2023-08-15 21:03:00
August 15, 2023 / 2:03 pm
The Opus Dei Prelature expressed its “dissatisfaction” and “displeasure” with the “offenses” committed against Pope Francis in a recent opinion article published by journalist Salvador Sostres in the Spanish newspaper ABC.
In a letter addressed to the director of ABCFr. Ignacio Barrera Rodríguez, Vicar of the Prelature in Spain, assured that “Opus Dei is and will always be united with the Pope and to the bishops in communion with him”, for which reason they “sore the offenses that are done to him”.
Father Barrera Rodríguez referred to the article like this: “This has been filled with jerks” published by Sostres in the Spanish newspaper on August 12, and regretted that the journalist “makes an interpretation of the government of the Church, of the Pope, of the president of the Spanish Episcopal Conference and of Opus Dei with which (that) I have no other remedy but to express my discontent and my displeasure”.
In his article, Sostres refers to the reforms carried out by the Pontiff in the last year as a “populist, montonero (…) attack” on Opus Dei.
“The Work is the elite of the Church and Francisco persecutes it because it does not reach its intellectual or spiritual level,” he adds.
Further on, Sostres points out that the Holy Father “Peronism burned his soul”, that the “top” of the Spanish Episcopal Conference (CEE) is “concerned about staying in power” and that Cardinal Juan José Omella, Archbishop of Barcelona and president of the EEC, is “conspiring against the Work”.
In his letter to the director of ABC, the Vicar of Opus Dei in Spain stated that has “no relation to the author of the cited articleas some have insinuated to me and I have been forced to deny it”.
In addition, he recalled that “Opus Dei works with people of all social classes, in more than 60 countries, in all places according to the hierarchy of the place and with the Pope.”
Pope Francis’ reforms to Opus Dei
Founded by Saint Josemaría Escrivá on October 2, 1928 and erected as a personal Prelature on November 28, 1982 by Saint John Paul II, since March 2022 Opus Dei has been at the center of a series of reforms determined by the Pope Francisco.
The most recent, dated August 8 of this year, equates personal prelatures with public clerical associations that have the power to incardinate clerics.
A little over a year ago, on July 22, 2022, with the by his own motion To protect his charisma (“To protect the charism”) the Holy Father transferred the powers in matters of personal prelatures from the Dicastery for Bishops to that of the Clergy, and determined that the Prelate will not be a bishop.
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Bishop Álvaro del Portillo and Bishop Javier Echevarría, the first two successors of Saint Josemaría at the head of Opus Dei, were appointed bishops by Saint John Paul II. The current Prelate, Msgr. Fernando Ocáriz, is not a bishop, but he has the honorary title of “Monsignor”.
David Ramos is editor-in-chief of ACI Prensa. He has covered Pope Francis’ trips to Ecuador, Paraguay, Mexico, Colombia, Chile and Peru.
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