At the height of Da Vinci Code mania there was sign at the door of the Murray Hill Conference Center asking visitors if they wanted to learn the truth about the "real Opus Dei."Visitors received a cheery information pamphlet. Staffers also had answers ready for those asking edgier questions that usually sounded like this: "Is this the world headquarters of Opus Dei, the place where that albino monk Silas lived who murdered all those people in Dan Brown's book?"
Actually, visitors were told, Opus Dei has no monks and its world headquarters is in Rome. The only local member named Silas is a Nigerian-born stockbroker who lives in Brooklyn -with his wife.
The siege did include moments of humor, said spokesman Brian Finnerty. One visitor pointed at the 17-story Manhattan tower and asked, "Is it true you have a torture chamber up there?"
The doorman responded, "You don't know nothing. The torture chamber's in the basement."
Life goes on at the corner of Lexington Avenue and 34th Street. But for Opus Dei loyalists, life after "The Da Vinci Code" will never be the same and that is probably a good thing, said Monsignor Thomas Bohlin, the group's leader in America.
It's crucial, he said, that Opus Dei members were able to do dozens of media interviews during the uproar surrounding the book and the movie, he said. This gave Opus Dei a chance to open up and respond to its many critics.
"There are people who still say that we are like a fundamentalist sect," said Bohlin. "For some people we're the Masons, we're crypto-Fascists, we're who knows what. ... We know that it's going to take time for people to figure out who we are and what we are and what we can become here in America."
The story of Opus Dei ("Work of God") began in 1928, when a
Spanish priest named Josemaria Escriva had a vision of a movement for laypeople that blended old-fashioned Catholic disciples with the reality of everyday work.Today, Opus Dei has about 87,000 members and fewer than 2,000 are priests. About 70 percent are married "supernumeraries" and the rest are celibate "numeraries," assistants or associates.
Critics argue that, because most members continue mainstream careers, it's almost impossible to know how wealthy "Octopus Dei" really is and how much power it wields in corporations and governments.
Many critics also call Opus Dei a "sect" and this has filtered into some newsrooms.
This is a fighting word, since the Religion Newswriters Association online stylebook warns that "sect" refers to "a group that has broken off from another. Avoid this label unless you are sure it fits."
It's strange to call Opus Dei a sect because, in 1982, Pope John Paul II declared it a "personal prelature" _ a kind of global diocese _ with direct ties to the Vatican. Then, in 2002, Opus Dei's founder was canonized as St. Josemaria.
The bottom line: Opus Dei is not controversial because it has broken off from Rome. Opus Dei is controversial because of its power base inside the heart of Rome.
Recently, Finnerty jumped when "sect" appeared again in some major newspapers during coverage of yet another movie.
In this case, "Breach" was based on the story of Robert Hanssen, the FBI's top spy hunter and Opus Dei supernumerary who betrayed his country, family and faith.
Finnerty focused on a Los Angeles Times article that referred to the spy being part of the "rigid Catholic sect known as Opus Dei," in part because of that newspaper's history of excellence in religion- news coverage.
After lengthy deliberations, the reader's representative replied earlier this week to say that editors have been advised that the word "sect" should not have been used to refer to Opus Dei.
This was another symbolic moment in an important conversation, said Finnerty, a celibate Opus Dei member who previously worked in a secular newsroom.
"If some left-wing journal wants to call us a 'sect,' I'm not going to get too upset," he said. "But I have to react when we see that word used in some of the nation's top newspapers. ... Calling us a 'sect' is a low blow, an attempt to push us out of the life of the church. We are a well-established part of the Roman Catholic Church. That's who we are and people need to know that."
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Disclaimer
No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to either myself or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.
The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.
Sotto Voce