Opus Dei

Opus Dei (or “Work of God”) is a contractual association within the Roman Catholic Church dedicated primarily to the spiritual formation of laypersons who feel called to sanctify the secular world through their everyday occupations. Founded by the Spanish priest Josemaría Escrivá in response to a vision in 1928, the association has grown to more than 80,000 members world-wide. The vast majority of the members are laypersons, both male and female. The source of considerable controversy within the Catholic Church and sensational publicity outside it (e.g., in Dan Brown's novel The Da Vinci Code), Opus Dei has nonetheless enjoyed the support of both Pope Benedict XVI and Pope John Paul II, who approved its designation as a personal prelature in 1982 and canonized its founder in 2002.

As a personal prelature, Opus Dei is a new type of legal entity under canon law that can include clergy as well as both laymen and laywomen. Members are designated, following Spanish academic nomenclature, as supernumeraries, numeraries, and associates. Nonmember supporters are referred to as cooperators. Numeraries, about 20% of the membership, are celibate and live in Opus Dei centers. Male and female numeraries receive the equivalent of a seminary education and are the only ones eligible for key leadership roles within Opus Dei. Supernumeraries, who make up the majority of the members, live in their own homes. Many, but not all, are married. They receive spiritual direction from a numerary and typically go to an Opus Dei priest for confession. A small minority of both numeraries and supernumeraries are priests. The numerary priests typically provide full-time pastoral care to Opus Dei members; the supernumerary priests most often serve as diocesan priests.

Opus Dei members typically perform a series of traditional Catholic devotional practices, including daily Mass, the rosary, examination of conscience, visiting the Blessed Sacrament, and meditation on spiritual readings. These practices support their overarching spiritual goal of sanctifying their ordinary work in professions or in the home. In the understanding of Opus Dei, the religious is not set [Page 955]off from the secular, life is viewed as a unity, and all of life can be viewed as prayer. Although numeraries have received the most popular attention, supernumeraries in many ways most fully exemplify Opus Dei's commitment to fostering lay spirituality in the world.

Although most Opus Dei members pursue work with no formal connection to Opus Dei, members sometimes come together to found institutions, known as “corporate works,” that contract with Opus Dei for theological and spiritual guidance. Corporate works, such as hospitals, business schools, primary and secondary schools, vocational-technical schools, and student residences, have been established in Europe (Spain, Italy, England), Asia (Japan, the Philippines, Taiwan), Africa (the Congo, Nigeria, Kenya), and Latin America (Guatemala, Peru, Brazil). Though more than 40% of Opus Dei's membership are concentrated in Spain, there are substantial numbers in Mexico, Argentina, Italy, the United States, the Philippines, and Colombia as well. Opus Dei centers have been established in more than 60 countries. As an international association that promotes an intensified form of Catholicism within the context of everyday life, it wields influence beyond what its numbers might suggest and is one of a number of new ecclesial movements that promise to have an out-sized influence on the shape of Catholicism in the 21st century.

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