“We are really worried. “We never imagined it would come to this. » The person who speaks thus is a senior official of Opus Dei in Spain, who experiences how the prelature experiences its lowest hours, after, for the first time, the Argentine federal justice indicted the highest leaders of the Work over the last few years. three decades for alleged crimes of trafficking in women and labor exploitation, as exclusively announced by elDiario.es.
This October 2, Opus Dei is experiencing a bitter anniversary. While 96 years have passed since the creation of the Work by José María Escrivá de Balaguer, the organization is facing its first legal proceedings for such serious crimes – something the Opus leadership in Argentina denies – and could have ramifications in hundreds of countries. throughout the world, while it experienced a third paralysis in the Vatican of its new statutes. Hazard hence the condition of the Work as a personal prelature, a unique privilege in the Catholic world today in the spotlight.
Added to the international setbacks in Spain are the pending canonical resolution of the case of abuse of a minor at the “Gaztelueta” school and the decision of the Holy See on the sanctuary of Torreciudad.
Many pillars of Opus are collapsing. Because there is more. Former numerary Antonio Moya warned that there is “a real dissolution of the numerary priests of Opus Dei,” who are leaving the Work to go to the ordinary dioceses where they reside. Moya is the one who, a year ago, first denounced Opus Dei before the Holy See for what he calls a secret “messianic doctrine”.
“The dissolution would be of such magnitude that the total number of priests of Opus Dei could be reduced by half,” underlines Moya in an article published by Digital Religion. The reason? This refusal of Rome to approve the project of new statutes.
Since the Pope removed Opus Dei prelate Fernando Ocáriz – and his successors – from his episcopal status and assimilated the prelature to a priestly association dependent on the Dicastery of the Clergy (which, in practice, means the departure of the Work of 90% of its members are lay people), the Work founded by Escriva de Balaguer in 1928 and consecrated as the highest institution of the Church by John Paul II, lives plunged into a deep crisis.
Alarm in Villa Tevere
The complaint against the last four regional vicars of Opus in Argentina, as well as against the head of women’s affairs in the organization, set off all the alarms at Villa Tevere, the seat of the prelature in Rome and where one of the leaders told to reside the case: the vicar general (number two) of the Work, Mariano Fazio. Fazio is not included in the judicial process, although the complaint requests that he also be included, since he was head of the institution between 2010 and 2014, as he is included in the Vatican structure.
The status of the Argentine priest in Rome would prevent a hypothetical extradition to this southern country. It also happens that Fazio is the person to whom Pope Francis entrusted the process of renewal of Opus Dei and exercises a sort of counterweight to the power exercised by the prelate Fernando Ocáriz, coming from the hard core of the first followers of Escrivá de Balaguer.
Meanwhile, Escrivá’s heirs are still unable to adapt their statutes to what Rome asked of the prelature: to redefine their role within the Church, their relations with the dioceses or the Vatican and, above all, the he future of the laity in an already eminently priestly context. association.
In fact, the Pope has already likened Opus Dei to “public clerical associations of pontifical right having the power to incardinate clerics.” Until now, those responsible for Opus Dei have made clarifications to its statutes, trying to gain time, as sources close to the process point out to elDiario.es, who still do not understand the “delays” in the work, which is “exhausting.”, in the words of the members of the Dicastery of the Clergy, responsible for submitting to the Holy Father the final statutes, which will be approved (or not) by Pope Francis.
Also in Rome there is a tenacious conflict between the bishopric of Barbastro-Monzón and the Opus over the legal status of the oratory-sanctuary of Torreciudad, the spoiled girl of the founder of the work – the legend of the organization tells how its founder was miraculously healed as a child after a visit to the hermitage of the Virgin in this city.
After several months and a frustrated principle of agreement and of which the diocese and the prelature mutually blame each other for the failure, Mgr Ángel Pérez Pueyo went to Rome and asked the Holy See to make the final decision. This decision motivated a campaign of attacks against Pérez Pueyo promoted by media linked to the ecclesial extreme right. Sources consulted by elDiario.es indicate that the Nunciature in Spain even asked Mgr. Pérez Pueyo if he would not be more comfortable in a destination other than the diocese that hosts Torreciudad.
Finally, we are waiting for the Holy See to pronounce on the canonical investigation ordered by the Pope to the Bishop of Teruel, José Antonio Satué, against the member of Opus Dei José María Martínez Sanz, found guilty of pedophile by the Supreme Court in the so-called “Gaztelueta case”, and which those responsible for the Work have repeatedly tried to torpedo.
The file was opened by Francis himself after hearing the victim’s story in a documentary produced by Disney and directed by Jordi Evole, and would seek to repair the error committed by the dicastery (papal ministry) of the Doctrine of Faith years ago. without carrying out any formal investigation, he demanded to “repair the reputation” of the “unjustly accused” professor who was firmly found guilty of abuse within the Opus Dei school in Biscay.
All information on www.religiondigital.org
