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THEIR KINGDOM COME -- INSIDE THE SECRET WORLD OF OPUS DEI |
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Epilogue
OPUS DEI'S DRIVE TO DOMINATE THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH IS OF a determination not seen since the Counter-Reformation. Because it is so determined, in whatever form the Prelature develops during the years ahead it will not be without friction, both inside and outside the Vatican. This makes its existence a matter of concern to everyone, whether the holder of a Catholic baptismal certificate or a simple pedestrian in the secular city. Opus Dei is no doubt sincere in its desire to protect the Church. Its members include many dedicated and outstanding people. Its founding principles centred upon a Christian work ethic are laudable. But Opus Dei has been in constant evolution since 1928. Because of the tactics it employs to achieve its goals, including the use of pilleria, and the fact that it is subject to no disclosure and very little oversight, some observers have compared it to 'a Mafia shrouded in white.' Every signpost indicates that behind the black-stained doors at the Villa Tevere Opus Dei's senior strategists are hard at work, plotting to combat with a 'just and rightful' response what they regard as the deteriorating moral values of society and religious radicalism wherever it threatens their vision of the Church. Former high-ranking members confirm that such a reaction is consistent with the Prelature's philosophy and goals. But the outsider is barred at every turning from learning anything meaningful about Opus Dei's inner intentions. It is therefore essential that the experiences and testimonies of former members be made known as they provide the only available insight of what really goes on in the minds of Escriva de Balaguer's sons and daughters. Opus Dei is a secret sect that has successfully removed itself from the hierarchic control of the Church. Secrecy is the enemy of an open, democratic society. If Opus Dei is not secretive, as it repeatedly maintains, why does it refuse to publish the quintennial reports on its apostolic work that Article VI of Ut sit requires it to submit to the Pope? The answer: 'Neither Opus Dei nor the Holy See would make public a document prepared for the Pope.' That essentially tells us everything we need to know about Opus Dei's moral authority. Opus Dei defends a just cause but employs unscrupulous methods for achieving its ends. While Opus Dei might be listed, inter alia, in the Vatican Yearbook, the Catholic Directory for England and Wales, other diocesan directories around the world, and in the telephone directories of the cities where it operates, the fact remains that it covers its workings with an opacity intended to render them inaccessible to public scrutiny. Opus Dei does not want the rest of the world to know what it is doing. Article 190 of the 1950 Constitutions requires that 'whatever is undertaken by members must not be attributed to our Institution, but to God only'. By virtue of Article 190 Opus Dei's role in forging a more aggressive political policy for the Vatican remains shrouded in secrecy. A higher political profile for the Church apparently brings increased financial dividends in the form of contributions from the faithful, as once again the Holy See was running at the break-even point. This does not mean that the financial insecurity of the 1980s is over, as one financial hiccup would be sufficient to put the Vatican back in the red. But the record shortfall of $87.5 million reported in 1991, which decreased to $3.4 million in 1992, was followed by a small $1.5 million surplus in 1993 (the first since 1981). Another small surplus of $419,000 was posted in 1994. Then a deficit of $22.5 million was at first predicted for 1995, again sending financial shivers through the Curia. But the Vatican later reported that the expected shortfall was wiped out by increased income from investments, mostly bonds and real estate. In other words, one Roman prelate remarked off the record, Opus Dei had again come to the rescue. Another small surplus of $330,000 was predicted for 1996. Opus Dei ally Cardinal Edmund Szoka, who left the archdiocese of Detroit to take charge of the Vatican's Prefecture for Economic Affairs, confidently stated that the refloating of the Holy See's treasury meant the 'image problem' caused by the Banco Ambrosiano scandal was behind it. But with Andreotti on trial for conspiracy to murder and associating with the Mafia, new revelations were expected that made Szoka's assertion seem less than certain. In any event, vulgarizing the Church's central 'mystery' by linking it to earthly parameters, portraying the Holy See as a multinational enterprise concerned with such things as price/earnings ratios and cash-flow requirements, Cardinal Szoka risked committing the error of 'reductionism', a serious theological offence. One of the Vatican's largest property holdings outside Italy was the Notre Dame of Jerusalem centre. When faced with a 1995 operating loss, having incurred cumulative deficits of $330 million during the previous decade, [1] the Vatican was forced to divest itself of non-revenue producing properties. Ownership or usufruct of the Jerusalem centre, according to Rome sources, was finally transferred to Opus Dei, thereby wiping out the anticipated 1995 deficit. Assuming control of the huge Notre Dame complex meant that the Prelature had extended its influence to the Via Dolorosa and access to the Holy Sepulchre, where for 2,000 years Christian pilgrims have flocked to touch the tomb of 'the God made flesh'. But officially Opus Dei is not present in Israel, not having registered with the Ministry of Religious Affairs, as its headquarters in the Holy Land remains in Bethlehem, which is under Palestinian control. Opus Dei's activities in the Holy Land allowed plans for the Millennium Jubilee to proceed with confidence. In September 1995, President Yasser Arafat of the Palestinian national authority called on John Paul II at Castelgandolfo and invited him to celebrate the year 2000 in Jerusalem and Bethlehem. According to the press release issued by Navarro-Valls, Arafat wanted to thank the Pope for the support 'which the Palestinian cause has always received from the Holy See'. [2] Jerusalem was to be the centrepiece of the Millennium celebrations and Opus Dei wanted to be well implanted there to insure the Pope's safety. But Dr. Turabi, the ayatollahs of Qum, Hezbollah and Hamas were all said to look unfavourably upon the planned millennium visit. Jerusalem was after all Islam's third holiest city and the radical fringe saw no reason for the papal incursion. Confronted with a possible hostile reaction to the Pope's presence in the holy city, the prized goal of every Crusade since the eleventh century, Opus Dei's acquisition of the fortress-like Notre Dame centre seemed like prudent forward planning. It also confirmed Villa Tevere's authority over the Supreme Authority of the Rock. Opus Dei denies it meddles in Vatican politics. But can it be believed? Perhaps part of the answer -- revealing of the inner nature of the Catholic Church's leading sect -- is contained in two passages from the Prelature's confidential internal publication, Cronica:
'All things are lawful for me' explains in six words Opus Dei's arrogance and gives it the writ to interpret legislative texts as it sees fit, or even ignore them altogether. One might imagine that an organization founded by 'divine inspiration' would not have dirty linen. But apparently from time to time Opus Dei does. The strict order that dirty linen must be washed at home illustrates its mania for secrecy. Inevitably, this mania must lead to a collective 'siege mentality' common to many sects. Opus Dei is uncommon in that for half a century it has been developing its apostolate by amassing unprecedented financial power for a religious institution. No other Christian sect has met with such success. The Cronica affirmations are worth bearing in mind at a time when the reign of the present Pope is coming to an end. Never has the papal succession been so important. There are those within the Curia who believe that if the Catholic Church is to retain significance and not become irrelevant in the twenty-first century, she must again wield power in a temporal as well as a spiritual sense. They support the notion that religion is a missing dimension in the dialogue between peoples and nations. In the end analysis, however, Opus Dei prelates are not open to dialogue because no meaningful dialogue is possible with a group or organization that is convinced it possesses the divine truth and therefore knows all the answers. On most issues of direct interest to it, Villa Tevere can count on the support of at least sixty cardinals. To insure that the episcopate is favourably disposed towards it, Opus Dei arranged for an 'independent' American foundation -- the Wethersfield Foundation of New York -- to finance scholarships for African bishops to study in Rome. A majority of Catholics live in the Third World, making it a Third World Church, and therefore Opus Dei's move to improve the theological standards of key Third World prelates seemed generous and wise. Interestingly, however, the foundation's cheques were made out not to those who received Opus Dei's invitation but to Prelature's theological institute in Rome, the Ateneo Romano della Santa Croce, thereby insuring that tuition for each of the beneficiaries was paid up front. Nevertheless, the idea was genial, permitting Opus Dei to spiritually wine and dine the Africans at someone else's expense. But behind this seemingly charitable offer was said to lie a more devious plan: having decided that the next pope will in all probability be Spanish, Opus Dei was reportedly looking two popes ahead, when the time might be opportune to elect the first black African pontiff. Just as a Polish pope was needed to defeat the Evil Empire of Communism, so Opus Dei apparently believes that a black pope will be needed to reverse Islam's march in Africa. From today's bishops come tomorrow's cardinals, and Opus Dei was already insuring that those on its list of possible candidates were properly indoctrinated with the true teachings of the Church. In addition to its influence over the cardinalate (by the end of 1995,122 of the 165 cardinals had been appointed by John Paul II), the following eighteen prelates and nine lay people -- by no means a complete list -- are part of Opus Central's power base inside the Curia:
With less than four years remaining before the great millennium jubilee, the careers of some of the key players in this long-running film of intrigue have been touched by a series of disquieting events. Mother Superior Catalina Serus of the Carmelite convent where Concepcion Boullon Rubio lived claimed that she had no knowledge of Sister Concepcion ever being ill and wondered, therefore, how she could have been miraculously cured by Escriva de Balaguer's intercession. This disclosure cast further serious doubt on the authenticity of the miracle that guaranteed Opus Dei's Founder his beatification and also might tarnish the reputation of the postulator general, Father Flavio Capucci. In Spain, Opus Dei outcast Jose Maria Ruiz-Mateos formed his own political party dedicated to fighting corruption. He had struck a deep vein of discontent in a country where 22 per cent of the active population was unemployed and 8 million lived below the poverty line. To help his campaign he acquired a Madrid radio station, Radio Liberty, and hosted a daily talk programme called 'The Sting of the Bee'. He also opened an office to investigate scandals that listeners brought to his attention. Corruption had been the hallmark of Gonzalez's thirteen years of government. A good example was the rise of the political candyman, Antonio Navalon. But even his fortunes took a turn for the worse after he was accused of bribing finance ministry officials with £3 million advanced by the fallen chairman of Banesto, Mario Conde, making him a fugitive from Spanish justice. But at least Navalon was still alive. One of the men he most admired, former justice minister Pia Cabanillas, was said to have disappointed his friends in Opus Dei, bringing God's vengeance upon him. He was photographed in the company of transvestites while attending a session of the European parliament in Strasbourg and accused of belonging to a paedophile network. He died of a heart attack in Madrid on 10 October 1991 and was buried before his son had time to return from the United States for the funeral. Since then, Opus Dei's replacement for Rumasa, the Grand Tibidabo Company of Barcelona, had to be bailed out of trouble by Alfredo Sanchez Bella. 'I am not a member of Opus Dei; I do not have sufficient merit,' Franco's former tourism minister told El Pais. [4] He owned 18 per cent of Grand Tibidabo, whose chairman, Javier de la Rosa, a financial adviser to King Juan Carlos; was in prison on fraud charges. De la Rosa was the Kuwait Investment Office representative in Spain; his wife, Mercedes Misol, was a supernumerary, but Opus Dei claimed that de la Rosa himself was not a member. Many believed that de la Rosa, along with another royal adviser, Manuel de Prado, had incurred Opus Dei's wrath. A major contributor to Opusian causes, de la Rosa was said to have disobeyed orders. Manuel de Prado, one-time Grand Tibidabo deputy chairman, had left his supernumerary wife for another woman and was drawn -- unjustly, he insisted -- into the de la Rosa scandal. The investigation of de la Rosa's misdealings led to the disclosure of allegations that he had attempted to bribe the King with a £60 million backhander from the Kuwaitis, seeking a royal nod for American warplanes to use Spanish bases during the Gulf War crisis. It was the first time the King's name had been linked to public scandal. Until the Spanish attorney-general decided to call off his investigation, rumour was rife that Juan Carlos would be forced to abdicate in favour of his son, Prince Felipe. Felipe's sister, the Princess Royal, was married to an Opus Dei supernumerary. The Madrid daily, Dario 16, reported without citing sources that the Pope was an accomplice of Opus Dei in its money-grabbing schemes:
Should Papa Wojtyla's reign end before the millennium jubilee, Opus Dei's favourite to succeed him was rumoured to be Cardinal Ricardo Maria Carles of Barcelona. But these plans were upset when, on the basis of allegations made by an Italian hot money dealer, Riccardo Marocco, magistrates in Torre Annunziata, south of Naples, asked the Spanish authorities for permission to question Carles about allegations that he was linked to the laundering of astronomical sums of money through the Vatican bank for a ring of international traffickers. The ring's activities were alleged to include dealing in arms, strategic materials and precious metals. Among the strategic materials was an awesome commodity known as red mercury -- described as 'cherry red and very dangerous' -- used in the manufacture of a new generation of nuclear weapons of extremely high potency. The magistrates in Torre Annunziata were told by the Spanish justice, who had satisfied themselves there was not 'the slightest proof' implicating Carles, that their evidence against the cardinal was not serious. Seven months later -- in June 1996 -- the investigation suddenly burst into new activity with the arrest on suspicion of twenty people in Italy and the launching of a dozen international warrants. An alleged former paymaster for the CIA in southern Europe, who claimed knowledge of the plot to poison John Paul I, was among those taken into custody. Police searched the home of Licio Gelli, apparently identified by several of the accused as one of the money laundering kingpins. The names of the Banda della Magliana and Camorra resurfaced. The alleged arms trafficking principally involved Croatia. It was claimed that Libya, with a clandestine armaments programme, was among the customers seeking red mercury. The magistrates maintained their allegation against the Archbishop of Barcelona, claiming that he was suspected of helping launder at least $100 million through the Vatican bank. The archly conservative Carles, who in the past had criticized Socialist ministers for their corrupt practices, denied he was involved, claiming instead that the allegations were the latest in a series of attacks by the enemies of Liberty against the Church. 'There are important financial interests behind these attacks from people who lose a lot of money when the Church defends ethics, morality and poor countries ... The attacks are levelled at particular cardinals and have subsequently been proved false. Now it is my turn. [6] The Vatican leapt to his defence, with Navarro-Valls issuing a statement that 'no relations existed between the cardinal, the lOR and persons mentioned in the [Naples) investigation'. [7] The situation was serious enough for John Paul II personally to intervene in an attempt to absolve his possible successor. He received Carles in a private audience that lasted almost an hour and named him to the governing board of the Holy See's Prefecture for Economic Affairs, under Cardinal Szoka. 'The meeting had great significance,' commented the Madrid daily ABC, 'because of the insidious campaign to which the Catalan prelate was subjected ... The charges are demonstrably absurd and without foundation ...' [8] By then the Spiritual Wars had reached Geneva, city of Calvin, European headquarters of the United Nations, birthplace of the International Red Cross and now the home of Opus Dei's university of human rights, with the November 1995 slaying by Gama'a al-Islamiya of an Egyptian diplomat in an underground garage. Cairo charged that Ayman Zawahri, head of the militant Islamic hit squads operating from Europe, lived a comfortably financed undercover existence in some Swiss mountain resort. But the Swiss authorities said they were unable to trace his whereabouts. The FBI, meanwhile, seemed better informed. Headed by Opus Dei supernumerary Louis Freeh, it was investigating the bomb blasts that killed twenty-four Americans and wounded hundreds of others in Saudi Arabia. FBI analysts regarded the bombings as evidence that Islamic fundamentalism was gaining momentum in the Middle East. A group identified as the Islamic Movement for Change warned that all American and British 'Crusader' forces must leave the Muslim holy land or become the targets of a jihad decreed against the Saudi royal family and those associated with it. Freeh also told a US Senate panel in March 1996 that 'sensitive sources' had informed the FBI that Hamas was raising funds in the US to pay for its suicide bombers. Freeh would not disclose who his 'sensitive sources' were, but one might legitimately ask whether they were related to Opus Dei's intelligence network. With Felipe Gonzalez's defeat in the 1996 elections, Opus Dei was back in power in Spain under the new prime minister, Jose Maria Aznar. Several of Aznar's Partido Popular friends were Opus Dei members and they 'naturally received cabinet positions. His 'Mister Clean', supernumerary Federico Trillo, an implacable crusader against Socialist corruption, was named leader of the National Assembly. But also Aznar saw to it that senior Opus Dei people or close associates were appointed to key civil service positions. One example was the nomination of Alberto de la Hera as director general of religious affairs at the ministry of justice, which meant he controlled state subsidies to religious organizations as well as government relations with the Church hierarchy. Within weeks, other ministries also fell under the control of Opus-friendly civil servants. Thus the Catholic Alliance in Europe that Pius XII had dreamed of founding as a bulwark against Communism had finally come about, with the Mediterranean powers of Spain, France, Italy and Croatia aligned through Opus Dei's influence to stem the tide of illegal immigration and co-operate on anti-terrorist measures. But also Opus Dei seemed determined to push through tighter controls on freedom of expression by banning excessive violence and blasphemy from state television networks and lobbying in favour of legislative support for the moral values set forth in John Paul II's encyclical, Veritatis Splendor. Former Spanish foreign minister Marcelino Orega-Aguirre, an Opus Dei member, was appointed to the European Commission in Brussels as the Community's audiovisual watchdog. He immediatelymade known his intention to bring higher moral standards to European programming. [9] Opus Dei was vigilant in other fields as well. Archbishop Julian Herranz of the Council for the Interpretation of Legislative Texts ruled, for example, that mufti dress for priests was forbidden under Article 66 of a Congregation of the Clergy code of conduct. Article 66 specified that ordained members of the Church must wear clerical habits. A week later, a ruling by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, whose consultors included Opus Dei's new vicar general Fernando Ocariz and his aide, theologian Antonio Miralles, declared that the Pope's ban on the ordination of women was an infallible part of Catholic doctrine and could not be disputed nor changed. 'We are among the most committed defenders of the notion that undebatable truth exists. Doctrine is not debatable,' claimed Monsignor Rolf Thomas, Opus Dei's former prefect of studies, known within the Prelature as II Gran Inquisitor. Seen from the inside by a former Holy Cross priest, Opus Dei's prelates are convinced that they possess the divine truth and by the same measure they are the 'inheritors' of the Templars. 'They feel assured that Opus Dei is no ordinary religious organization, and therefore not subject to the hierarchy of the Church. That same arrogance characterized the Templars -- Christian warriors full of zeal, celibate and virile -- and their determination to remain outside all control pushed them towards material ends. They acquired wealth in spite of their desire to remain poor. Their monastic zeal and obedience slowly transformed them, for extremely complex reasons, into a powerful economic and political force,' affirmed Father Felzmann. 'The Second Psalm was the Templar hymn. Why do the nations conspire, and the peoples plot in vain? Each celibate member of Opus Dei, man or woman, must recite the Second Psalm upon rising every Tuesday. "We are the children of God and we sing the Second Psalm." The Templars and Opus Dei sing the same psalm. 'In Opus Dei you find the same elitism as with the Templars, and this comes, I suppose, from that warrior mentality, from the idea that there is an enemy outside, and from a highly focused esprit de corps. In the long run, those who remain too long in that sort of atmosphere become paranoid. They have delusions of grandeur. They feel superior. They are the best, unique, and, at the same time, they believe there is an enemy stalking them. And so, because they are suspicious, they are reticent to be open and frank with the rest of the world. 'Deus le volt! We are God's chosen. These are not the words of the Founder. They are the words of the current Opus Dei leaders in Rome. I lived with them for four years. They told me with utter conviction, "We have been chosen by God to save the Church." Some of them openly state that in twenty or thirty years Opus Dei will be all that remains of the Church. The whole Church will become Opus Dei because "We have an orthodox vision that is pure, certain, solid, assured of everything. The Founder was chosen by God to save the Church. Therefore God is with us." 'Gott mit uns! Think about it. That was the cry of the German Crusaders.' The Lord is with us, and the Lord's counsel to kings is repeated weekly, after kissing the floor, by every Opus Dei numerary:
_______________ Notes: 1. By comparison, King Fahd of Saudi Arabia announced that his government had spent $18.7 billion developing Islam's two holy cities of Mecca and Medina during the same period. with the result that the Grand Mosque in Mecca could accommodate one million worshippers at one time, vastly more than St. Peter's. 2. The Holy See's Sala Stampa Bulletin No. 319/95, issued on 2 September 1995. Two months later Arafat issued the same invitation to foreign ministers of 26 countries attending the Mediterranean co-operation conference in Barcelona. 'I invite you to participate in this great world religious and historical event -- the second millennium of the birth of Our Lord Jesus Christ, peace be upon Him -- and to make Bethlehem a beacon of peace and co-existence of all faiths in the whole world ...' Arafat said. 3. In this editorial, 'The Confession', in Cronica VI, 1962, Escriva de Balaguer was paraphrasing I Corinthians 6:12. Paul is quoting in this passage 'the Lord Jesus Christ'. But as used in Cronica, the reader is left with the impression that the 'me' refers to Escriva de Balaguer himself. 4. El Pais, 17 November 1995. 5. Isabel Duran and Jose Diaz Herrera, 'El Saqueo de Espana', as excerpted in Dario 16, 10 November 1995, pp. 6-14. 6. 'Barcelona cardinal rebuts corruption charges', The Tablet, 18 November 1995. 7. 'El Vaticano defiende la inocencia del Cardinal Carles', El Pais, 10 November 1995, p. 17. 8. 'El Papa recibio ayer en audiencia a monsenor Carles', ABC, Madrid, 21 February 1996. 9. Reseau Voltaire analysis: 'Le dessous des cartes -- Depuis un an l'Opus Dei manipule l'opinion publique pour remettre en cause la liberte d'expression,' Paris, April 1995. 10. Psalms 2.10-11.
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