Opus Dei clericalised by the Vatican

A General Congress of Opus Dei had to deal with changes ordered by a Papal letter last summer.

The year 2022 by no means went so well that the members and friends of "Opus Dei" could pop the champagne corks. Forty years after the Apostolic Constitution "Ut sit", with which John Paul II established the work founded by the Spanish priest Josemaria Escrivá de Balaguer as a personal prelature in 1982 and thus gave it a unique legal form in the Church, mail arrived again from the Vatican on the occasion of the round anniversary, more precisely in midsummer last year.

But instead of commendations and congratulations, there was only a somewhat dry Apostolic Exhortation entitled "Ad Charisma Tuendam" (On the Preservation of the Charism), in which Pope Francis decreed some changes in the form of a "Motu proprio" (on his own initiative). Dry, which does not mean that the letter, quoting from "Ut sit", does not also speak of the "greatest hope" with which the Church turns to "Opus Dei" "so that it may be a powerful and effective instrument of its salvific mission for the life of the world". Dry, however, in the sense that "Ad Charisma Tuendam" decrees purely organisational changes. But they are significant: "Opus Dei", which sees itself as an instrument for the sanctification of the laity in the midst of the world, is from now on subordinate to the Vatican Dicastery for the clergy.

The prelate, as the superior of the work, is no longer to be ordained a Bishop, but must be content with the honorary title of "Apostolic Protonotary". Instead of every five years as before, the prelate must now submit an annual report to the Dicastery for the Clergy on the state and apostolic work of the prelature, and in order to adapt to the ordered changes, the work itself had to submit a proposal to amend the statutes. To this end, the Prelate of "Opus Dei", the Spanish priest Fernando Ocáriz, had convened a General Congress, which now took place in Rome from 12 to 16 April and was attended by 126 women and 148 men from all regions of "Opus Dei" in the world.

Atmosphere of serenity

In an "atmosphere of serenity and also of good humour", the Congress had done its work, as it said afterwards in a message from the prelate. And the work consisted in "expressing more clearly the charismatic dimension of the Work, lived and realised in communion with the particular Churches and the Bishops who preside over them". On the one hand, it was a matter of fidelity to the founding charism, and on the other hand, "the filial observance of the will expressed by the Holy Father". A proposal to adapt the statutes is taking shape. It remains to be seen what the final result will be, which "can only be communicated after it has been examined by the Holy See, which has the final say". Fernando Ocáriz, who, unlike his predecessors Álvaro del Portillo (Prelate 1982-1994) and Javier Echevarría Rodríguez (Prelate 1994-2016), is now denied Episcopal ordination.

It came as no surprise that the Apostolic Exhortation of last summer assigned "Opus Dei" to the dicastery for the clergy. For this was already stated in Article 117 of the Constitution "Praedicate Evangelium", with which Pope Francis had put the reform of the Curia into effect in March last year. Why a community whose works are led by lay people, who also generally make up the vast majority of the members, should be subject to the clerical authority of the Vatican - and not, for example, to the dicastery for the laity, the family and life - is not clear even if one reads the corresponding passage in the letter "Ad Charisma Tuendum" more closely.

There it says that with the reform of the Curia, Francis wanted to assign the personal prelatures - and there is only one, the "Opus Dei" - to the dicastery for the clergy. "This is done in view of the pre-eminent task that the clergy perform in the prelature according to the norm of law." This would have been the case, for example, if Rome had created a personal prelature for Anglican clergy who wanted to become Catholic. It turned out differently. Since Pope Benedict, former Anglican Catholics have belonged to so-called personal ordinariates. In the case of "Opus Dei", the prelate and the regional vicars form the "hierarchical backbone" of the community. And in the individual works, spiritual care is entrusted to the priests of "Opus Dei". The majority of the members, however, are lay people. If the prelate was not to be a bishop, the work could have been placed under the care of the lay dicastery. But that did not fit into the scheme of legal norms of the supreme Vatican church jurist.

For "Opus Dei" nothing will change

And this relates not to the Pope, but the Jesuit Gianfranco Ghirlanda, canon lawyer and until 2010 rector of the Gregorian University, whom Francis admitted to the cardinalate after reaching the age of 80 in August 2022. Ghirlanda was and is a consultant in numerous dicasteries, gave the "Praedicate Evangelium" its current shape and was always called upon when ecclesiastical communities had to be reorganised in terms of canon law. This was the case for the Legionaries of Christ, for whom he became Papal Assistant in 2014, for the "Regnum Christi" associated with the Legionaries of Christ, the Franciscans of the Immaculata or the "Memores Domini", the celibate of "Comunione e Liberazione". Father Ghirlanda was also on hand for the constitutional reform of the Sovereign Order of Malta. And now it was the turn of "Opus Dei".

Some media - especially in the Spanish-speaking world - have interpreted the letter "Ad Charisma Tuendum" as a blow by the Jesuit Pope against the disliked "Opus Dei". But these are clichés. In fact, Francis already had a good relationship with Opus Dei as a cardinal. The fact is that Canon 294 really does describe personal prelatures as a clerical matter and Ghirlanda, as a canon lawyer of the very old school, did not want to think beyond this scheme. Nothing will change for the lives of the members of "Opus Dei". And nothing for their relationship with the Pope either.

Source

Cathcon: The Francis Vatican is centralising, controlling and clericalising whatever his rhetoric. Laity are way less easy to control.