Opus Dei
Opus Dei, formally known as the Prelature of the Holy Cross and Opus Dei, is a significant organization within the Roman Catholic Church, primarily composed of lay members but also including some clergy. Founded in 1928 by Spanish priest Josemaría Escrivá, the group aims to promote the idea that all individuals can achieve holiness through their everyday lives and professions. Opus Dei encourages members to find their spiritual path without the need for ordination, focusing instead on sanctifying ordinary work and daily activities. As of 2019, it has approximately 90,000 members worldwide, with a notable presence in the United States.
The organization gained prominence in the Catholic Church under Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI, with John Paul II elevating Opus Dei to the status of a personal prelature in 1982, which allows members to be overseen by their own bishop who reports directly to the Pope. This unique status has sometimes led to perceptions of Opus Dei as having a distinct political agenda, concerns that the organization has denied, framing its mission as purely spiritual. However, it has faced criticism and controversy, particularly following its portrayal in popular culture, such as in Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code," which depicted the group in a negative light linked to secretive and extreme practices. Opus Dei clarifies that while some members engage in bodily penances for spiritual growth, these practices are intended to be mild and private acts of faith, emphasizing that membership is voluntary and aimed at fostering a closer connection to God.
Opus Dei
Opus Dei, which is formally known as the Prelature of the Holy Cross and Opus Dei, is an influential group within the Roman Catholic Church. Opus Dei is principally a lay organization, although priests are welcome to join. Lay groups are mostly composed of individuals who have not been ordained by the Church, i.e., by members who do not belong to the clergy. Opus Dei means “Work of God” in Latin and describes the primary objectives of members to openly promote their faith in their daily lives. Members of Opus Dei believe that every person is capable of holiness and, therefore, it is the duty of all Catholics to serve God with sanctity and faith in all their actions. As of 2021, Opus Dei has over 90,000 members, of which 3,000 are American. Most members of Opus Dei are married lay members, with less than 2 percent belonging to the clergy.
Under Pope John Paul II, who served as Pope from 1978 to 2005, and Pope Benedict XVI, who was Pope from 2005 to 2013, Opus Dei gained increasing influence within the Catholic Church. In 1982, John Paul made Opus Dei the first, and as of 2025 the only, personal prelature of the Catholic Church, a designation that elevated the group above most other lay organizations. It further meant that the group was overseen by its own bishop who reported directly to the Pope. In 2002, John Paul further honored Opus Dei by elevating its founder, Josemaría Escrivá, to sainthood. His sainthood was viewed as an indication of the favored status of Opus Dei to John Paul. Escrivá’s path to sainthood came far quicker than most other candidates for canonization, and he leapfrogged other more conventional candidates such as Pope John XXIII. The speed of his canonization led to claims that he had been given priority.
The granting of Opus Dei of an elevated status within the Church combined with its secretive practices and allegations of having a right-wing agenda has alarmed many progressive Catholics. These progressives worry that Opus Dei has sought to promote its political agenda within the highest reaches of the Church and saw John Paul’s granting of special privileges as confirmation of its power. Leaders of Opus Dei have argued that the group lacks an overt organized political agenda and that its members are simply trying to support the group’s charter of finding opportunities to become closer to God in everyday activities.
Background
Opus Dei was founded by Josemaría Escrivá (1902–1975), a Spanish Roman Catholic priest. While on a religious retreat on October 2, 1928, the young priest said that he received a vision from God in which he saw the mission for Opus Dei explicitly imparted to him within a moment’s time. This vision led him to develop the charter of Opus Dei in which lay Catholics could seek sanctity in life without making major changes to their lifestyle or profession. Escrivá described the group’s mission as being “a mobilization of Christians disposed to sacrifice themselves with joy for others, to render divine all the ways of man on earth, sanctifying every upright work, every honest labor, every earthly occupation.”
Escrivá would later clarify that the vision did not grant him a sense of the entirety of the group’s organization and structure—as evidenced by his later realization that a women’s chapter would be required, a change he implemented in 1930. He also came to recognize the necessity for incorporating a body of priests into the group. In 1943, he established the Priestly Society of the Holy Cross as a subset of Opus Dei. The Priestly Society is composed of the Opus Dei prelature, a group of clergy specifically serving Opus Dei.
Escrivá promoted his message through the publication of The Way (1934), a book composed of 999 proverbs intended to serve as a supplement to the primary message of Opus Dei. Although Escrivá was credited by followers as The Founder, he did not see himself as creator of the group. Rather he believed he was merely the mouthpiece of God and that the group’s mission had been directed to humankind by God himself. This distinction was important because it meant that Opus Dei had been sanctified by God rather than by a simple man, thereby heightening both the value and importance of its message. The group’s message spread quickly and by 1950 Opus Dei had received official recognition by the Pope. By the 1970s, it had spread into the United States and Latin America.
Overview
In establishing Opus Dei, Escrivá noted that the group was not a religious order like the Franciscans or Dominicans, two groups exclusively composed of members of the clergy. Rather than retreating to monasteries to commune with God in isolation like many religious orders, he intended the members of Opus Dei to remain fully involved in the secular world. In fact, its mission required it. For Escrivá, Opus Dei was a way for lay people to attain an intimate connection with God without making the commitment of ordination into the clergy. Instead, they are directed to seek pathways to God through all aspects of the mundane world. They find communion through daily acts while trying to maintain a godly standard of life through the gospels. One of the key symbols of Opus Dei features a cross within a circle, which represents the Spirit of God acting within the world.
The group’s inclusion of clergy has led to regular confusion about how to properly define the group within the existing structures of the Catholic Church. The Catholic leadership too has occasionally struggled to define its unique role within the Church by granting Opus Dei a series of titles, including describing it as a pious union, a priestly union of common life without vows, or simply as a secular institute. As a strong supporter of the group, John Paul ultimately derived a solution to the problem: He established the institution of the personal prelate to create a special place for the group within the Church.
The designation of Opus Dei as a personal prelate has been described by some detractors as granting the organization a role as a church within the Church. The status of personal prelate in effect means that John Paul gave the group its own personal diocese (a term describing the regions under the authority of individual bishops) that covers the group’s individual members. This is in contrast to most Catholics, who are assigned to a diocese in accordance with their geographic region. As a result, members of Opus Dei have their own bishop who has a direct line to the Pope.
In 2003, The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown’s thriller, and the subsequent 2006 film of the same name portrayed the organization negatively. In both the book and the film, Opus Dei is a wealthy, cult-like organization within the Catholic Church with its own independent and sinister objectives. As the book purported to be a mix of fact and fiction, this dark expression of the group in the popular franchise left those in Opus Dei angered about their portrayal. For many readers and viewers of The Da Vinci Code, it was their first exposure to the group.
Members of Opus Dei were offended by the characters of Silas, a Catholic albino monk, and Bishop Aringosa, a dangerous Vatican insider willing to kill to protect the Church’s secrets. Silas in particular is shown as engaging in violent rituals that involve self-mortification, a form of body mutilation. These practices included the use of devices such as the discipline, hair shirt, and cilice.
The discipline is a cord-like whip that penitents use on their buttocks, while the hair shirt is a thin, rough cloth worn as a girdle under normal clothing that irritates the skin. The cilice is a metal band with inward facing barbs that is worn on the leg that causes discomfort, but no bleeding. Opus Dei does in fact encourage the use of what they call “bodily penances” to help resist temptation and simulate some of the sufferings experienced by Jesus toward the end of his life. However, while some members of Opus Dei use the discipline, hair shirt, and cilice as a means of bodily penance, most instead choose other forms of contrition, such as daily cold showers, sexual abstinence, fasting, or periods of enforced daily silence.
These practices are not limited to Opus Dei. Many religious orders in the Catholic faith and elsewhere engage in such rituals, although practitioners generally do not make their participation public as these rituals are intended to be part of an individual’s private communion with God. Since these rituals are deliberately kept secret, many outsiders were shocked to learn of their existence when exposed to them in The Da Vinci Code, particularly given Brown’s extremely bloody portrayal of these practices. After the release of The Da Vinci Code, Opus Dei attempted to counter the negative publicity it received by clarifying that its members do not cause great physical harm to themselves through any expression of bodily penances; to do so goes against the strictures of the Church. Instead, engaging in bodily penances is intended solely to bring mild discomfort. In addition, they pointed out that membership in the group, while secret, is strictly voluntary and its members have largely benevolent intentions.
Bibliography
Agamben, Giorgio. Opus Dei: An Archaeology of Duty, trans. Adam Kotsko. Stanford UP, 2013.
Allen, John L., Jr. Opus Dei: An Objective Look Behind the Myths and Reality of the Most Controversial Force in the Catholic Church. Doubleday, 2005.
Escrivá, Josemaría. The Way (Consideraciones espirituales). Camino, 1939.
Gross, Terry. “A Glimpse Inside a Catholic ’Force’: Opus Dei.” NPR, 28 Nov. 2005, www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5029154. Accessed 5 Feb. 2025.
“Historical Overview.” Opus Dei, 7 Mar. 2006, opusdei.org/en-us/article/historical-overview/. Accessed 5 Feb. 2025.
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“Opus Dei and Corporal Mortification.” Opus Dei, 17 May 2006, opusdei.org/en-us/article/opus-dei-and-corporal-mortification-2/. Accessed 5 Feb. 2025.
"Pope Francis Reforms Influential Group Opus Dei." Agence France Presse, 4 Aug. 2022, www.barrons.com/news/pope-francis-reforms-influential-group-opus-dei-01659630607. Accessed 5 Feb. 2025.
Rodriguez, Pedro, Fernando Ocariz, and Jose Luis Illanes. Opus Dei in the Church: An Ecclesiological Study of the Life and Apostolate of Opus Dei. Scepter, 1993.