Opus Dei--why don't all traditional-type Catholics get involved with it?

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Bartolome_Casas said:
Opus Dei seems to offer everything that traditional-type Catholics are longing for but can’t find in their parish.

For the few that perhaps have never heard about Opus Dei, here is their U.S. web site:

opusdei.us/

The last two popes have been huge supporters of Opus Dei.

The famous Catholic convert, apologist and professor Scott Hahn wrote in his book Rome Sweet Home that he could not find a priest to help him convert to the Catholic Faith until he contacted an Opus Dei priest.

The fact that liberal Catholics and liberals in general hate and demonize Opus Dei should be a major selling point to traditional-type Catholics. There are even web sites dedicated to watching, investigating, and criticizing Opus Dei. Even so, I don’t think they’ve ever found anything really bad about Opus Dei. Dan Brown even demonized and grossly misrepresented Opus Dei in his infamous novel and movie “The Da Vinci Code.”

To me, it seems like many Catholics would be a lot happier if they and their children attended Opus Dei activities (assuming they live near an Opus Dei study center or Opus Dei run school).

Yes, places where the Traditional Latin Mass (now officially known as the Extraordinary Form of the Mass) is offered with the approval of the pope and bishops also provides a place that many traditional-type Catholics like. But, in my experience, some of these places have lots of people who fiercely and angrily obsessed with fighting and denouncing liberals in the Church and in society and government. To me, all that negativity is a real bummer, and upsetting.

But contrast, in my experience, the Opus Dei centers have none of this “anti-” orientation. As far as I can see, they are entirely “pro-” in their orientation: Pro-Catholic, Pro-Life, Pro-Family, Pro-Pope, Pro-Blessed Virgin Mary, Pro-Holiness in Everyday Life (their slogan).

So, why aren’t YOU involved with Opus Dei?
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Why aren’t all progressives involved with either the Cahrismatic Movement or the Neocatechumical way? It goes both ways.
 
Mike30 said:
Why aren’t all progressives involved with either the Cahrismatic Movement or the Neocatechumical way? It goes both ways.
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Non Sequitor, and a rather uncharitable one at that (depending on your definition of “progressive”). Both Opus Dei, the FSSP, most of the charismatic movement and the Neocatechuminal way are catholic groups in full good standing with Rome (with occasional hiccups that get resolved). “Progressive catholics” is a big tent label that includes such luminaries as Call to Action, Commonweal Magazine, Nancy Pelosi and the kind of folks that call themselves catholic, but obstinately advance principles and teachings diametrically opposed to defined catholic doctrine. To equate charismatics with such people indiscriminately is tantamount to defamation.

I think it was Fr. Bob Barron who put it something like “the divide in catholicism today is not so much one between conservative versus liberal, but between those who believe in a personal and supernatural God and those who don’t anymore.” I think he’s right. When you peel back a lot of the post-Vatican II abuses (actual abuses, not violations of YOUR preferences), what you find are originators of those abuses who really quit believing in the faith, but still liked some of the trappings and respectability of the church.
 
Neocathecumenal way has many issues regarding Liturgy and behavior. The same can be said of Charismatics.

Blessings!

🙂
 
CesarAugustus said:
Neocathecumenal way has many issues regarding Liturgy and behavior. The same can be said of Charismatics.

Blessings!

🙂
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The same can be said about any group. SSPV, SSPX, Call to Action, misc etc. All sorts of folks.

People love generalizing I guess.
 
CesarAugustus said:
I don’t think the SSPX has cuasi-heretic teachings regarding Liturgy and lack of Orthopraxis with things like public confessions.

Blessings!

🙂
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Nah, they just perform invalid confessions and have an official website that says that the validity of Ordinary Form Masses/Confessions is questionable and are objectively sinful.

Of course, some will say “the comments on the website does not reflect the Society as a whole”, yet it’s perfectly acceptable for other generalizations to occur.

The fact is, there’s troublechildren across the board. Pointing out one group in particular saying “well, they do this!” doesn’t justify someone else’s actions.
 
Well, but the Neocathecumenals are an approved group, and some members like to boast about their fidelity to the Pope, etc. when they do almost nothing regarding their lack of Orthopraxis and strange Liturgy.

Blessings!

🙂
 
CesarAugustus said:
Well, but the Neocathecumenals are an approved group, and some members like to boast about their fidelity to the Pope, etc. when they do almost nothing regarding their lack of Orthopraxis and strange Liturgy.

Blessings!

🙂
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Three words: Legionnaires of Christ.

For anyone to think that grave issues, sins and disorders are restricted only to others, I would say he’s living in a dream world.

Even the most conservative groups can be involved in controversies. There’s more to fidelity to Christ’s teaching than preaching dogma and having an error-free liturgy.
 
OraLabora said:
Three words: Legionnaires of Christ.

For anyone to think that grave issues, sins and disorders are restricted only to others, I would say he’s living in a dream world.

Even the most conservative groups can be involved in controversies. There’s more to fidelity to Christ’s teaching than preaching dogma and having an error-free liturgy.
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Yes, great example!

They have lots of problems reagarding Orthopraxis. Not only physical abuse… psychologycal abuse too, like the strange statutes for the consecrated women.

That reminds me of this article:

newoxfordreview.org/reviews.jsp?did=0505-rose

I don’t think they are entirely conservative. In the Spanish speaking trad blogosphere, there is a term coined from groups like that, neocons, or neoconservatives.

Problems can happen everywhere.

Blessings!

🙂
 
manualman said:
Non Sequitor, and a rather uncharitable one at that (depending on your definition of “progressive”). Both Opus Dei, the FSSP, most of the charismatic movement and the Neocatechuminal way are catholic groups in full good standing with Rome (with occasional hiccups that get resolved). “Progressive catholics” is a big tent label that includes such luminaries as Call to Action, Commonweal Magazine, Nancy Pelosi and the kind of folks that call themselves catholic, but obstinately advance principles and teachings diametrically opposed to defined catholic doctrine. To equate charismatics with such people indiscriminately is tantamount to defamation.

I think it was Fr. Bob Barron who put it something like “the divide in catholicism today is not so much one between conservative versus liberal, but between those who believe in a personal and supernatural God and those who don’t anymore.” I think he’s right. When you peel back a lot of the post-Vatican II abuses (actual abuses, not violations of YOUR preferences), what you find are originators of those abuses who really quit believing in the faith, but still liked some of the trappings and respectability of the church.
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Asking why all Traditional catholics are not members of Opus Dei was the exact same thing.
 
In my (admittedly limited) experience, Opus Dei IS friendly to the Traditional Latin Mass. It’s not a part of their charism per se, as it is with priests of the ICKSP or FSSP or the Canons Regular of St. John Cantius. Opus Dei is all about fidelity to the successor of Peter: if the Pope wants to promote the TLM, then so does the Prelature. I believe the Basilica of San Eugenio (Opus Dei Headquarters in Rome) has recently begun to offer Masses in the Extraordinary Form. And one of only 2 EF-trained priests in my parish church belongs to the Priestly Society of the Holy Cross, an Opus Dei organization for diocesan priests.
 
I just e-mailed Opus Dei at the Reston Study Center yesterday.

I am in search of a vocation as a member of the Church laity. Since I’m looking at lifetime commitments, I thought it wise to explore all options, including Opus Dei. I’ve also contacted active communities of Lay Dominicans, Franciscans, Benedictines and Discalced Carmelites. I simply don’t know enough about the various Orders or the Opus Dei Prelature to make a decision without greater knowledge of all their organizations.

Any thoughts from wiser CA members are graciously accepted.

David
 
Tampa_Dave said:
I just e-mailed Opus Dei at the Reston Study Center yesterday.

I am in search of a vocation as a member of the Church laity. Since I’m looking at lifetime commitments, I thought it wise to explore all options, including Opus Dei. I’ve also contacted active communities of Lay Dominicans, Franciscans, Benedictines and Discalced Carmelites. I simply don’t know enough about the various Orders or the Opus Dei Prelature to make a decision without greater knowledge of all their organizations.

Any thoughts from wiser CA members are graciously accepted.

David
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I think it’s a very individual thing. I became a Benedictine Oblate after first having contact with the local Benedictine abbey. I had reached a plateau in my faith walk and prayer life, in fact it was going down. Then 9/11 happened, and I found myself at Mass at the abbey the following Sunday with big questions marks for me over what had just happened, really for the first time as a believer (I went once when I was away from the faith). I realized that the Order had seen a lot in 1500 years, and 9/11 was probably peanuts compared to plagues, wars, genocides, dark ages, the Reformation, being chased out of their monasteries and/or killed, etc. I started to go more often, and within 6 months I’d entered the oblation program. You could say that I fell in love.

It really was like that for me, falling in love. I guess the best advice I can give is that when you finally hit the right charism, you’ll know it soon enough 😉
 
I may be too late in my reply but here goes… I am a traditional Catholic, I looked at Opus Dei on my way to tradition. At first it seemed more traditional as I attended some OD events, but when I attended OD small group it came across very cult like and elitist. Also OD was/is very political in Spain!!! As to the negative comments, there is an understandable “bunker mentality” among traditionalists! I am re-examining the Novus Ordo now that ICEL has wisely, at last, correctly rendered Our Lord’s words; “pro multis” as for many. Yeah!!!
 
Tampa Dave,

I can try to answer your questions about Opus Dei. One good way to think about it is to realize that the Work exists to serve the Church. It provides formation for Christians. And that’s about it. It doesn’t exist to carry water for some traditionalist or liberal group in the Church. It’s all about formation. Membership issues and questions come much later. Opus Dei offers means of formation for far more Catholics and Christians than it has members.

It is a personal prelature…it complements the work of the dioceses in which it operates; again its focus is ongoing formation: spiritual, doctrinal, human, apostolic formation. The benefits of such formation should flow into the world, including the dioceses, and parishes, but also the lay world.

Feel free to ask any followon questions here or via private message.
 
triumphguy said:
Opus Dei would try and recruit from the brightest or best connected kids in our school. I was told that it was a world wide network dedicated to fighting communism.

In the Residence newspapers were censored. Anything contrary to their political viewpoint was cut out. TV was controlled. It was far more than a religious movement.

In the residence were student offspring of presidents, and the very rich from around the Spanish speaking world.

Very different from a regular residence.
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It is my understanding that one must be invited to join the movement. They are not partial to walk-in. The people that I know that have been invited are all very wealthy; I don’t know if there is a connection.
 
Edward_H said:
Tampa Dave,

I can try to answer your questions about Opus Dei. One good way to think about it is to realize that the Work exists to serve the Church. It provides formation for Christians. And that’s about it. It doesn’t exist to carry water for some traditionalist or liberal group in the Church. It’s all about formation. Membership issues and questions come much later. Opus Dei offers means of formation for far more Catholics and Christians than it has members.

It is a personal prelature…it complements the work of the dioceses in which it operates; again its focus is ongoing formation: spiritual, doctrinal, human, apostolic formation. The benefits of such formation should flow into the world, including the dioceses, and parishes, but also the lay world.

Feel free to ask any followon questions here or via private message.
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Do you mean it offers formation without actually joining Opus Dei? What exactly is offered in this respect? Can you expand on this a bit.
 
ellipsis2 said:
It is my understanding that one must be invited to join the movement. They are not partial to walk-in. The people that I know that have been invited are all very wealthy; I don’t know if there is a connection.
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Normally, invitations to the means of formation, initially what are called “recollections,” come from members of Opus Dei or Cooperators of Opus , to people who seem to be striving for more holiness and formation. But invitations aren’t required to attend a recollection.

At a recollection, there are normally 2 preached meditations, opportunity for Confession, a talk on some practical aspect of Christian living, a narrated examination of conscience, built around the themes of the meditations and the practical talk, and Benediction.

There is an enduring myth about wealth and power. It is true that many members of Opus Dei are accomplished in their profession, largely owing to the way they approach work…seeking to serve, seeking to sacrifice for God, seeking to offer Him their absolute best. This in turn may mean that they live in pricier neighborhoods, and attend Mass in those areas, all driving up the likelihood they meet other achieving persons, etc.

But it’s not what the media or detractors convey.
 
asd72 said:
Do you mean it offers formation without actually joining Opus Dei? What exactly is offered in this respect? Can you expand on this a bit.
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Hi. I think I answered most of your questions above. Let me know what remains.
 
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