Thomas II

What is the Opus Dei? Who are they and what do they want?
What is their relationship with pope JP and pope Ratzinger?
Who was Monsignor Escriba de Balaguer?
Was this guy a saint?
Anyone here knows anything about these people?

Haener

Well, I'm certainly not the expert but I can give you some pointers.

Opus Dei, literally 'the work of god', is a so-called prelature of the catholic church. In that sense, it is part of the catholic church and Opus Dei accepts the pope as being the 'holy father' and the head of the church and so on. In general, Opus Dei is seen as a very conservative organization.

Opus Dei aims to encourage cristians to live consistently with their faith. Of course, most catholics these days, especially in Europe are only catholic in name and maybe during xmas so the organisation has its worked cut out for it. Opus Dei is directly opposed to the 'salvation by faith' idea of most conservative xians sects in the US. Quite the contrary. Opus Dei claims that fulfillment of work and daily duties leads to holiness. Of course the regulars around here know that the bible claims both that salvation is only through work and later on that it is only through faith. (Personnally that is reason #893723 to consider the bible a collection of myths and fables.)

Opus Dei was founded by a guy named josemaria escriva in 1928, maybe you misspelled escriba. The founder was beautified and later canonized by John Paul II.

Opus Dei has been sharply criticized for its practices and not only in the Da Vinci code. It's founder, escriva, is also criticized and links are made between him and Franco. He lived and worked mostly in Spain so. Google and ye shall find.

some links:

Opus Dei USA
wikipedia on Opus Dei

use google for the rest.

Haener

It has come to my attention that the original spelling was Escribá but that it somehow changed to Escrivá so that's probably the cause for the confusion about the name.

wikipedia on Escrivá

Thomas II

I'm on to Google!
What I heard is that this order was very influential in electing JP II and also Ratzi...Is there any indication that they "pulled some strings"?
Any indication that they "pulled some strings" to get their leader canonized?

azazel

I spent nine years in an Opus Dei school. You're spot on about the links between him and Franco. Whenever Franco came up in history he was always put in a positive light, sometimes for merely protecting Escriva from the godless communists. And we "venerated" his picture long before he was canonised. They take church doctrine very seriously in all aspects, friends of mine whose parents are devout followers of Opus Dei always have progeny in excess of five, and they secretly do give tithes (they are always called donations). They are the only local religious group I know in my country that can afford to send pilgrims to Rome every as a prize. And the products of all-girls are nothing like what catholic schoolgirls are, they're... conservatives and prudes, with no hidden perversion whatsoever.
As for that Ratzinger fellow, we all knew who he was LONG before the Polish guy died. His pronouncements on doctrine was our homework every month or so... And they're openly sexist, the university they run here in Manila, is coed but the entrepreneurialcourse is male only,something about women being distractions(in a coed school, huh?)... and not needing the course since "they are skilled at homemaking" (?!). In their lower schools, girls are not allowed to play basketball, football, baseball, etc. on the grounds that they are "unfeminine" and "damage the ovaries (which justifies a woman's existence). Scum, the lot of them. Their only saving graces are that they believe in evolution and hate America-style Christianity more than I do.

Thomas II

Check this out:
http://www.cath4choice.org/nobandwid.../ccie1long.asp

Is this reason for concern or not? Are these people fascists??
Are they dictatorial extreme right wing??
Isn't that anti-democratic and anti-american?? :huh:

Thomas II

Voila,

http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/eu...e.opus.dei.ap/

www.odan.org/

Do you see what I'm seeing or is it just my imagination??

Thomas II

Azazel,

You KNOW these people,the Opus,from having been in one of their schools...Are they as dangerous as they seem to be, or should we really think that there is not reason for concern?
How deep is their infiltration in society?
Is their core agenda antagonistic to democratic values and freedoms?
Are they totalitarian in their agenda?

azazel

I'm not qualified to comment on their influence abroad. Over here, they have little influence outside the capital, although they have a few centres in the central Visayas. Their membership is small but they have a lot of funds since they recruit from the middle and upper classes. They have single members called numeraries who donate their all their money and possesions to the order and take all the priestly vows without actually being clergy. Politically, they are traditional conservatives who protest/vote against abortion, divorce, women's and gay rights legislation. During the EDSA II overthrow, payed for the transportation of hundreds of people to the protest site out of their own pockets. And they hate Jesuits, treating them almost like protestants. And they're pretty smart for zealots, when I came out in 1st/2nd year, I got pressured by two numeraries into discussions where Camus, Sartre, and Nietzsche met Keirkegaard, Marcel, Aquinas, and Levinas.
They're too small and keep to themselves too much for any serious speculation on my part.