Pope Francis And Opus Dei

As a Catholic covert, my views on Pope Francis are inevitably affected by our parish clergy, who as positive role models tend to disfavor sin and favor the Holy Father. They frequently cite unnoticed but productive remarks by the current pontiff in bulletins and homilies. Thus I'm reluctant to join the usual chorus of "ain't it awful" from other Catholics over this or that policy change, and that includes the most recent apostolic letter Ad Charisma Tuendum issued Friday. As someone with no particular insight into the Vatican political winds, I can't say much about what it means other than to quote the Catholic News Service:

Saying he wanted to highlight the spiritual gifts of Opus Dei and its contributions to the Catholic Church's evangelizing activities, Pope Francis said it will now work with and answer to the Dicastery for Clergy, rather than the Dicastery for Bishops. . . . Francis also said the head of the personal prelature of Opus Dei "will not be made, nor will he be able to be made" a bishop.

Msgr. Fernando Ocáriz, who was elected prelate of Opus Dei and approved by Francis in 2017, said that while the first two prelates of Opus Dei were bishops, "the episcopal ordination of the prelate was not and is not necessary for the guidance of Opus Dei."

Francis said his decision was meant "to strengthen the conviction that, for the protection of the particular gift of the Spirit, a form of government based more on charism than on hierarchical authority is needed."

. . . Francis noted that his new constitution on the Roman Curia gives the Dicastery for Clergy responsibility for relations with personal prelatures, "of which the only one so far erected is that of Opus Dei."

Opus Dei is a highly controversial topic. In my old blog on Anglicanorum coetibus, I had occasion to look into the early career of Cardinal Bernard Law, who during his years as a Harvard undergraduate in the late 1940s was associated with an early Opus Dei group. Although his subsequent rise in the US Church was via the conventional diocesan path, he remained close to his Harvard schoolmate William Stetson, also a member of that group, who became an Opus Dei priest and some type of regional authority in the prelature, although its specific organizational details are at best obscure.

Cardinal Law's earlier career paralleled the rise of Opus Dei, and it's hard to think he didn't have some involvement in its establishment as a personal prelature, especially considering his relationship with Stetson. At the same time Opus Dei became a personal prelature, Law was also working behind the scenes with dissident Episcopalian clergy to establish what he hoped would become another personal prelature, this one for dissident Anglicans/Episcopalians who wished to become Catholic. As I wrote in 2020,

Law, an extremely ambitious man whom I've heard intended to succeed John Paul II as pontiff had it not been that John Paul outlived Law's expectations, was an opportunist and may have hoped that an Anglican personal prelature could in some way leverage his rise in the Church.

As it played out, a special provision for disgruntled Anglicans did finally emerge in the apostolic constitution Anglicanorum coetibus of 4 November 2009 under Pope Benedict XVI. However, it was as a personal ordinariate, rather than a personal prelature. According to a Vatican document clarifying the status of the personal ordinariates,

just as the Military Ordinariates are described in the Apostolic Constitution Spirituali militum cura as specific ecclesiastical jurisdictions which are similar to dioceses (Ap. Cons. I § 1), so also the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum coetibus describes Personal Ordinariates for the faithful coming from Anglicanism as juridically similar to dioceses (Ap. Cons. I § 3).

. . . . Nor can these Personal Ordinariates been considered as Personal Prelatures since, according to can. 294, Personal Prelatures are composed of secular priests and deacons and, according to can. 296, lay people may simply dedicate themselves to the apostolic works of Personal Prelatures by way of agreements. Members of Institutes of Consecrated Life or of Societies of Apostolic Life are not even mentioned in the canons concerning Personal Prelatures.

The Ordinariates for the faithful coming from Anglicanism are therefore personal structures in as much as the jurisdiction of the Ordinary, and consequently also of parish priests, is not geographically defined within the territory of an Episcopal Conference like a particular territorial Church, but is exercised “over all who belong to the Ordinariate” (Ap. Cons. V).

As I said above, Opus Dei is highly controversial. Visitors to my former blog sometimes urged that I take on Opus Dei as well as the Anglican ordinariates, but, other than being briefly acquainted with the late Msgr Stetson in connection with Anglicanorum coetibus, I never had direct experience with Opus Dei. In addition, Los Angeles Abp José Gómez, a highly successful and respected figure in the US Church, rose via Opus Dei, and I have no disagreement with him.

Nevertheless, a web search brings up numerous links to sites and news accounts that accuse Opus Dei of cult-like practices. Whether Francis's intent in moving Opus Dei under the supervision of the Dicastery for Clergy might be to promote reforms that could minimize such controversy is a matter beyond my competence. It's also beyond my competence to say whether this move could reflect any disposition by the Holy Father to modify the current structure of the Anglican ordinariates, although these have proven to be a disappointment at best -- but they're juridically different from Opus Dei.