José Francisco Serrano Oceja: The myths about Opus Dei

In 2002, in the magazine of the Institute of Historical Studies San Josemaría Escrivá ‘Studia et Documenta’, Professor Jaime Aurell published an article entitled “The formation of a great story about Opus Dei.” His thesis is that, for multiple causes, intracelesial and … Extraeclesial, a series of myths that have created an imaginary about Opus Dei have formed very soon. Imaginary that it seems not to be dissolved no matter how much the Church and society have changed. From the initial accusations of some Jesuits against Escrivá de Balaguer, through the reports of the Falange, the complaints before the Court of Masonry repression to the book of Gareth Gore or the television series that is coming, the background arguments They are still the same or similar.

Now it seems that a perfect storm over. A purifying cyclone. Regarding what happened in the past, the difference is the role of some ecclesial actors. There are many questions that arise from the decision of the Motu proprio «ad charisma tuendum», a decision that will be understood when the process ends, in a context in which not a few Church institutions are being intervened by different causes. Interestingly all of them with a common denominator, being understood as traditional or conservative. The canonical process referring to the Statutes of Opus Dei, Torreciudad, Gaztelueta, Cipriani, and what comes, in addition to the world campaign of the new “Da Vinci Code” and Satellites, are they prejudging the arguments for a final dramatic final solution that does not traumatic ? Are mere coincidences or milestones in a climate that marks a trend? What do they express? By the way, all this is very Spanish, too much, perhaps because approximately half of the members of Opus Dei in the world are Spanish.

In mid -1946, the priest Álvaro del Portillo, who was in Rome, sent the founder a letter in which he told him that a high character from the curia had told him that “you have arrived with a century in advance.” A century has not yet been fulfilled, little is missing.

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