The M+G+R Foundation
Excerpts from an article [0] by Lee Penn
PURPOSE and INTRODUCTION
The founder of Communion and Liberation, Msgr. Luigi Guissani, said to Vittorio Messori back around 1984: "we (referring to Communion and Liberation) are the guerrillas, the irregulars, the rock-throwers. We do our part, and sometimes really stir something up. But those people in the Work [Opus Dei], they have the tanks: they are well armored with rubber-coated treads. Nobody has heard of them yet, but they’re here, believe me. And we’ll be talking more and more about them, you’ll see."
It logically follows that the alert citizen of this world - whether Catholic or Jew, Muslim or Hindu - should know as much as possible about this "discreet" group since there is no escaping from their meddling in critical world affairs.
Therefore, we are quoting in this brief document two key sections from the above-cited document authored by Lee Penn, in which the reader can see how the Bishops of Rome have interacted with Escrivá and his brain child - The Prelature of the Holy Cross and Opus Dei.
CONTENT
+ Out of favor under John XXIII and Paul VI
+ Moving to the center stage under John Paul II
+ Continued power under Benedict XVI
DETAILS
With the election of Pope John Paul II in October 1978, Opus Dei came in from the cold.
•
The
• That same year, John Paul II made Álvaro del Portillo, Escrivá’s successor as head of Opus Dei, a bishop. (Portillo was head of the movement from 1975 until 1994, and had been Escrivá’s closest collaborator for 40 years. [14]) Portillo’s successor, Javier Echevarría, was raised to the episcopate in 1995, the year after he became the head of Opus Dei.
• As noted above, John Paul II hastened Escrivá’s canonization. By recognizing him as a saint, John Paul II stated that Escrivá is in Heaven, and that his life is a worthy example to the faithful, and that people have gained miraculous results from his intercession on their behalf. At the least, the beatification and canonization of Escrivá blunts criticism of Opus Dei within the Catholic Church.
• In 1984, John Paul II selected Joaquín Navarro-Valls (a lay Opus Dei numerary since 1960) as his press secretary. He was part of the Papal inner circle, and (along with Papal secretary Dziwisz) had day-to-day, direct access to the Pontiff. [15] In April 2005, the press secretary said, “I have been fortunate to be next to him day after day, in his apartment as well as traveling with him – including during his vacations. Many of the photographs that are in circulation where he can be seen in the country, in the latter part of his life, were taken by me.” [16] Navarro-Valls has been an actor, a psychiatrist and a journalist. His first non-medical publication was a book, Manipulation in Advertising; this was followed by “two essays in evolutionary psychology.” [17]
Sandro Magister – an experienced, orthodox Catholic reporter – wrote, “As an editorial promoter, Navarro thought up and in 1994 launched the most widely read and translated book by John Paul II: the interview conducted by Vittorio Messori entitled Crossing the threshold of hope.” [18] The book was published simultaneously in the major world languages. [19] In 1997, Massimo D’Alema, the leader of the Italian Democratic Party of the Left (the current “moderate” incarnation of the Italian Communist Party) said that Crossing the Threshold of Hope was the one book on his bedside table. [20] D’Alema – who would go on to become Prime Minister of Italy in 1998-2000 – said that he had been impressed by the Pope’s analysis of the fall of Communism and his insistence that “the society of the future” had to be built around a “quest for values.” [21] (In the book, John Paul said, “it would be simplistic to say that Divine Providence caused the fall of Communism. In a certain sense Communism as a system fell by itself. It fell as a consequence of its own mistakes and abuses. It proved to be a medicine more dangerous than the disease itself. It did not bring about true social reform, yet it did become a powerful threat and challenge to the entire world. But it fell by itself, because of its own inherent weakness.” [22])
The Papal
press secretary has used his skills to manage the news from the
• During the Pope’s final year, Cardinal Herranz, an Opus Dei member, “emerged as one of the five or six prelates closest to John Paul.” [26]
Continued power under Benedict XVI
It’s a given that Benedict XVI will continue the prior Pope’s strong support for “The Way.”
•
A post-Conclave report
•
Opus Dei remains prominent in the Pope’s inner
circle. Ratzinger’s personal secretary is a Bavarian priest and expert on
canon law, Georg Gänswein.
[29] He has been
on Ratzinger’s staff since 1996, and has been his personal secretary since 2003.
(Gänswein also had been “a trusted confidant of the last Pope, who
made him a chaplain in 2000.”
[30]) Until 2005,
Gänswein “taught at the
• Benedict XVI has retained Navarro-Valls as his press secretary, even though he does not have “the direct and osmotic relationship that he had with John Paul II. He can no longer permit himself to model and amplify the pope’s gestures, statements, and performance.” [34] (Note, however, that since this article was written in the fall of 2005, Navarro-Valls has stepped down from this post; he resigned on July 11, 2006. Valls' replacement is Father Federico Lombardi, SJ. ]
•
On September 14 – the Feast of the Exaltation of
the Holy Cross, a solemn Catholic remembrance of the Cross as the sign of Christ’s victory –
Benedict XVI blessed a 16-foot statue of Escrivá that has been placed in a niche on the outside
wall of St. Peter’s Basilica in
CONCLUSION
Without the support of John Paul II and Benedict XVI, Opus Dei would not have risen to its present influence in the Catholic Church and in the world. [37]
[0] The Scandalous Truth About Opus Dei - Part I
[1] Tad Szulc, Pope John Paul II, Pocket Books, 1995, p. 190.
[2] Tad Szulc, Pope John Paul II, Pocket Books, 1995, p. 191.
[3] Tad Szulc, Pope John Paul II, Pocket Books, 1995, p. 191.
[4] Tad Szulc, Pope John Paul II, Pocket Books, 1995, p. 191.
[5] “Pope Unveils Opus Dei Statue,” Ansa.it, 09/14/05, printed 09/14/05.
[6] Michael Walsh, Opus Dei, Harper San Francisco, 2004, p. 185.
[7] Maria del Carmen Tapia, Beyond the Threshold: A Life in Opus Dei, Continuum, 1997, p. 269.
[8] George Weigel, Witness to Hope: The Biography of Pope John Paul II, Harper Collins, 2001, p. 450.
[9] Tad Szulc, Pope John Paul II, Pocket Books, 1995, p. 358.
[10] Peggy Lernoux, People of God: The Struggle for World Catholicism, Penguin Books, 1989, p. 35.
[11] Tad Szulc, Pope John Paul II, Pocket Books, 1995, p. 358.
[12] Jonathan Kwitny, Man of the Century: The Life and Times of Pope John Paul II, Henry Holt and Co., 1997, pp. 303, 305.
[13] Jonathan Kwitny, Man of the Century: The Life and Times of Pope John Paul II, Henry Holt and Co., 1997, p. 455.
[14] Josemaría Escrivá, Conversations with Josemaría Escrivá, Scepter, 1968, foreword, p. 8.
[15] George Weigel, Witness to Hope: The Biography of Pope John Paul II, Harper Collins, 2001, p. 449.
[16] Interview with Navarro-Valls, April 17, 2005, published in the Spanish newspaper ABC and excerpted by the M+G+R Foundation, http://www.mgr.org/JNVedited.html, printed 08/15/05.
[17] Stefania Rossini, “The Pope’s Spokesman, in his own words,” Catholic World Report, August/September 2005, p. 44; see also Navarro-Valls’ resume on his web site, http://www.navarro-valls.info/biography.html, printed 09/15/05.
[18] Sandro Magister, “The Vatican and Vaticanologists. A Very Special Kind of Journalism,” www.chiesa, June 7, 2005, http://www.chiesa.espressonline.it/dettaglio.jsp?id=32668&eng=y, printed 06/08/05.
[19] George Weigel, Witness to Hope: The Biography of Pope John Paul II, Harper Collins, 2001, p. 736.
[20] George Weigel, Witness to Hope: The Biography of Pope John Paul II, Harper Collins, 2001, pp. 804-805.
[21] George Weigel, Witness to Hope: The Biography of Pope John Paul II, Harper Collins, 2001, p. 805.
[22] John Paul II, Crossing the Threshold of Hope, on-line edition, “Was God At Work In The Fall Of Communism?,” http://www.catholic.net/RCC/POPE/HopeBook/chap20.html, printed 09/27/05.
[23] Stefania Rossini, “The Pope’s Spokesman, in his own words,” Catholic World Report, August/September 2005, p. 42.
[24] Julia Day and Jason Deans, “Slick PR operation accompanies Pope's passing,” MediaGuardian.co.uk, April 6, 2005,
http://media.guardian.co.uk/site/story/0,14173,1453219,00.html, printed 09/02/05.
[25] Carl Bernstein and Marco Politi, His Holiness, Penguin Books, 1996, p. 400.
[26] Tony Barber, “Rise of Opus Dei has liberals concerned over succession,” Financial Times, March 5, 2005, http://news.ft.com/cms/s/c80da488-8d1c-11d9-9d37-00000e2511c8.html, printed 03/05/05.
[27] Paul Wilkes, “When in Rome,” BeliefNet, April 20, 2005, http://www.beliefnet.com/story/163/story_16397_1.html, printed 09/10/05.
[28] Sandro Magister, “Lent in the Vatican: The Pope, the Curia, and the Conclave,” www.chiesa, February 11, 2005, http://www.chiesa.espressonline.it/printDettaglio.jsp?id=22533&eng=y, printed 09/17/05.
[29] Paul Badde, “Georg Gänswein: Soul- & Bodyguard,” Inside the Vatican, July 2005, p. 38.
[30] Luke Harding and Barbara McMahon, “Thou Shalt Not Drool,” UK Guardian, August 23, 2005, http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,3604,1554309,00.html, printed 08/25/05.
[31] Sandro Magister, “The First Three Months of Benedict XVI: New Pope, New Style,” www.Chiesa, July 15, 2005, http://www.chiesa.espressonline.it/dettaglio.jsp?id=36194&eng=y, printed 09/10/05.
[32] John Allen, “The Word From Rome,” National Catholic Reporter, July 15, 2005, http://www.nationalcatholicreporter.org/word/word071505.htm, printed 07/15/05.
[33] John Allen, “The Word From Rome,” National Catholic Reporter, July 15, 2005, http://www.nationalcatholicreporter.org/word/word071505.htm, printed 07/15/05.
[34] Sandro Magister, “The First Three Months of Benedict XVI: New Pope, New Style,” www.Chiesa, July 15, 2005, http://www.chiesa.espressonline.it/dettaglio.jsp?id=36194&eng=y, printed 09/10/05.
[35] EWTN News, “POPE WILL RETURN TO ROME ON SEPTEMBER 28,” August 31, 2005, http://www.ewtn.com/vnews/getstory.asp?number=60108, printed 09/10/05. The statue is 5 meters tall.
[36] “Pope Unveils Opus Dei Statue,” Ansa.it, 09/14/05, http://ansa.it/main/notizie/awnplus/english/news/2005-09-14_1264282.html, printed 09/14/05.
[37] Influence of Opus Dei in Power Centers of the World
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