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THEIR KINGDOM COME -- INSIDE THE SECRET WORLD OF OPUS DEI |
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9. Pious Union
TO CLAIM ESCRIVA WAS ONLY INTERESTED IN THE SPIRITUAL well-being of his disciples and the manner in which they carried out their apostolate - openly and without guile, bringing the Good News to family, friends and workmates -- was nonsense. Escriva was interested in power. He was a schemer. God's schemer. And he wanted to control higher education, and later government ministries, to assure that there would be no return to Anarchism, Liberalism and Marxism. Defeating this constellation of evil -- the ALMs complex -- was central to Opus Dei's mission. It was the key, as he might have expressed it, 'to looking God in the eye'. To maintain that Opus Dei had no political mission was, consequently, being less than forthright. It did have one, and Escriva himself explained why: 'It seems substantially better to me that there be many highly qualified Catholics who, while not posing as "official" Catholics, work within the political structure from positions of responsibility to create a true Catholic presence, sustained by an upright love for their co-workers.' [1] What could be clearer? Opus Dei's mission had little to do with saving individual souls. It had to do with saving Father Escriva's employer, the Roman Catholic Church. That was Opus Dei's principal Crusade. But it was not a message that Opus Dei broadcast openly. It went only to the officers. To the world at large, Opus Dei's mission was to spread the word that holiness can be achieved through work, and that work was an essential part of the human condition and therefore it needed to be sanctified. 'What does it matter to me if a member be a cabinet minister or a street sweeper? What I care about is that he grows in love for God and all men in and through his work,' Father Escriva replied when, in 1957, he was congratulated by a cardinal because two of his 'sons' had been appointed government ministers. The remark was cited by Cardinal Albino Luciani a month before becoming Pope. 'This reply tells us everything about Escriva and the spirit of Opus Dei.' [2] But really it told us more about Luciani's innate goodness and naivety. This story, often repeated by Opus Dei, was devious, for it gave a misleading impression of Opus Dei's mission. Of course Escriva was convinced that members who followed his spiritual guidance grew 'in love for God and all men'. For him it was perfectly evident. If members carried out to perfection their apostolate -- keeping the Church pure while recruiting new members into the militia -- then Escriva would tell them, 'I promise you heaven.' [3] But to gain access to heaven, they had to do battle for the Church. That was the other half of the story. The guarded half. As a natural consequence of doing battle for the Church, souls were saved. Church first, souls second. And to protect the Church, Opus Dei sought to create 'a true Catholic presence' in the Secular City by occupying 'positions of responsibility'. That was the essential character of Opus Dei from 1939 onwards. Opus Dei might claim this to be the diatribe of an outsider who has misunderstood the inner workings of a divinely inspired organization. Its directors would surely point out that Escriva himself told the world: 'There is no soul whom we do not love.' Did he not also explain: 'Whoever does not thirst for all souls does not have a vocation to Opus Dei. As children of God ... you and I must think of souls when we see people'? [4] Of course the Founder said those things. But one of the troubles about citing anything by Escriva is that he was a master of double talk and dual standards. He said one thing for the outside world and another for his children. Even more telling, he said one thing for some of his children, while maintaining something else for his staff officers, the inscribed numeraries. He also had two layers of publications: one for the general public, The Way for example, and another reserved for elect numeraries. Strict orders were issued that copies of Cr6nica, the monthly review for staff officers, be kept under lock and key in each centre. [5] So, yes, the Founder did say, 'Whoever does not thirst for souls does not have a vocation to Opus Dei.' But he also said: 'We do not go to the apostolate to receive applause, but to defend the Church in the front line when it is hard going to be a Catholic, and to pass unnoticed when Catholicism is in fashion.' [6] Because Opus Dei had no more than a handful at. members in 1939, no money, no headquarters and not even legal status, its agenda over the next few years might have seemed outrageously ambitious. But it was an agenda known only to the Founder and a few of his apostles. It was also an agenda that needed a plan. Escriva, the master strategist, was by definition a master planner. He gathered his strategies into a portfolio which he called his Plan of Life. 'Without a plan of life you will never have order,' he claimed in Maxim 76. After 1,000 days of Civil War Escriva arrived back in Madrid with a small copy-book in which 'point by point he had made a note of his projects of reconstruction and apostolic expansion, identifying the steps to be taken and the goals to be achieved'. [7] This was his outline for Plan 'A'. [8] The war clouds hanging over Europe at that time required it to remain national in scope. In any case, God's proxy needed to establish a secure home base before exporting Opus Dei's apostolate to the rest of the world. Plan 'A' was many times modified as events progressed towards Opus Dei's registration as a secular organization belonging to the Church. But essentially it had four basic components. It was built around a political focalizer: constructing an ALMs bulwark. To do this Opus Dei needed a general staff, national headquarters and structure. But in addition, it needed troops -- the work of Archangel Raphael. This meant opening new Opus Dei centres in Madrid and the provinces. The strategic objective was to control higher education. Unbelievable? Megalomania? Here was this provincial priest without means, a nobody thinking he could take over Spain's universities. But the country bumpkin with the dust of Aragon upon his cassock had come a long way since arriving in the capital from the provinces. He had survived Communist persecution. He had escaped from the control of his Ordinary. He had, in a sense, broken the mould. He had a firm hand on the infallible means mentioned in Maxim 474 -- Love, Faith, the Cross -- but now he had other means, provided by Jose Ibanez Martin, providential man of the moment. Love and Faith, his followers would agree, were commodities that Father Escriva possessed in supernatural abundance. His Cross was the ideology of authoritarian clericalism. But there was nothing original in all this. It was pure ACNP dogma. The root of modern Spanish evil for Escriva, as for Angel Herrera and Ibanez Martin, was the ALMs syndrome; it had taken hold with such tenacity in the 1920s and 1930s that the Liberals assumed control over national education. To erase Liberal influence, national education had to be sanitized. Franco shared this conviction and the man he chose to carry out the cleansing was the owlish Ibanez Martin, naming him as his education minister in April 1939. With the help of Jose Maria Albareda, Ibanez Martin developed a national education strategy that fitted Opus Dei's intentions perfectly. Ibanez Martin's most urgent task was to create new professors to fill the empty chairs and to check the credentials of those who remained after the Civil War to determine whether they were 'politically reliable'. One hundred and fifty new professors had to be appointed within the next three years. Ibanez Martin turned the selection process upside down, removing any autonomy from the universities. The five-member selection juries were henceforth named by him and served at his discretion. Two Opus Dei members were immediately given a chair: Jose Maria Albareda (agronomy) and DYA alumnus Angel Santos Ruiz (physics). Scores more would follow during the next few years. Another of Ibanez Martin's earliest initiatives was the Law of 24 November 1939 which created the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas, or National Scientific Research Council (NSRC), which became the principal cover for Opus Dei's assault on higher education and also helped finance its expansion abroad. Ibanez Martin named himself chairman. As vice-chairman he appointed an Augustinian priest, Father Jose Lopez Ortiz, who was one of Escriva's closest confidants, having first met him at the University of Saragossa in 1924. But the person Ibanez Martin chose to run the Council was Escriva's twelfth apostle. Known for his research in soil chemistry, Albareda was well suited for the job. He became the high priest of Spanish science, a position he maintained until his death in March 1966. Under the broad definition Ibanez Martin and Albareda gave to science, the Council's prerogatives extended from theology to economics. To carry out his mandate, Albareda surrounded himself with Opus Dei recruits. The NSRC was described as the matrix of Opus Dei. [9] It determined who would obtain scholarships for post-graduate and doctoral studies abroad. It disbursed the grants and travel allowances. Anyone wishing to study in a foreign land could only do so with the NSRC's approval and, because of stringent foreign exchange controls, their foreign stipends were paid by the NSRC through official banking channels. The NSRC had a strong state-funded budget and it received private donations as well, the dispensing of which Opus Dei was able to influence. It hired its own auditors and was not subject to the Intendant General of Finance. Its resources were truly enormous for Spain at the time. Between 1945 and 1950, the NSRC received 259 million pesetas in public funding, while only 84 million pesetas went to the construction of sorely needed primary schools. [10] Ibanez Martin opened many doors and provided access to academic trappings that matched Escriva's growing status as the Founder of a politico-religious movement. He told Father Lopez Ortiz that Escriva was preparing a doctoral thesis. Lopez Ortiz visited Escriva and enquired how the thesis was progressing. 'It was practically finished,' the Augustinian recalled. 'The date for its defence could therefore be fixed for the end of December ... I was on the tribunal ... It was a work of juridical investigation carried out with an ability and style which were truly extraordinary. All of us who were part of the tribunal were impressed and the thesis was given the best mark.' [11] What could have been more expedient? An aura of mystery, nevertheless, surrounded Escriva's civil law doctorate. The thesis dealt with the canonical framework constructed in the Middle Ages for the prelatura nullius of Las Huelgas. Therefore it was not about civil law at all. To clarify this anomaly, an editor of the Madrid newspaper Cambio 16 reported that he had initiated a search for Father Escriva's academic file. In vain. 'At the Ministry of Education and Science we were told that "since 1930 until today there has never been a university student registered under this name". At Saragossa our search was also without results.' [12] Was Father Escriva's first doctorate -- years later he was awarded a second from the Lateran Pontifical University in Rome [13] -- a gift from Ibanez Martin? To attract a young elite, Opus Dei needed to open student residences, and it needed to open them quickly. Ibanez Martin was preparing a new law governing universities. The new law would require students, as a condition of enrolment, to belong to a Colegio Mayor or hall of residence. Halls of residence could be either state or privately run. The law would be introduced in 1943, but Opus Dei wanted to have several residences operating before then. The Jenner Residence became the first of these. In July 1939, Zorzano took a three-year lease on three apartments in a building on Calle Jenner, off the Castellana. The building was pleasant; the apartments large. Escriva had them joined together: one was equipped with an oratory, refectory, common room, study hall and catering facilities, the others converted into accommodation. The Father moved into the Jenner Residence with his family in August 1939. When the Residence opened two months later, Dona Dolores -- now called 'Grandmother' -- and sister Carmen -- whom members addressed as 'Auntie' -- took in hand the domestic duties of caring for up to forty male students. The Father had his own suite consisting of bedroom, office and bathroom where he punished himself with the discipline, which he made more biting by attaching pieces of razor blades to its braided hemp tails. He practised self-mortification with such ferocity that it caused his children to wince. One numerary who worked as a surgeon in a Madrid clinic became concerned when he found the Father covered in blood. Next morning, while Escriva was absent, he threw the discipline on to the roof of a neighbouring building. [14] By the end of 1939, with centres in Barcelona, Valencia and Valladolid, Escriva was the spiritual overseer of one hundred souls. He went on prospecting trips to provincial universities often accompanied by the NSRC's deputy chairman Jose Lopez Ortiz. Until named Bishop of Tuy-Vigo in July 1944, Father Lopez was so close to Escriva that he was considered a member. By his own account, he met Escriva every day and he knew personally most of the other members, being in the case of Isidoro Zorzano his confessor. Escriva had by then put together a general staff. In addition to Zorzano, his administrator general, it included another six of the twelve apostles: Paco Botella served as Secretary General; Alvaro del Portillo was procurator general; and Jose Maria Albareda was the prefect of education. Jose Maria Hernandez de Garnica, Ricardo Fernandez Vallespin and Pedro Casciaro were consultors. Incorporated into Plan 'A' was a project to provide the Founder with an enhanced pedigree, as if at last he felt a need to shake the dust of Aragon off his cassock. He consulted his sister and brother. Evidently his mother did not go along with the idea as she was not a co-signatory of the petition sent to the Ministry of Justice. The application 'to change our family name to Escriva de Balaguer, in order to distinguish us from other Escrivas by adopting the ancestral form of address', was heard that spring in the Madrid Civil Court. Jose Maria, Carmen and Santiago justified their request by stating: 'Escriva is an extremely common name in the regions of Levante and Catalonia, which can cause prejudicial and annoying confusion. It is therefore desirable to add to our surname the family's town of origin.' The family had never resided in Catalonia or Levante where they alleged that being called Escriva without any qualifier was such a vulgar burden. No matter. The court approved the name change. Henceforth the Founder of Opus Dei was to be addressed as Dr. Jose Maria Escriva de Balaguer. By then acquiring a suitable headquarters had become urgent. The Jenner Residence proved so successful that it soon had a waiting list. A private mansion with small garden was found in Calle Diego de Leon. According to Opus Dei, the three-storey mansion was rented by the Fomento de Estudios Superiores, represented by Ricardo Fernandez Vallespin, for 13,000 pesetas a month, then equivalent to about $300. According to an Opus Dei budget director, the property was finally purchased at the end of the 1940s for 6 million pesetas ($140,000) from the Marquesa de Rafal. At first it was claimed that insufficient funds were available to repair the heating system or even to buy coal. If this was the case, it was because money was lavished on other interior modifications, such as transforming an oval sitting room into an elaborately decorated oratory. Escriva moved in with his family in December 1940. He had a small room on the third floor and an office on the second beside the oratory. His mother, brother and sister shared an apartment on the main floor. Even before the transformations were completed, the building was too small and in the 1960s four new floors were added. Nothing on the outside of the building indicated that it was the headquarters of Opus Dei. Maintaining a headquarters, however, required an administrative staff and bookkeeping. This was entrusted to Isidoro Zorzano. The first apostle was suffering from an undiagnosed ailment that over the next two years left him increasingly weak. The strain of so many years in the wilderness had also left its mark on the Founder; in May 1944 he was diagnosed as having diabetes and thereafter required daily insulin injections. [15] Dr. Escriva de Balaguer was now operating across diocesan boundaries and this was causing problems. We are told that a whisper campaign started against him. One of the rumours was that he and his disciples were practising Masonic rites. Two young men, professing an interest in joining Opus Dei, took part in a benediction service at the Jenner Residence and reported that the oratory contained cabalistic symbols. The Diego de Leon oratory was likewise denounced to the Holy Office in Rome because it was elliptically shaped. The Dominicans were asked to investigate. They found no pagan symbols in the Jenner oratory, and the Diego de Leon chapel was elliptical because that happened to be the shape of the room. The source of the rumours was never determined. Some believed the Jesuits were responsible, and indeed at this time the Father definitively broke with his Jesuit confessor. The reason given was that Escriva de Balaguer found him less than enthusiastic about Opus Dei's chances of receiving formal approbation from the Church, something that until then had been neglected. [16] Lopez Ortiz was also subject to criticism for his pro-Opus Dei bias in the university. He had nominated his assistant, the 24-year-old Opus Dei numerary Jose Orlandis, for the post of professor of history of law at Saragossa University. Orlandis received the post, but never took it up. In November 1942 he and fellow numerary. Salvador Canals made a wartime journey to Rome to continue their studies in canon law at the Vatican. Did they benefit from NSRC grants? Opus Dei answered that they received grants from the Ministry of National Education, which amounts to the same thing. In reality, both were instructed by Escriva de Balaguer to make friends among the Roman Curia and inform them about Opus Dei. By their presence in Rome they established the first unofficial Opus Dei centre abroad. Well after midnight one night the telephone rang in the Diego de Leon headquarters. When the Father answered, a voice addressed him by his Christian name and pronounced in Latin the words of Jesus to Simon Peter: 'Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail; and when you have turned again, strengthen your brethren.' [17] Only the caller used the Latin word for 'sons' rather than 'brethren'. Escriva de Balaguer had recognized the voice of Leopoldo Eijo y Garay, Bishop of Madrid-Alcala. He took the call as a warning that more persecution was on its way. He claimed he had always kept Don Leopoldo informed of Opus Dei's development and insisted that because Eijo y Garay had bestowed his 'oral approval' upon Opus Dei no approval in scriptus was needed. But months before, Don Leopoldo had in fact told Escriva de Balaguer to register Opus Dei in scriptus with the diocese. Escriva refused. He felt to register Opus Dei as a 'pious union' was too narrow. A pious union is defined as 'an association of faithful with a broad mandate for exercising works of piety or charity, capable of receiving spiritual graces and especially indulgences'. It is the simplest form of ecclesiastical institution, requiring nothing more than the approval of the local bishop. Instead he replied to Don Leopoldo that no provision existed under canon law that suited Opus Dei. The sense of his response was that Opus Dei should not be required to bend its structures to comply with canon law, but that canon law should be made to accommodate Opus Dei. He must have received a 'rocket', because on 14 February 1941 he wrote a letter requesting after all the status of a pious union. As a concession, Don Leopoldo agreed to keep Opus Dei's rules, regulations, customs and ceremonies in the episcopacy's secret archives. Escriva de Balaguer's letter was noteworthy for several reasons. It marked the first time that the name 'Opus Dei' appeared in an official document. Thirteen years after its founding, God's Work could be said to have emerged from its hidden existence. It was also one of the earliest documents on record in which the Founder joined together his first two Christian names, signing his request as Josemaria Escriva de Balaguer. Opus Dei claims that in fact the Founder had begun using 'Josemaria' as early as 1936, but some former members dispute this, stating that throughout the 1940s he signed internal documents as 'Mariano', a middle name that he started using as a cover during the Civil War. They claim that 'Josemaria' only came into general use after the Founder moved to Rome and began thinking about posterity. It has been pointed out that the Vatican's index of saints contains many San Joses but no San Josemaria. A month after Opus Dei's registration as a pious union, the 'Grandmother' came down with pneumonia and died. Escriva ordered a Gothic crypt to be built in the basement of the Diego de Leon residence and obtained municipal permission to bury his mother there. He then arranged for the remains of his father to be reinterred alongside her, recreating in dynastic solemnity the family union. While Opus Dei was now registered with the Church, Escriva de Balaguer momentarily was not. Though still officially the rector of Santa Isabel, he had become a priest without an Ordinary. This oversight was only rectified in February 1942 when he was incardinated in the diocese of Madrid. So once again Escriva de Balaguer found himself, and Opus Dei as well, under diocesan control. On Saint Valentine's Day 1943, while celebrating Mass in the first Women's Residence in Madrid, Escriva de Balaguer saw a new light. It told him that Opus Dei must obtain 'title' to ordain priests. This addition, it was said, would complete the divine organization of Opus Dei, providing it with a clergy formed from among its own members. But Vatican approval was needed to found a priestly society. Accordingly, with the Bishop of Madrid's consent, in May 1943 Escriva de Balaguer sent Don Alvaro del Portillo to Rome to negotiate the new status. In the middle of the Second World War, a flight from Madrid to Rome was not without adventure. Don Alvaro was able to observe from the window of the aircraft an attack on an Allied convoy headed for Malta. Salvador Canals and Jose Orlandis were waiting for him when he landed. They introduced him to Archbishop Arcadio Larraona, a Spanish Claretian and friend of Generalisimo Franco. Larraona was a canon lawyer who served as pro-secretary of the Congregation of Religious, the Vatican ministry responsible for relations with the nearly 1 million nuns and 150,000 priests belonging to religious orders (i.e., as distinct from secular or diocesan priests). In Spain the tradition of guilds -- medieval associations that regulate a trade or profession -- remained strong. During the Middle Ages, guild members wore uniforms that indicated the rank and experience they had achieved within their trade. These uniforms were de rigueur on all formal occasions such as court appearances or state banquets. The custom was abolished by the Republic, but under Franco guilds returned to favour for certain professions. They were, moreover, a notion that suited Opus Dei's doctrine of pride of profession and sanctity of work. On 6 June 1943 Don Alvaro was accorded his first audience with Pope Pius XII. He arrived wearing the guild uniform of a Spanish civil engineer. The appearance of this regal-looking emissary from an unknown Spanish order caused considerable excitement in the papal antechambers. Don Alvaro handed the Pope Opus Dei's request to found a clerical association. Don Giovanni Battista Montini, the assistant secretary of state, and Archbishop Larraona had already laid the groundwork with the Holy Father so that when Don Alvaro returned to Madrid a month later he was able to announce that pontifical approval would be forthcoming within weeks.
Winning papal approval for a priestly society marked an important step in the development of Opus Dei. But the Father's joy was short-lived. A few days after Don Alvaro's return, Isidoro Zorzano died of Hodgkin's Disease. He had been hospitalized since January. His confessor, Father Lopez Ortiz, said, 'he died a holy death'. Preparations began for declaring the departed Zorzano apt for sainthood. The process was officially inaugurated in 1948 when Cardinal Antonio Bacci was charged with presenting Zorzano's case for beatification. [18] The day after Zorzano's death, Archbishop Larraona drafted a report for the pope describing Opus Dei as 'a new and modern type of institution perfectly suited to the requirements of modern society'. He concluded: 'It is most opportune -- I would say almost necessary -- to confer as quickly as possible the juridical status of [clerical] society upon Opus Dei, which already counts so many fine initiatives on its balance sheet.' [19] In his report, Larraona defended Opus Dei's right to secrecy 'to better penetrate the world.' [20] After being notified of the Vatican's approval, on 8 December 1943 -- the feast of the Immaculate Conception -- Bishop Eijo y Garay issued a decree constituting the Priestly Society of the Holy Cross as a corporate subsidiary of Opus Dei. The pious union continued to function as before, but now a clerical association existed alongside it. In June of the following year, Bishop Eijo personally ordained the first three Opus Dei priests -- Alvaro del Portillo, Jose Maria Hernandez de Garnica and Jose Luis Muzquiz. All were civil engineers. Opus Dei had now completed the second phase of its development and Escriva de Balaguer with the help of his newly ordained priests was already planning the next phase -- the extension of Opus Dei's presence to more than eighty countries on five continents. _______________ Notes: 1. Berglar, Op. cit., p. 119, citing Escriva's letter of 16 June 1960, sections 41 and 42. 2. Cardinal Albino Luciani, article reprinted in The Universe, 29 September 1978. 3. Cronica 1/71: 'When the years pass you will not believe what you have lived. It will seem that you have been dreaming. How many good and great and wonderful things you are going to see ... I can assure you that you will be faithful, even though at times you will have to suffer. Besides, I promise you heaven.' 4. Both quotes are from Escriva's letter to his children of 6 May 1945, section 42, as cited by Bernal, Op. cit., p. 159. 5. Opus Dei claims that Cronica, which commenced publication in 1954, is 'a journal written by members of Opus Dei, with articles from different parts of the world about their work, activities, anecdotes, memories, etc.' But this simplistic description omits to mention that Cronica's essential role is to explain and comment upon Opus Dei's interpretation of key doctrinal issues; its distribution is limited to numeraries. Opus Dei refused to provide the author with copies of Cronica. 6. Escriva's letter to his children of 9 January 1932, as cited by Gondrand, Op. cit., p. 170. 7. Vazquez de Prada. Op. cit., p. 200. 8. Plan 'A' is not Opus Dei terminology; it is used by the author as a label for Opus Dei's development strategy in the immediate post-Civil War years. 9. Ynfante, La Prodigiosa Aventura del Opus Dei -- Genesis y desarrollo de la Santa Mafia, Editions Rueda iberica, Paris 1970, p. 37; Artigues, Op. cit., p. 37, citing Notas sobre la investigacion cientifica en Espana, Manana, November 1965. 10. Ynfante, Op. cit., pp. 40 and 44. 11. Bishop Jose Lopez Ortiz in Testimonies to a man of God, Volume 2, p. 5-08. Scepter 1992. The other members of the tribunal were Inocencio Jimenez, professor of criminal and procedural law, Alfonso Garcia Valdecasas. professor of civil law, and Mariano Puigdollers, professor of natural law and the philosophy of law. The president was a Professor Magarinos. 12. 'The Insignificant Saint,' Cambio 16. 16 March 1992. The article stated in part: Josemaria Escriva 'claimed he was a graduate in law. But did he finish his degree? The authorized biographers leave no doubt: he finished it in Madrid with a doctoral thesis, which was read on 18 December 1939 and received the highest note possible, cum laude. The sceptics ask: "But where is his diploma?"' 13. According to Opus Dei, it was awarded on 20 December 1955. 14. Ynfante, Op. cit., p. 16. 15. De Fuenmayor et al., Op. cit., p. 185. 16. In 1952 Bishop Eijo y Garay told Cardinal Joseph Frings of Cologne that a Jesuit had come to him and said, 'Do you know that a new heresy has started: Opus Dei?' 17. Luke 22:31-32. 18. Peter Hebblethwaite, Paul VI -- The First Modern Pope, HarperCollins 1993, p. 321. Also Rocca, Op. cit., p. 20n. 19. De Fuenmayor et al., Op. cit., pp. 144 and 161. 20. Rocca, Op. cit., p. 31.
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