-Caveat Lector- >From http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/story.jsp?story=339650
05 October 2002 04:22 BDST Home > News > Europe Vatican bestows sainthood on founder of secret sect By Leonard Doyle Foreign Editor 05 October 2002 About 300,000 members and supporters of Opus Dei – the Catholic church's most controversial and wealthy organisation – will gather in St Peter's Square in Rome tomorrow to witness the Pope declare the Spanish-born priest Josemaria Escriva a saint. Priests will celebrate two masses an hour from dawn to dusk and the newly elevated saint's coffin will be moved to the Basilica of St Eugene in the spacious Villa Borghese Park to accommodate the worshippers. The canonisation will be the crowning glory for an organisation whose most influential members have close ties to the scarlet-clad princes of the church – the cardinals who will elect the next pope. Bankers, politicians and lawyers for the most part, they succeeded in putting their founder on a fast-track to sainthood that is unprecedented in modern times. Josemaria Escriva de Balaguer was born 100 years ago and founded Opus Dei (the work of God) in Madrid in October 1928 as a lay organisation with a mission to operate at the highest levels of society. The organisation is described by some as the Pope's "secret service" because its members take a strict vow of secrecy and are not responsible to local bishops but directly to the Pope. Members dedicate themselves to not only the Pope's spiritual goals, but political and economic targets as well. Many are extremely wealthy and voluntarily tithe their income to the organisation. "There is no doubt whatever that it is influential in the Vatican," said John Wilkins, the editor of the Catholic newspaper The Tablet. "Even the Pope's spokesman Joachim Navarro-Valls is known to be a member." Many liberal Catholics have reservations about the authoritarian and sect-like behaviour of Opus Dei and the hold it has over Vatican policies. Its members campaign against in vitro fertilisation, "non-matrimonial" families, homosexuality and the use of condoms to prevent Aids. It is to the forefront in pressing the Pope's conservative agenda on reproduction, sexuality, family and gender. The Pope bestowed on it the status of "personal prelature" in 1982, ensuring independence from the normal church hierarchy for its 82,000 lay members and 1,800 clergy. It is a diocese without geographical boundaries and has members in 62 nations. The notorious FBI spy Robert Hanssen was a member. Tomorrow's ceremony is a milestone in Opus Dei's efforts to shake off its reactionary and elitist reputation, which supporters blame on prejudice and ignorance. But its real influence will continue, behind the doors of the Vatican, as the 120 or so voting-age (under 80) cardinals who elect the Pope contemplate the inevitable. Opus Dei has only one member of the college of cardinals, but the organisation's influence runs deep. The secrecy surrounding Opus Dei means that whatever influence it has on the selection of the next Pope and his style of leadership will remain a subject of intense speculation. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A<>E<>R + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Forwarded as information only; I don't believe everything I read or send (but that doesn't stop me from considering it; obviously SOMEBODY thinks it's important) + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without charge or profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this type of information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + "Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. 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