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THEIR KINGDOM COME -- INSIDE THE SECRET WORLD OF OPUS DEI |
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7. Dios Y Audacia
IN JANUARY 1930, IN THE MIDST OF A WORLD ECONOMIC CRISIS AND record unemployment, with student and worker riots paralysing the capital daily, Primo de Rivera announced that Spain had become ungovernable and went into exile. Six weeks later, alone and miserable, he died in a Paris hotel. The king took over the government, deciding one year later that the moment had come to test his popularity by calling nationwide municipal elections, and in all large towns and cities the Monarchist candidates were roundly defeated. The size of the Republican turn-out was enormous. On the following day, the nation was too stunned to react. But two days later crowds began gathering in the streets and that afternoon when the king met with his ministers they told him that if he did not leave the capital before dark 'it might be too late'. [1]The Second Republic was born during the night. Next morning -- 15 April 1931 -- the country learned that Niceto Alcala Zamora, a former war minister, had become provisional prime minister. That Alcala Zamora was a conservative landowner did little to soothe the apprehensions of the right. He appointed as his foreign minister a godless Radical, Alejandro Lerroux, whose upbringing had left him with a permanent disgust for everything connected with religion. The equally godless Manuel Azana became minister of war. Together these three became the driving force in the Constituent Assembly that was elected two months later. The cardinal primate, Archbishop Pedro Segura y Saenz of Toledo, did not hesitate to draw a parallel between what was happening in Madrid and the French Revolution of 1789 -- which had not only buried the monarchy but dispossessed the Church - and he delivered a violently anti-Republican pastoral that caused a national storm. Following the primate's outburst, the country's mood turned sullen. Early in May 1931, a group of right-wing officers and monarchists met at a house in the centre of Madrid to form an Independent Monarchist Club. Word soon spread that a group of conspirators were at work inside the house and the crowd that gathered in the street outside quickly degenerated. into a mob setting parked cars alight and sacking the nearby offices of the rightwing ABC newspaper. Next day sporadic rioting broke out. First a Jesuit residence in the centre of Madrid was gutted by fire. Then other churches and convents were set on fire throughout the city. For a moment it was feared that the mob would attack the Foundation for the Sick. Jose Maria rushed into the chapel and started swallowing handfuls of Sacred Hosts from the ciborium to prevent them from being profaned. Unable to swallow them all, with the mob drawing closer, he wrapped the ciborium in a newspaper and took it by taxi to a friend's apartment near the Cuatro Caminos Plaza, where he went into hiding. The mob left the Foundation headquarters untouched, and Escriva returned days later, deeply upset by what had happened. Soon after, he resigned as the Foundation's chaplain. [2] Fearing he would now be required to return to Saragossa, Escriva discussed his problem with Father Poveda, who offered to have him appointed an honorary royal chaplain. But Escriva turned down Poveda's offer because he knew that incardination did not extend to honorific titles. [3] Incardination is like an umbilical cord that ties a priest to his diocesan Ordinary, who is responsible for him within the Church. If at this point Escriva had been unable to remain in Madrid, Opus Dei might have shrivelled and died. But just as it seemed his academic furlough would end with no doctorate to show for his five years in the capital, providence intervened presenting him with a Palatine device. It was Father Poveda who found the solution, suggesting to his bishop, the Palatine Ordinary, that Escriva should be appointed to the chaplaincy of the Patronato of Santa Isabel, which consisted of a convent for Augustinian Recollect nuns, a church and women's college, located next to Madrid's General Hospital. The Patronato of Santa Isabel, because it was a royal benefice, came under the jurisdiction of the Palatine Ordinary -- the bishop in charge of the royal vicariat to whom all royal chaplains were incardinated -- which meant that it functioned like an independent diocese. Santa Isabel's previous rector and chaplain had both resigned in compliance with a government decree disbanding the royal vicariat. This was later repealed, and Poveda managed to have Escriva named Santa Isabel's new chaplain. Thus in September 1931 the Palatine Ordinary confirmed the appointment, leaving the Ordinary of Saragossa with no alternative but to acknowledge the fait accompli. Even before the appointment was confirmed, Escriva started using the church of Santa Isabel and its confessionals to administer spiritual direction to his growing circle of disciples. His only other pastoral activity at the time consisted in taking his handful of followers on weekend visits to the very sick in the city's hospitals. Understaffed and overcrowded, swarming with staphylococci and other lethal germs, Madrid's hospitals were said to have served as the cradle of Opus Dei. Escriva's closest associate at the time, Father Jose Maria Somoano, was claimed to be the first person fully to appreciate the spirit of the Work. The other disciple who accompanied Escriva on his weekly rounds of the sickwards was Luis Gordon, a young engineer and nephew of the Marchioness of Onteiro. He became Opus Dei's second lay member, after Isidoro Zorzano, who was still working for the Andalusian railways in Malaga. Speaking of Luis Gordon years later, Escriva said, 'One day he collected a chamber pot from a patient with tuberculosis and it was disgusting! I told him, "That's the spirit, go and clean it!" Then I felt a bit sorry for him, because I could see that it had turned his stomach. I went after him and I saw him with a look of heavenly joy oil his face, cleaning it with his bare hands.' This incident later caused Escriva to write in one of his famous maxims, 'Isn't it true, Lord, that you were greatly consoled by the childlike remark of that man who, when he felt the disconcerting effect of obedience in something unpleasant, whispered to you, "Jesus, keep me smiling".' [4] Somoano, on the other hand, had a gift for instilling in patients a sense of usefulness even as they were dying. In the last months of 1931, he approached one of the terminal patients at King's Hospital, a young woman whose name was Maria Ignacia Garcia Escobar, and confided that he needed her help. She had intestinal tuberculosis and was in constant pain after surgery had failed to stop the disease from spreading. Somoano told her, 'We must pray a lot for something that is going to help the salvation of everyone. And I don't mean just for a few days. This is a matter of great good for the whole world. It will require prayer and sacrifice today, tomorrow and always.' [5] Later he told her that the intention was Opus Dei. In April 1932, Maria Ignacia asked to join. She became Opus Dei's first woman member. She had but five months to live. Somoano lavished care upon her. She wrote in her diary that Opus Dei had brought to the world 'a new era of Love'. [6] Somoano's popularity among patients overshadowed even Escriva's charisma. Somoano wanted to bring Opus Dei to the greatest number of people, no matter if they were destitute, delinquent or at death's door. With his limitless energy he was in danger of running away with God's invention, taking it along paths not revealed to Escriva in the 'cornerstone' visions. Escriva had different views about Opus Dei's apostolate, based on a holy 'trickle down' approach, and -- judging by his later writings -- he must have resented Somoano's efforts, regarding them as an attempt to kidnap Opus Dei. 'As Jesus received his doctrine from the Father, so my doctrine is not mine but comes from God and so not a jot or tittle shall ever be changed,' Escriva wrote almost forty years later in Cronica. [7] Was he jealous of Somoano? We shall never know, except that some years later Escriva remarked to one of his earliest disciples, 'from the first day [Somoano] promised obedience, but then he began to disobey ...' [8] On 13 July 1932, Somoano suddenly fell ill. Four days later he died in terrible agony. Though not present at the moment of his death, Escriva had spent hours at his bedside, praying. The young priest was thought to have been poisoned by 'anticlerical elements' in one of the hospitals, but apparently no 'autopsy was undertaken and no charges were ever pressed. Maria Ignacia Garcia died in September 1932, and two months later, Luis Gordon also fell ill and died. Said Escriva: 'Now we have two saints in heaven. A priest and a layman.' [9] This remark suggests that the Founder never really considered Maria Ignacia a member. As for Luis Gordon, it seems that nobody questioned whether encouraging a civil engineer to spend his Sunday afternoons tending patients with contagious diseases in Madrid's hospitals -- without any training on how to avoid the risk of contamination -- had contributed to his premature death. In any event, soon afterwards Escriva abandoned the hospital apostolate. With only his duties as chaplain at Santa Isabel to occupy him, Escriva was now able to devote more time to recruiting. His family had moved to Madrid by then and he found them an apartment in a narrow five-storey building at 4 Paseo del General Martinez Campos. The apartment was reasonably close to the main university faculties, and large enough to invite ten or twelve people at a time for a tertulia. Dona Dolores and sister Carmen helped prepare food for these gatherings. Young Santiago was said to be dismayed by the student appetites. Escriva contended, however, that it was important for his disciples to develop a sense of belonging to a family. Isidoro Zorzano, his first apostle, was hoping to be transferred to Madrid to help the Father expand the Work's apostolate. Juan Jimenez Vargas, a medical student who came to the Martinez Campos tertulias, asked to join in January 1933, becoming the second apostle. Jose Maria Gonzalez Barredo, a research chemist and third apostle, joined a few weeks later. He was a valuable addition because, like Zorzano, he was earning a salary, which he contributed to the general funds of the Work. Ricardo Fernandez Vallespin, an architecture student, joined in June 1933, becoming the fourth apostle. In spite of these first successes Escriva found that the Martinez Campos apartment, though cosy and clean, lacked sufficient class to provide his recruits with a feeling of belonging to a select, close-knit family. The building was quite shabby and its ground floor was let out as a shop and a working man's wine bar which Escriva thought detracted from the general salubrity of the location. And so after months of hesitation he finally moved his family into the rectory of Santa Isabel. The customs and norms destined to transform Opus Dei into a strong sect-like organization were slowly evolving. Novices were put through an initiation rite. Even in those early days, according to one of its first members, Opus Dei possessed a strong Crusader element, which for some heightened its mystery and appeal. Opus Dei was to have three main apostolates, each placed under the protection of an Archangel. The Work of Archangel Raphael was to oversee the recruiting of new members into the Work, and quickly it became the focus of Opus Dei's existence, initially targeting university students before they embarked upon professional careers. At this stage, Opus Dei only had celibate members, known as numeraries. Once brought into the movement, their ongoing care and guidance was entrusted to Archangel Michael, the Guardian of God's Chosen People. This meant that while one arm of Opus Dei worked at recruiting, another laboured at maintaining the motivation of those already inducted into the organization. The work of Archangel Gabriel, God's Special Messenger, came later. It was to look after the spiritual well-being of married members and co-operators -- the future bread and butter of the organization. In the 1930s, however, celibacy remained a prerequisite for membership. Supernumeraries -- noncelibate members -- would only be admitted in the 1950s, after the development of the Women's Section. By December 1933, Escriva was ready to launch Opus Dei's first corporate work. He had Zorzano rent a first-floor apartment at 33 Calle Luchana not far from the city centre. They transformed the apartment into a private institute offering supplementary courses for university students and called it the DYA Academy, claiming the three letters stood for Derecho y Arquitectura -- Law and Architecture. Only secretly were some students -- those viewed as likely recruits -- told that DYA really stood for Dios y Audacia -- 'God and Audacity'. Ricardo Fernandez, the fourth apostle, became the DYA's director. The Luchana premises had a visitors' room, two small classrooms, a study room, small living room and an office for the Founder that contained a bare wooden cross. Escriva heard confessions in the kitchen, which also served as Jose Marfa Gonzalez's chemistry lab. The furniture was borrowed from Dona Dolores or came from the Rastro, Madrid's flea market. The Republican party of Manuel Azana, then the serving prime minister, was almost annihilated in the November 1933 elections that followed the adoption of a new constitution. A right-wing coalition came to power in which the dominant figure was Jose Marfa Gil Robles, Angel Herrera's successor as head of the Propagandistas. Herrera had resigned to become national chairman of the Catholic Action movement, but still exerted strong influence over his successor at the ACNP. Gil Robles had distinguished himself as a leader writer for the ACNP's El Debate newspaper. He had married the daughter of one of Spain's richest grandees, and took her on a honeymoon to Germany, where they attended Hitler's' first Nuremberg Rally, bringing back to Spain many of the Nazi propaganda techniques. He demonstrated his organizational ability by forming a nationwide federation of right-wing Catholic parties -- the CEDA. He claimed that CEDA had more than 700,000 members, making it the largest political grouping in Spain. But Gil Robles lacked Herrera's tactical brilliance and self-restraint, and this would lead him into a particularly acrimonious confrontation with his Republican 'Popular Front' opponents. In the meantime, however, the Gil Robles alliance set for its objective the revocation of Azana's restrictive legislation against the Church. At first he was content to stand aside from a cabinet posting, satisfied that if the Radical party kept its part of the bargain the Church could 'live in the Spanish Republic with dignity, respected in her rights and the exercise of her divine mission'. [10] This, of course, interested Escriva as in April 1933 the Azana government had abolished the Palatine jurisdiction, leaving the recently appointed chaplain of Santa Isabel without an Ordinary, an ecclesiastical oversight that lasted for the next eight years. An unusual situation, it nevertheless permitted Escriva full freedom to concentrate on Opus Dei's development. Nor did it stop him from requesting that the new government appoint him to the vacant post of Santa Isabel's rector. As required by the Law of Congregations, his appointment was confirmed by the President of the Republic in December 1934, by which time he had already moved his family into the rector's house. Within months of the DYA's opening, Escriva decided to transform it into a srudent residence since he believed this would provide a better atmosphere for recruiting. Three larger apartments were found at 50 Calle Ferraz and turned into accommodation for twenty students. Escriva also kept an office there -- known as the 'Father's room' -- with a bathroom whose walls were frequently flecked with blood from the 'pious flagellation' he inflicted upon himself. In March 1935 he requested permission from the diocese of Madrid to install a chapel, which was granted. Within weeks of the first Mass being celebrated in the new chapel, a student from the School of Civil Engineering by the name of Alvaro del Portillo carne to see Escriva. Portillo's aunt, one of the Apostolic Ladies, had told him about the Father's work with students. Portillo met Escriva several times over the next few months but seemed unable to make up his mind about joining. Escriva therefore asked another DYA resident, Francisco Pons, to befriend Portillo and help draw him closer to the Work. Pons told Portillo that becoming a member was like being a 'Crusader with cape and sword'. [11] In July 1935, Portillo became the fifth apostle. The sixth apostle, Jose Maria Hernandez de Garnica, another engineering student, joined two weeks later. After him came Pedro Casciaro and Francisco Botella, both architecture students. They drew in fellow classmate Miguel Fisac. It took quite a while to get the twenty-one-year-old Fisac to 'whistle' -- the term used by Opus Dei when a recruit decides to join. He was pressed to attend the weekly sessions at which Escriva would comment upon readings from the Gospel, and talk of the necessity of observing certain Christian norms, such as making offerings to a good cause, reciting set prayers, going to confession once a week and examining one's conscience -- all of which Fisac later learned were obligatory norms for Opus Dei members. In no case during these sessions was reference made to Opus Dei. The introduction was done privately, on a one-to-one basis. An early paradox that Fisac noted was that Escriva insisted there was no need for secrecy, only discretion, for exactly the same reasons that people did not broadcast to the world their most intimate thoughts. Then pretending he wanted to know more about his students, the Father asked those who interested him to fill in a form, giving full biographic information about themselves, down to their preferred hobbies and sports. When Fisac was asked to join he was caught off balance. 'I did not dare refuse, and it was a weakness that I began to regret the same day,' he later wrote to a friend. [12] In spite of his reservations, Fisac became the ninth apostle. He was required to write a letter requesting admission -- still a standard procedure for new recruits -- and then Escriva sent him on a three-day retreat. For the next twenty years he remained a close observer of Opus Dei's inner workings. He remembered on one occasion Escriva telling Casciaro and Juan Jimenez Vargas that for certain inner-circle ceremonies he was thinking of having them wear white capes emblazoned with a red cross whose four extremities would be shaped like arrowheads. [13] Fisac was followed in 1936 by a philosophy student, Rafael Calvo Serer, who became the tenth apostle, a history student, Vicente Rodriguez Casado, the eleventh apostle, and an internationally known research chemist, Jose Maria AIbareda Herrera, the twelfth apostle. Like Zorzano, Albareda was the same age as Escriva. Fisac said that when he joined Opus Dei the mood of religious persecution in Madrid created a reaction of 'genuine exaltation' among staunch Catholics that strengthened their faith. In Angel Herrera's case, he resigned from Catholic Action to enter the priesthood. Then early in 1936 new elections were called. Gil Robles and Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera, son of the ex-dictator and founder of the Falange Movement, banded together to form a National Front in opposition to the left's Popular Front. Spain was now completely polarized. The Popular Front received 34.5 per cent of the vote and the National Front 33.2 per cent. Bitterly, Gil Robles assailed the results as a 'revolution against law and order, respect for religion, property, the family, and national unity'. [14] By May 1936 the situation had become so tense under the Popular Front that Escriva, never knowing when he might be attacked in the street, was in a state of nervous exhaustion. A few weeks before, a fellow priest had almost been lynched because it was rumoured he had distributed poisoned sweets to the children of factory workers. More religious houses and churches were sacked, and Escriva felt that the Patronato of Santa Isabel was no longer safe. He found another apartment for his mother, sister and brother across town, closer to Calle Ferraz. DYA quickly outgrew its premises and a vacant building was found down the street at 16 Ferraz. After the death of Uncle Teodoro earlier that year, Escriva persuaded his mother to sell the family property at Fonz so that the proceeds might be used to purchase the 16 Ferraz building. It was well situated, directly opposite the Montana Army Barracks. The building was owned by the Conde de Real who had fled to France. Dona Dolores could refuse her son nothing and 16 Ferraz was purchased by a company called Fomento de Estudios Superiores. Isidoro Zorzano was its president. Escriva immediately addressed a letter to the diocese of Madrid asking for permission to transfer the 'semi-public' DYA chapel to the new address. As in previous letters, no mention was made of Opus Dei, only the DYA residence. Officially Opus Dei did not exist. It was registered neither with the diocese nor with the state. At the beginning of July, with tension stretched at the breaking point, a depressive Father Escriva informed his 'children' that he intended to expand Opus Dei's mission by opening an office in Paris. [15] This was said to have 'greatly surprised' them. He had already begun to make travel arrangements, but political events moved faster than anticipated. [16] On 12 July 1936, Lieutenant Jose del Castillo of the Republican Assault Guards was gunned down by Falangists. Retaliation was immediate. That same night a prominent right-wing politician was shot and the outrage that followed spurred the Nationalist generals, who were already plotting rebellion, to move against the Republic. But even for them the Spanish Civil War began one day earlier than planned. Fearing they were about to be arrested, a handful of conspirators at Melilla, the easternmost city of Spanish Morocco, jumped the gun in the early evening of Friday, 17 July 1936, and shot their commanding officer. The garrisons of Tetuan and Ceuta rose hours later. After receiving news of the uprising, Franco flew from the Canary Islands, where he had been appointed military governor, to take command of the Army in Africa and immediately appealed to Hitler and Mussolini for military aid. One of Franco's closest friends, Colonel Juan de Yague, then in command of the Spanish Foreign Legion, was probably the first to use the word 'Crusade' to describe the Nationalist uprising. Whether Yague's or someone else's innovation, crusade perfectly suited the motivation of the conspirators and it quickly became conventional usage in Nationalist propaganda. The re-invention of holy war in Spain was accompanied by the same propensity for atrocity as during, the Crusades of old. All Opus Dei members supported the Nationalist cause. Some, however, because they resided in areas that remained faithful to the Republic at the outset of the rebellion, were conscripted into the Republican army. The rising was immediately successful in the north and north-west of Spain, and in isolated pockets in the south. Elsewhere, the Republicans maintained control, though in Madrid they barely had the situation in hand. At sunrise on Monday, 20 July, a crowd gathered in the Plaza de Espana and began chanting 'Arms for the People' and 'Death to the Fascists'. Then one of the agitators perceived that the gauntlet of Don Quixote, whose statue stands in the centre of the plaza, was pointing towards the Montana Barracks. The crowd took this as a sign to storm the barracks. Two brightly coloured beer trucks commandeered by the Anarchists wheeled into place three antiquated artillery pieces that had been discovered in a nearby depot. From the DYA building across the street, Escriva watched the attack on the fortress-like barracks. The three field pieces opened fire at virtually point-blank range. They were more than a match for the trench mortars inside the barracks. After several hours of pounding, the troops inside the barracks turned on their officers and drove them into the central courtyard, where scores were despatched by machine gun. The frenzied mob stormed through the breached walls and applauded as a giant loyalist soldier threw the remaining officers to their deaths from the highest parapet. When the smoke cleared, the Father changed into worker's overalls and slipped out of the building. Accompanied by Zorzano and Gonzalez, he hurried to his mother's apartment, close by. As the milicianos were summarily shooting priests like game in the streets, he remained at the apartment while Juan Jimenez Vargas met in the afternoon with Alvaro del Portillo to exchange information about what was happening in the rest of Spain. News bulletins mentioned a limited rebellion which the government said would soon be crushed. According to these reports, loyalist troops had already recaptured Seville and loyalist warships were shelling the North African garrisons. None of this was true. In Barcelona, on the other hand, the uprising had failed miserably, not because of decisive government intervention but because Durruti and Ascaso -- by then under sentence of death in four countries but national heroes in Republican Spain -- had taken over the city arsenal and with arms seized there mounted a successful assault on the Atarazanas Barracks in which Ascaso was killed. The military governor, General Manuel Goded, was captured and executed, and the city reorganized under a revolutionary committee. Durruti formed the 'Ascaso Column' consisting of six thousand Anarchist 'minutemen' and marched out of Barcelona to liberate Saragossa, which had gone over to the Nationalists. His second in command was Domingo Ascaso, brother of the fallen Francisco. Inside Saragossa, the Virgen del Pilar was named supreme commander of the city. Whereas the Fourth Division in Barcelona had collapsed, the Fifth Division in Saragossa under its new commander remained a viable fighting force. Moreover, the city's population became enraged when a lone Republican aircraft dropped a bomb on the Basilica. del Pilar. The bomb actually dislodged Our Lady from her column, but -- miracle of miracles -- it failed to explode. After receiving Axis air transport, on 5 August 1936 Franco began airlifting troops from Ceuta to Salamanca and started advancing northwards. Nine days later, in retaliation for the wholesale executions that followed the fall of Badajoz to the Spanish Foreign Legion, guards at the Model Prison in Madrid butchered the inmates, among them Fernando Primo de Rivera, brother of the Falange leader. Days later militiamen looking for spies searched the building in the Calle de Sagasta where Escriva had gone into hiding. They found no-one, but that night he and Jimenez Vargas moved to the apartment of Jose Maria Gonzalez's father, where they remained for the next few weeks. On 28 September 1936, the Nationalist junta met at Salamanca and accepted Franco as generalisimo. They had little choice. Franco held all the cards. His German and Italian allies made it clear they would deal only with him. Three days later, Franco moved his headquarters to Burgos in northwest Spain. His arrival was celebrated by the ringing of church bells throughout the city. He formed a military government which was sworn in with medieval pomp and a special Mass at the ancient Abbey of Las Huelgas. _______________ Notes: 1. Harry Gannes and Theodore Repard, Spain in Revolt, Victor Gollancz, London 1936, p. 47. 2. Gondrand, Op. cit., p. 75. 3. Vazquez de Prada, Op. cit., p. 139. 4. Josemaria Escriva, Maxim 626, The Way, Four Courts Press, Dublin 1985. 5. Berglar, Op. cit., p. 85. 6. Bernal, Op. cit., pp. 139-140. 7. Cronica I, the internal publication for Opus Dei numeraries, Rome, 1971. 8. Miguel Fisac, Noces, 8 June 1994. 9. Berglar, Op. cit., p. 84. 10. Cannes and Repard. Op. cit., p. 71, citing El Debate. 11. Fisac Notes, 8 June 1994. 12. Miguel Fisac letter to Luis Borobio, 18 February 1995. 13. Fisac Notes, 8 June 1994. 14. Gannes and Repard, Op. cit., p. 117. 15. Gondrand, Op. cit., pp. 127 and 128. 16. Ibid., p, 128.
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