Controversial Opus Dei Has Stake in Papal Vote

[emad]

Controversial Opus Dei Has Stake in Papal Vote

By Larry B. Stammer and Tracy Wilkinson, Times Staff Writers


ROME — When Pope John Paul II arrived at Opus Dei headquarters one March day 11 years ago, even members of the ultraconservative lay religious movement long accustomed to Vatican favor saw the visit as a singular moment in the group's ascendancy within the Roman Catholic Church.

The pope had come to pay his respects to Bishop Alvaro del Portillo, the prelate of Opus Dei, who had died that day.

"He came over to pray before the body of Don Alvaro, which is a very unusual thing, to have a pope come over to your house to pray," said Father John Wauck, a professor at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, an Opus Dei institution in Rome.

Now with its papal benefactor gone, Opus Dei's influence under the next pope — and its role in choosing the new pontiff — have become hot topics in a city awash in speculation as the world's cardinals meet behind the closed doors of the Sistine Chapel to elect John Paul's successor.

http://www.latimes.com/features/religion/la-fg-opus19apr19,1,752155.story?coll=la-news-religion&ctrack=1&cset=true

[aquart]

1. Let 'em run the Church.

Let 'em watch the Church get smaller and smaller and smaller. And poorer.

Not a problem for me.

[w4rma]

2. You can bet that they are supporting that Nazi cardinal, Ratzinger. (nt)

[emad]

3. Which one? so many..........Ratzinger (2/1 fav) also Vatican head

of Inquisition....but at age 78 he's a bit of a long shot. Unless someone's plannin' a short inings for JP3......

[w4rma]

5. Are the odds in favor of him winning or is he a long shot?

He can't be both.

[emad]

7. Ratz favorite to win but faves have terrible record in conclaves.

So effectively he's a very long shot in real terms.

[emad]

4. English pontiff’s policies led to schism

Times
By Ruth Gledhill



THE only English Pope to date was Nicholas Breakspear, in the 12th century. He took the name Adrian IV.
Born in Abbots Langley, Hertfordshire, he most likely attended the Abbey School at St Albans before studying in France, entering an Augustinian abbey and going on to become abbot.

His controversial reign as Pope lasted from 1154 to 1159. He was elected unanimously, but in the conclave after his death two popes emerged, causing a schism that lasted 17 years. He had helped to sow the seeds of the schism when he crowned Frederick I Holy Roman Emperor at St Peter’s in 1155, enraging Romans. That same year, he gave Ireland to Henry II.

John of Salisbury, a scholar and diplomat sent repeatedly to the Vatican, described how Breakspear at times regretted his elevation.

“The office of Pope, he assured me, was a thorny one, beset on all sides with sharp pricks,” Salisbury wrote. “He wished, indeed, that he had never left England, his native land, or at least had lived his life quietly in the cloister of St Rufus rather than have entered on such difficult paths, but he dared not refuse, since it was the Lord’s bidding.”
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,171-1575447,00.html

[RevCheesehead]

6. wait a minute -

just because JP II visited and prayed over the dead body, the Opus Dei believes that they have papal support?

That's a little like saying because Bush visited the pope, that the pope is supportive of the blivet.

If there's more to the connection between JP-II and Opus Dei, I'd like to see the evidence. Otherwise, it's just Catholic-bashing, IMO.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

8. Emad has had a boatload of threads....

on the many connections between between OD and JP2 -- this is not just "Catholic bashing". OD is the extreme "fundy" version of Catholicism and I dread any further infiltraion into the Catholic heirarchy.

[Malva Zebrina]

9. No it is not bashing anything. Criticism is NOT bashing Catholics.

Especially if it is fact and not opinion.

Opus Dei exists and the Pope approved of Opus Dei. Before you go off half cocked and accuse people who criticize the flaws in a religion of "bashing" as if any criticism at all can be labeled "bashing", just google in and get educated about Opus Dei. Currently there are more Opus Dei priests working in the Vatican than there are Jesuits. The Pope has appointed an Opus Dei Bishop , Gomez, to oversee the faithful in Colorado. Originally from Texas, Gomez is the first Opus Dei prelate to be elevated to the rank of Bishop in the United States. The pope has appointed at least thirty Opus Dei prelates, all over the world, to the order or Bishop, or Cardinal .

13. John Paul II has increased the number of Opus Dei bishops . . . (there were only 4 before, all in Latin America) and granted Opus its own Pontifical "atheneum" in Rome despite objections from the rectors of the Church's established pontifical universities.

14. In 1982 John Paul II awarded Opus Dei a unique status as "personal prelature" which means its clerical and lay members take spiritual direction from their own prelate in Rome and not like other Catholics from their local bishop.

15. Opus Dei's real power is inside the Vatican bureaucracy . . .several ranking cardinals and at least one of the pope's personal secretaries, Father Stanislaw Dziwisz from Cracow are either "cooperators" or like the Pope himself, strong sympathizers.

16. Officials who supervise the media-conscious pope's liaisons with television are members of Opus Dei.

http://www.odan.org/tw_opposition_to_canonization.htm

Plenty more if you choose to do a little research.

[RevCheesehead]

10. First of all, I already know what Opus Dei is.

Your insulting comments aside, let me just say that my comments are referring to what precious little information was given in the original post.

The original poster was making a connection between JP-II and Opus Dei. But what he posted simply stated that JP went and prayed over the body of one of its deceased members. That is not an act of getting into bed with the group. Instead, that is an act that any true Christian would do for another - ESPECIALLY whan you disagree with that person.

Now that you have provided further information, it lends more credence to the OP. I would venture to say that most people here don't bother googling when they don't have all the information. But if this topic is important to you (and I trust it is), then you have more to say.

That being said, I think you could have made your point in a more polite manner. I am not an ignorant Protestant.

[Malva Zebrina]

11. Neither of us is ignorant

and neither is polite all the time--don't you agree?

I responded to your not so polite answer to the OP in order to make the point that indeed the late Pope did approve of Opus Dei as a part of the Vatican and the church.

My other point is that pointing out flaws in the Pope's service as head of the Catholic church is a valid method of debate and discussion and is not Catholic bashing, as pointing to the flaws in Sharon's service as head of Israel is not anti-semitism, or pointing to the flaws of George Bush is not America bashing.