SHEA, JAMES A. & IMPASTATO, DAVID & FISCHER, MARY ANN & BECKER, REV. MICHAEL & SCHMITT, WILLIAM A. & Coleman, John A. & Baumann, Paul
CORRESPONDENCE One Giant error Rye, N.Y. To the Editors: As a loyal New York Giant fan (baseball) I should point out the factual error in Paul Baumann's book review in the August 11 issue:...
...He was the best first baseman in the National League during his era, his lifetime batting average over 14 seasons was .341, and he is a member of Baseball's Hall of Fame...
...This includes fostering unity with the local bishop and charity with all...
...Flowers are put around sanctuaries...
...They have missed the good news that the church in our times has produced and authoritatively confirmed this way for those lay faithful who wish to enter fully into the call implicit in their baptism, a call heard again resoundingly in Vatican II: "Not only are [the laity] to animate the world with the spirit of Christianity, but they are to be witnesses to Christ in all circumstances and at the very heart of the community of mankind" (The Church in the Modem World, 43...
...I guess my own batting average just went down a point...
...and that it is Catholic in the more fundamental sense-that it is established in the church and as part of the church with a mission that is one with the church's mission...
...to seek the kingdom of God by engaging in temporal affairs and directing them to God's will" (Constitution on the Church, 31...
...Opus Dei, as it has so often repeated, is devoted simply to its purely spiritual and apostolic mission, and leaves its members completely free-with the same freedom enjoyed by all lay people-to do as they please in all areas of the secular sphere, even as they strive to do so in accordance with a well-formed Christian conscience...
...they preferred to focus on his ideas of "hispanidad" and that he was a monarchist, in order to sustain their appraisal that Opus Dei was somehow "reactionary...
...A characteristic complaint of former Opus members is that the confessional (Opus members are forbidden confession to non-Opus priests) and the regular "heart-to-heart" spiritual confidences with priest directors involve detailed supervision of their ordinary lives...
...Opus Dei is a personal prelature of the church and is improperly described as a tightly knit organization with a temporal agenda-of any kind...
...These critics seem to imagine that the obedience members live is modeled on that of the religious, whose life is subject to a rule and at the dispositions of the superiors...
...Yet Opus practices severe censorship over books, magazines, and films seen by members...
...They will acknowledge that the lay person need not be a "second-class citizen" in the church, but they have not considered that the heights of sanctity must be pursuable, not according to the kind of "religious obedience" that those in the religious orders and congregations follow, but according to a spiritual obedience proper to the laity-that is, one that leaves them free in all temporal affairs...
...Moreover, authorities at Princeton University recently demanded the removal of an Opus relaxed chaplain since he used the spiritual-direction relation to determine which university courses students could and could not take...
...But what for Mr...
...The series on Catholic fiction authors is great...
...it's like The Force...
...To the Editors: Having recently been an AIDS "buddy" for another person named George, I was especially moved by "George's story" [September 8...
...that in fact it is for any and all-that is "catholic" in a very real way...
...At any rate, I see no cogent reason to retract my label of Opus Dei as neo-integralist...
...JAMES A. SHEA The author replies: My apologies to Memphis Bill...
...To the Editors: In his article on "Catholic Fundamentalism" (Commonweal, January 27), Father John A. Coleman, S.J., gave prominent place to Opus Dei...
...We have seen businesses and banks where members work become identified as Opus Dei enterprises, and these more recently have been ominously coupled with corporations and foundations set up to operate apostolic and social works (invariably penurious) as constituting an imaginary financial network to advance a putative "agenda...
...It is on the implications of this that those who misrepresent Opus Dei seem to run aground...
...To the Editors: I agree with an observation Tom O'Brien made in his review of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade [July 14]: when indeed, except in The Last Temptation, have film audiences of the last two decades heard that anything associated with Jesus Christ "stands for the divine in all of us...
...Sometimes these critics have been led to make much of normal and even innocent "facts" to their own purposes (most bankers are probably "conservative...
...Escriva's militant anticommunism and religious reinforcement of social hierarchies based on class, his male-centered hierarchy...
...I have a recurring dream: God has announced that Jesus will be coming again (Continued on page 541) (Continued from page 514) next Sunday morning...
...Opus Dei has never seen itself as providing the way, but only a way...
...To the Editors: How I love Commonweal, and how I long to get this excellent publication into the hands of the upper-class parishioners where I do ministry in adult education...
...The clergy and chief laity are standing in their best clothes on the church steps in eager expectation of the arrival of their Lord...
...But when Jesus does come, he walks right on past the churches and heads for the streets of the ghetto where he feels at home...
...Shea...
...That two prime movers of these cosmologies, in this instance Lucas and Spielberg, are themselves exploring (or rediscovering...
...The noted sociologist, Andrew Greeley, for example, has said of Opus Dei that it is a "devious, antidemocratic, reactionary, semifacist institution, desperately hungry for absolute power in the church...
...Allegations by former members allege cases of concealment of identity by Opus Dei recruiters...
...Opus Dei was immediately labeled "political," a "Franco-supporter" and of course, in the international community, "Spanish...
...wider theological coordinates for their favorite theme of the Hero's Quest strikes me as having far more going for it than the mere absence of sacrilege...
...PAUL BAUMANN Icons on film Alexandria, Va...
...With the passing of time, the mistaken effort to characterize Opus Dei on the basis of the temporal activity of this or that member has begotten all sorts of labels and undergone a series of modifications, as these critics discover that no such generalizations will work...
...universities, to play a significant underground role there in the democratic junta that prepared the way for Spain's present constitutional monarchy...
...In the course of the film, as the virtues and power of the Cup of Christ are made manifest to Jones and to the audience, an eight-year-old boy behind me sought explanation from his father...
...Conversely, it seems that the boy behind me, and I daresay many like him schooled in the icon and lore of secular culture, are forced to extrapolate Christian story and meaning from the prior catechesis of Star Wars and other imaginatively-argued cosmologies like Dungeons and Dragons...
...JOHN A. COLEMAN, S.J.rage rumors and conspiracy theories...
...they also encourage rumors and conspiracy theories...
...Little heed was paid at the time to Opus Dei's Catholic position and its insistence that it was not born to solve Spain's or any other nation's particular political or social problems-that Opus Dei was universal from the start...
...REV...
...Opus Dei has no political, social, or ideological "agenda" that mixes religion and secular issues...
...O'Brien merely "involves no sacrilege" in the film's pursuit of the Holy Grail theme, for many others may have amounted to a first exposure (and perhaps a very meaningful one) to the metaphor of the spiritual journey within the Christian context...
...She was sent a letter offering her a scholarship, but she did not receive it because it was concealed by Opus Dei, which had other plans for her future...
...I don't think many of us actually believe that is so...
...Schmitt alleges that Opus respects "all the rights and duties of the lay state...
...I often think that many of us speak and act as if God in Christ came down from heaven to become the Blessed Sacrament and not human flesh, or if God did become flesh, that can mean only nice, white, clean, heterosexual flesh...
...Lernoux presents richer evidence than I could in my article of Opus Dei's temporal agenda (i.e., the Opus founder, Msgr...
...Apart from the ever-broadening and ever-increasing meaninglessness of the ideological characterizations mentioned above, they have invariably been made by ignoring the vast numbers of Opus Dei members who simply do not fit-whether it was the anti-Franco Spaniard or the housewife in Peoria who has no truck with dictators, or the thousands of members who are not bank directors, or the ordinary member who never even thought of going to an Ivy League college...
...But as Lernoux notes, "Detailed supervision of members' lives makes it difficult for Opus to distance itself from scandals in which its followers may be involved...
...Those writers who have consistently misrepresented Opus Dei have not wrestled sufficiently with what a true spirituality for ordinary lay people might involve...
...We have seen these vain efforts over the years, beginning in the late fifties, when some members of Opus Dei, using their own freedom on their own responsibility, took positions in Franco's cabinet...
...When Calvo Serer, for example, a member who certainly had a politics of his own, was hounded into exile by the Franco regime and his opposition newspaper blown up, none of these writers could take notice...
...It devotes itself fully and exclusively to cooperating in a specific way in the carrying out of the basic mission of the church, as it has from its beginnings: its purposes are purely spiritual and apostolic...
...I find it hard to believe that the recurring doubts about Opus Dei (even among many bishops) are simply due to misunderstanding...
...Unfortunately, his portrayal of this institution of the church reflects the position of a few writers who have failed to understand what Opus Dei really is, and accordingly have consistently misrepresented it...
...An unfriendly critic might raise an eyebrow about any one group in the church claiming actually to "adhere to and teach the Catholic faith in its entirety...
...Opus Dei answers to the need for a spirituality by which ordinary lay men and women can aspire to the fullness of charity in their ordinary lives...
...JOHN A. COLEMAN, S.J...
...Indeed, in 1981 England's Cardinal Basil Hume was forced to issue a directive forbidding the movement to recruit anyone under eighteen without the consent of his or her parents...
...The danger in such claims (as opposed to an aspiration toward full fidelity) is to see one movement as coextensive with the real church, typical of integralist groups...
...We have seen it go from "fascist" to the more vague "protofascist" to the more general "right-wing" and "conservative" and more recently to "middle-class" (of course in a pejorative sense)-all mistaken...
...In accordance with the nature of personal prelatures, Opus Dei is a universal apostolate inserted into the local dioceses and has a specific mission to foster among lay Catholics of every walk of life the pursuit of holiness and of carrying out a Christian apostolate in and through their ordinary work in the world...
...We have seen it go from "political" to "intellectual" to "elitist" and "made up of the rich...
...WILLIAM A. SCHMITT Director of Communications Prelature of Opus Dei The author replies: William Schmitt will recognize that my labeling of Opus Dei as neo-integralist was neither the first nor the least irenic indictment of the movement...
...Though founded a full generation before Vatican II, Opus Dei welcomed the council's repeated statements that confirm its own teaching-that the laity have as "their special vocation...
...It is ironic that Opus Dei, with its clear emphasis on the Catholic distinction between spiritual and temporal realities (so intrinsic to its very nature), in fact experienced its toughest times in Spain, where the opposite tradition has continued strong...
...Because the focus was predominately political, there was little interest in finding out what Opus Dei really is, and little interest in reporting what might put the lie to such identifications...
...It is ruled by a secret constitution, many of whose articles are unknown to ordinary members (as opposed to the elite "Numeraries" or insiders), let alone to outsiders...
...Sometimes they have not been past stretching or even inventing "facts" to make their case...
...Most of us who read Mr...
...The franchise was transferred, but clearly affection for the team endures...
...Hence they wrongly conclude that members of Opus Dei must be "controlled" in a way that would not be proper for the lay person...
...The unshaping of the American mind and heart through abject neglect of good reading is frightening to me...
...Penny Lernoux in her recent book, People of God (Viking, 1989) calls the movement "a Catholic fundamentalist dictatorship...
...We just give lip service to the idea...
...The latest effort in this line-as if to sum all of this up-has been to try to call it "fundamentalist...
...Well," his father whispered, "it's like...
...Theoretically, when one takes the hand of not only a victim of AIDS but of any victim of poverty or oppression, one is taking the hand of Christ in that person...
...O'Brien's fine column were [taught] a concept of Holy Spirit for which George Lucas's "Force" was obviously a kind of pop-science-fiction correlative...
...So great and rich is the Catholic church that no one group could lay such a claim...
...People of Opus Dei do not constitute an "organization"-they are simply lay faithful of the prelature with regard to their dedication, even as they continue as faithful of their dioceses...
...my thanks to Mr...
...Aware that members live a dedication that is full, they seem to have difficulty in grasping that such a dedication can-indeed, must-be compatible with all the rights and duties of the lay state...
...Despite Opus Dei's denials, which its critics often acknowledge and then simply ignore, and despite their own vain efforts to find such an "agenda" (hence they conclude that it must be "secret"), they find ways to characterize Opus Dei according to their own way of thinking...
...MARY ANN FISCHER George's story Philadelphia, Pa...
...It respects and admires all ways and all other institutions in the church, even as it rejoices that the church, in its numerous approvals of Opus Dei both before and after Vatican II, has recognized and confirmed Opus Dei and its spirituality as authentically lay and secular and as one to which those who have the vocation may commit themselves with confidence...
...To the Editors: As a loyal New York Giant fan (baseball) I should point out the factual error in Paul Baumann's book review in the August 11 issue: "Williams-the only man since 1925 to bat over .400 (in 1941)-was a much-savored childhood hero...
...They form their own opinions and make their own decisions in all aspects of their lives-whether professional, political, economic, familial, or social-on their own responsibility without any "directives" or impositions from Opus Dei in such matters, exactly as all Catholic lay faithful do...
...Opus Dei accepts and teaches what the church teaches in its entirety and, at the same time, helps people live a life of prayer in the midst of the world and carry out an apostolate of their own, both individually and with others-members or not-who wish to be involved with their good efforts...
...John Roche, an Oxford University scientist and former member, recounts the case of a young woman in London, a recent recruit to Opus...
...I saw the film at a matinee in northern Virginia as part of a packed, ethnically-diverse audience that included families, young adults, and senior citizens...
...I am almost inclined to say it is a cause for celebration...
...The truth is much simpler...
...DAVID IMPASTATO Flowers & fanfare Marietta, Ga...
...It adheres to and teaches the Catholic faith in its entirety, and hence is sensitive to the place of Scripture and the whole tradition of Catholic teaching that makes up the magis-terium...
...Terry was an outstanding ball player...
...If Opus feels it is consistently misunderstood they might heed Lernoux's words: "Secret groups inevitably give the impression that they have something to hide...
...and yet it is unfair to assume that simply being a banker, especially if he is in Opus Dei, automatically means he "must" be stere-otypically "conservative...
...All loyal New York Giant fans know that Bill Terry, "Memphis Bill" of the New York Giants, hit .401 in 1930 (Baseball Encyclopedia, Macmillan...
...Churches are swept clean and everything is polished...
...It ought to be forced either to come out into the open or be suppressed" (National Catholic Reporter, January 23,1981...
...Opus members complain that it is unfair to tar the prelature as such for the financial or political scandals of its members...
...They could not notice that he returned to Spain, after lecturing at Yale and other U.S...
...All of this suffers from the same mistaken effort to characterize Opus Dei according to a preconceived demand that it "must" have an ideological focus...
...Secrecy lies at the crux of complaints about Opus Dei...
...In 1957 the New York National League franchise was transferred to a city somewhere in the western part of the United States...
...Members pray daily for the unity of the apostolate and strive to live accordingly...
...Opus Dei can neither be characterized as "inte-gralist," nor can it be labeled "fundamentalist...
...Members of Opus Dei-men and women, married and single-dedicate themselves fully to this quest while yet remaining ordinary faithful of their dioceses and ordinary citizens...
...This does not look to me like Schmitt's vaunted Vatican II lay autonomy...
...Thank you for your consistency in producing a fine publication...
...MICHAEL BECKER Apologia: Opus Dei New York, N.Y...
...Instead they tend to think of Opus Dei according to their own models of the way lay people ought to work for Christ and church in the world...
...Special thanks to Paul Baumann for his keen analysis of the works of Catholic writer Thomas Keneally [July 14...
...But above all, they have missed two basic points about Opus Dei...
Vol. 116 • October 1989 • No. 17