documents (A.F.S., Paris, May, 1992), 44
pages.
49. "Taking into account the discreet reserve
that it is necessary to guard ...we have
decided that the copy of these rules,
regulations, orders, customs, spirit and
ceremonials shall be kept in our secret
archives." Madrid, March 19, 1941, Leopold,
Bishop of Madrid, cited by G. Rocca, in
Opus Dei (Paoline, Rome, 1985).
50. Article 172 of the Constitution.
51. Msgr. del Portillo, in Searching for God Amid
Men, p.38.
52. May 20, 1992 in St. Mary’s Basilica in
Vallicella, in Information Bulletin of the Opus
Dei, Special Issue, p.15, first trimester,
1993.
53. John Paul II, Rome, May 17, 1992, homily
for the beatification, quoted in The
Information Bulletin, Special Issue, pp.7,8,
first trimester, 1993.
54. Fr. P. Laroche: Un Bienheureux de l’Eglise
Conciliare, [A Beatification for the Conciliar
Church] in Controverses, Swiss monthly
journal, December, 1992.
55. Edouard de Blaye, journalist for Agence
France-Presse, Franco, ou la Monarchie
sans Roi, [Franco, or the Monarchy Without
a King], published by Stock, 1974, MATESA
affair, p.255ff.
56. Aside from journal articles, there has been
only one French language biography of Rev.
Fr. Vallet, that by Maurice Conat: Le
magicien du règne, François de Paule
Vallet, 1884-1947, [The Magician of the
Kingdom: François de Paule Vallet, 1884-
1947]. Published by Val de Rhone, 1967.
These few lines on him deserve a much
more complete work.