Is Opus Dei Influenced by Fascist Ideas?

Readiness (1939) by Arno Breker

IS OPUS DEI INFLUENCED BY FASCIST IDEAS?

Yes.

Opus Dei claims that it was “founded by God” on October 2, 1928, a date proximate to the time of introduction of fascism in Spain. In addition, the rise and growth of Opus Dei in Spain parallels Spain’s rapid development during the sixties under the dictator Franco. Not surprisingly, therefore, it is plausible to claim that the fascist ideas circulating from the late twenties of the last century until the year of Franco’s death had a major influence on Saint Josemaria Escriva and that this influence naturally extended to the so-called “spirit” of Opus Dei.

When we closely examine some of Escriva’s ideas about Christian spirituality, their fascist character is very apparent.

begin Fascist Culture

The culture that became embedded in Francoist Spain has been summarised by del Arco Blanco as ‘the disqualification of those who had lost the war (the “reds”), and the negation of everything the Republic had stood for (qualified with the prefix of “anti-”).’ This ‘war culture’ was sustained through myths, symbols, ‘heroes’, ‘martyrs’, commemorations and values, encouraging ‘victory not reconciliation, and punishment rather than forgiveness.’  And importantly, it was here that the Falange was able to make one of its most significant impacts.’ Right up until the 1970s it was the Falange which exerted control over the media and propaganda. This ‘gave the regime an appearance, and Spain a politico-cultural atmosphere, that were ostentatiously “fascist”,’ writes Blinkhorn.

One of the key tools for establishing this culture, already firmly established in Spanish society, was religion – or more specifically Catholicism, the declared state religion under Franco. During the civil war, the Spanish Catholic Church had played an important role in rousing support for the rebels and Francoists – to whom it had given full support – with the bishop of Salamanca, Enrique Pla y Deniel, declaring the Civil War as a ‘crusade for religion, the Fatherland and Christian civilization’ in September 1936.

Spanish Catholicism aimed to instil ‘a way of disciplining the work-force by granting the possibility of “redemption” through total obedience to authority.’ The Francoist state’s direct association with Catholicism, as opposed to the Republic’s secularism, meant it could attract support from ‘respectable’ Spaniards and seize upon the language and imagery of religion to convey its own legitimacy. end

https://jodebloggs.wordpress.com/2016/03/13/was-francoist-spain-a-fascist-state/  

—Jodie Collins, “To what extent did Franco impose a ‘Fascist’ state and identity on Spain?” JODE BLOGGS, March 13, 2016 

 

The above article, “To what extent did Franco impose a ‘Fascist’ state and identity on Spain?” alludes to the fascist attributes of Franco’s regime that, interestingly, also define Opus Dei qua organization—anti-Communism, militarism, triumphal nationalism...mythmaking, censorship, and propaganda under the direction and control of the state...authoritarianism, and anti-liberalism.

Unlike in Germany, Italy, and Japan, fascism in Spain was “successful”—Franco established a stable social and political order after the Spanish Civil War, and under his dictatorial rule Spain attained outstanding economic development. Under these historical conditions, fascist ideas naturally gained widespread currency, building deep foundations in Spanish society, in Opus Dei in particular.

begin Spain differs because while Hitler and Mussolini were utterly defeated, Franco won. “Germans know that they were on the wrong side,” says Javier Cercas, whose million-selling 2001 novel, Soldiers of Salamis, grappled with how Spain remembers its civil war – and whose mass success proved how much the question still burns. “There was no blurring. In Spain, there’s blurring. On German TV you can’t see people saying Hitler was great. You can in Spain,” he says, speaking of a Francoist nostalgia that has not been entirely extinguished. end

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/mar/28/spain-lingering-legacy-franco

—Jonathan Freedland, “Spain and the lingering legacy of Franco,” The Guardian (March 28, 2011)

 

The following article identifies the attributes of fascist and quasi-fascist groups in the Roman Catholic Church:

http://oddsandendsgonzalinhodacosta.blogspot.com/2017/11/fascism-and-quasi-fascism-in-roman.html

Based on the foregoing article, we apply to Opus Dei the following framework consisting of fascist and quasi-fascist attributes:

- Anti-liberalism

- Anti-Communism

- Religious reaction

- Authoritarianism

- Group superiority complex

- Metaphysical community

- Mythic ideology

- Triumphalism

- Aggression

- Militarism

- Repression

- Recapitulation of fascist motifs, e.g. struggle, “will,” purity, cleansing, etc.

- Corporatism

1. Anti-liberalism

The Roman Catholic Church has always been opposed to the philosophy of liberalism.

begin Modern Liberalism adopts and propagates them under the deceiving mask of Liberalism in the true sense. As a direct offspring of Humanism and the Reformation in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, modern Liberalism was further developed by the philosophers and literati of England especially Locke and Hume, by Rousseau and the Encyclopedists in France, and by Lessing and Kant in Germany. Its real cradle, however, was the drawing-rooms of the moderately free-thinking French nobility (1730-1789), especially those of Mme Necker and her daughter, Mme de Staël. The latter was more than anybody else the connecting link between the free-thinking elements before and after the Revolution and the centre of the modern Liberal movement both in France and Switzerland. In her politico-religious views she is intimately connected with Mirabeau and the Constitutional party of the Revolution. These views find their clearest exposition in her work “Considérations sur les principaux événements de la Révolution française”. She pleads for the greatest possible individual liberty, and denounces as absurd the derivation of human authority from God.

…By proclaiming man’s absolute autonomy in the intellectual, moral and social order, Liberalism denies, at least practically, God and supernatural religion. If carried out logically, it leads even to a theoretical denial of God, by putting deified mankind in place of God. It has been censured in the condemnations of Rationalism and Naturalism. The most solemn condemnation of Naturalism and Rationalism was contained in the Constitution “De Fide” of the Vatican Council (1870); the most explicit and detailed condemnation, however, was administered to modern Liberalism by Pius IX in the Encyclical “Quanta cura” of 8 December, 1864 and the attached Syllabus. Pius X condemned it again in his allocution of 17 April, 1907, and in the Decree of the Congregation of the Inquisition of 3 July, 1907, in which the principal errors of Modernism were rejected and censured in sixty-five propositions. The older and principally political form of false Liberal Catholicism had been condemned by the Encyclical of Gregory XVI, “Mirari Vos”, of 15 August, 1832 and by many briefs of Pius IX (see Ségur, “Hommage aux Catholiques Libéraux”, Paris, 1875). The definition of the papal infallibility by the Vatican council was virtually a condemnation of Liberalism. Besides this many recent decisions concern the principal errors of Liberalism. Of great importance in this respect are the allocutions and encyclicals of Pius IX, Leo XIII, and Pius X. (Cf., Recueil des allocutions consistorales encycliques . . . citées dans le Syllabus”, Paris, 1865) and the encyclicals of Leo XIII of 20 January, 1888, “On Human Liberty”; of 21 April, 1878, “On the Evils of Modern Society”; of 28 December, 1878, “On the Sects of the Socialists, Communists, and Nihilists”; of 4 August, 1879, “On Christian Philosophy”; of 10 February, 1880, “On Matrimony”; of 29 July, 1881, “On the Origin of Civil Power”; of 20 April, 1884, “On Freemasonry”; of 1 November, 1885, “On the Christian State”; of 25 December, 1888, “On the Christian Life”; of 10 January, 1890, “On the Chief Duties of a Christian Citizen”; of 15 May, 1891, “On the Social Question”; of 20 January, 1894, “On the Importance of Unity in Faith and Union with the Church for the Preservation of the Moral Foundations of the State”; of 19 March, 1902, “On the Persecution of the Church all over the World”. end

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09212a.htm

—H. Gruber, “Liberalism,” The Catholic Encyclopedia (1910) 

 

The historical animosity of the Roman Catholic Church toward liberalism is well known and established. Today, however, liberal ideology has found common ground with Roman Catholicism, making major inroads into Roman Catholic beliefs and practices.

begin True, the Catholic Church, a firm opponent of abortion, stands against the important liberal principle that women have a right to control their own bodies. There is little doubt that for many liberals--especially for many liberal Catholics--the Church’s hierarchical character and its refusal to admit women into the priesthood indicate a reluctance to recognize such fundamentally liberal ideals as equality, democracy, and freedom. Church spokesmen can disconcertingly be counted on to fight the wrong battles in the wrong way, such as the fall 1999 suggestion of Boston’s Cardinal Bernard Law that Margaret Marshall, a distinguished lawyer chosen to be the chief justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, was anti-Catholic. And no issue seemed to show Catholicism’s worst side more than the attempt of the Vatican to clamp down on the Reverend Robert Nugent and Sister Jeannine Gramick, founders of the New Ways Ministry in Mount Ranier, Maryland, who for two decades had reached out to gay and lesbian Catholics and their parents.

Yet for all the hostility expressed by the Catholic Church and its officials to liberal principles, Catholics as people can also be found in the forefront of important struggles for social justice. Sister Helen Prejean is rightly celebrated by liberals for her opposition to capital punishment. The National Conference of Catholic Bishops published the 1986 pastoral letter “Economic Justice for All,” a stinging rebuke against untrammeled capitalism, when much of the rest of the country was celebrating the Reagan Revolution. Those same bishops were among the most vigorous critics of welfare reform during the first Clinton administration. One does not have to support the use of school vouchers to appreciate the work done by Catholic educators, often for little or no pay, in educating at-risk inner-city children. Even in the contentious area of abortion politics, Catholic leaders like Bishop John May of St. Louis were determined opponents of the violent tactics promoted by Protestant fundamentalists. With the left on the defensive and unions in decline, the Catholic Church has emerged as one of the most powerful forces promoting economic equality in the United States. Recognizing this, liberals are less likely to attack Catholicism as antagonistic to their views in quite the same tones as those uttered in the years after World War II. end

http://prospect.org/article/liberalism-and-catholicism

—Alan Wolfe, “Liberalism and Catholicism,” The American Prospect: Ideas, Politics & Power, December 19, 2001  

 

What is possibly the most important shift in the Roman Catholic Church’s stance toward liberalism took place during Pius XII’s 1942 Christmas address.

begin In response to the horrors of World War II, repression in the Soviet Union, and the precarious position of the Roman Catholic Church in Eastern Europe after the war, Pius XII (1939-1958) moved human dignity “from the level of a basic but frequently implicit first principle of Roman Catholic social morality to the level of explicit and formal concern.” [David Hollenbach, S.J., Claims in Conflict: Retrieving and Renewing the Catholic Human Rights Tradition (New York: Paulist Press, 1979), 56] In his Christmas address of 1942 he affirmed that human dignity requires “respect for and the practical realization of the following fundamental personal rights”:

begin block quote the right to maintain and develop one’s corporal, intellectual and moral life and especially the right to religious formation and education; the right to worship God in private and public and to carry on religious works of charity; the right to marry and to achieve the aim of married life; the right to conjugal and domestic society; the right to work, as the indispensable means toward the maintenance of family life; the right to free choice of a state of life, and hence, too, of the priesthood or religious life; the right to the use of material goods, in keeping with his duties and social limitations. end block quote [Pius XII, 1942 Christmas Address]

In that same address Pius XII also asserted that each person has a right to a government which will protect these rights, and in a later statement he specified that:

begin block quote The right to existence, the right to one’s good name, the right to one’s own culture and national character, the right to develop oneself, the right to demand observance of international treaties, and other like rights, are demanded by the law of nations, dictated by nature itself. end block quote [Pius XII, December 6, 1953 Address]

As social justice requires a legal system that protects these rights, the authority of the state “is both based on and limited by these fundamental human rights.” [David Hollenbach, S.J., Claims in Conflict, 61] end

https://books.google.com.ph/books?id=CyGhyLqJT6IC&pg=PA34&lpg=PA34&dq=the+right+to+maintain+and+develop+one%27s+corporal,+intellectual+and+moral+life&source=bl&ots=DHpGdXzX-E&sig=OwNVAveyDrVuKJdCvmKU3x5uQZU&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjjq6Gh-KvXAhWElZQKHWHlDUAQ6AEIKTAB#v=onepage&q=the%20right%20to%20maintain%20and%20develop%20one%27s%20corporal%2C%20intellectual%20and%20moral%20life&f=false

—Robert Traer, Faith in Human Rights: Support in Religious Traditions for a Global Struggle (1991), pages 34-35 

 

After the Allied victory over the fascist powers in World War II, the Roman Catholic Church swung in support of several core values and key principles of liberalism, the ideology of human rights in particular. In 1948 the Vatican signed the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

See No. 3 for a brief discussion of anti-liberalism in Opus Dei.

2. Anti-Communism

The Roman Catholic Church is a longtime and steadfast opponent of Communism.

begin Whether in theory or in practice, the Church utterly rejects Communism on account of its errors, notably: its atheistic materialism, its doctrine and practice of class-war, its denial of the rights and liberties of the human person, including the natural right to possess some measure of private property, and its contempt for good morals under several heads.

Communism has been repeatedly condemned by the Holy See, notably by Pope Pius XI in the encyclical letter, Divini Redemptoris.

(Definition from A Catholic Dictionary, 1951) end

http://www.catholicessentials.net/communism.htm

—“Communism (and Socialism),” Catholic Essentials, 2008  

 

See No. 3 for a brief discussion of anti-Communism in Opus Dei.
 
3. Religious reaction

Opus Dei is a characteristically reactionary organization. In Opus Dei, reaction is directed against progressive ideological forces, both liberal and Communist, inside the Roman Catholic Church and outside.

See “Is Opus Dei is a Cult?” No. 6:

http://oddsandendsgonzalinhodacosta.blogspot.com/2017/11/is-opus-dei-cult.html

Opus Dei’s anti-liberal and anti-Communist stance is not surprising, because Opus Dei is a Roman Catholic organization. However, what distinguishes Opus Dei reaction from that of the Roman Catholic Church at large is the extreme ideological positions Opus Dei assumes, the totalitarian ideological regime it imposes on Opus Dei members, and the aggression with which it inveighs against its perceived ideological enemies—in short, Opus Dei is extremist reaction.

Opus Dei, for example, entirely repudiates human rights, practically, with respect to Opus Dei members:

NOTE: Some excerpts and commentary are from Opus Dei as Divine Revelation (2016) by E. B. E.—it is an English translation from the Spanish, not fully corrected, so I have made appropriate corrections of my own.

begin Opus Dei members lose their rights when they enter Opus Dei: it is part of giving up their own minds. Even if they can, they should not claim their rights once they have “given them up to God.” ...once you are a member, you have no rights anymore.

“Because of the vocation, rights have become duties of a greater generosity, of full dedication, of complete giving up of ourselves.” (J. M. Escriva, “Meditations,” IV, p. 582) end

—E. B. E., Opus Dei as Divine Revelation (2016), page 229

Opus Dei is also occupied with the ideological control of its members:

begin “Dear child, convince yourself now and forever, convince yourself that leaving the boat [Opus Dei] means DEATH [all capitals mine]. And, to remain in the boat, YOU NEED TO GIVE UP YOUR MIND [all capitals mine].” (J. M. Escriva, “Vivir para la Gloria de Dios,” November 21, 1954)

—E. B. E., Opus Dei as Divine Revelation (2016), page 199

Saint Josemaria Escriva’s directives serve to deny the members the right to information and the right of conscience. Indeed, among the fundamental objectives of the entire Opus Dei regime are thought control and the control of consciences.

begin The effect upon the organization’s members trained in a singularly devout, enclosed, and tightly controlled society can be devastating when it is suggested to them that there is some form of symbiosis between the will of God and the will of the founder whom they are taught to venerate. It puts them under enormous psychological pressure, shielded as they are from any questioning by people outside their group. “In our docility,” Cronica told members, “there will be no limits.”

…That is the IDEOLOGY OF SUBMISSION [all capitals mine] to which members commit themselves through their three vows—or the equivalent “fidelity,” as Opus prefers to call it. And the confidences, the circles, and the sacrament of penance are all means to enforce it. Given the extremely strict rules the Church of Rome imposes upon the secrecy of the confessional, sacramental confession should, of course, lie outside the structure. But as can be seen by the insistence on going only to an Opus confessor, that is not so. Has confessional secrecy ever been abused? end

—Michael Walsh, Opus Dei: An Investigation into the Secret Society Struggling for Power within the Roman Catholic Church (1992), page 118

In imposing the “ideology of submission,” Opus Dei transgresses the right to privacy. See, for example, “Opus Dei Violates the Seal of Confession”:

http://oddsandendsgonzalinhodacosta.blogspot.com/2017/11/opus-dei-violates-seal-of-confession.html

Opus Dei’s anti-liberalism is especially manifest in its resistance against the liberal reforms of Vatican II:

begin John Roche said, “The Opus Dei hierarchy in Rome was starting to prepare us for schism. They said, ‘Saints have been in schism before.’ They were preparing us for the possibility of leaving the Catholic Church and becoming a separate church. This was an indication of the paranoia that spread through Opus Dei in the early 1970s. I remember asking one of our Irish priests who he would choose if it came to schism, the Pope or the Father? ‘The Father, of course,’ he replied.” [Dr. John Roche, 8 October 1994] end

—Robert Hutchison, Their Kingdom Come (1996), page 145

Naturally, Opus Dei also opposes liberation theology, which is influenced by Communist ideology:

“Escriva de Balaguer rejected Liberation Theology and his campaign to suppress it became the first major battleground between the Jesuits and Opus Dei.

“Given his roots, it is hardly any wonder that Escriva de Balaguer believed Liberation Theology was dangerous. In Opus Dei it was taught that the poor must work to improve their earthly lot within existing social structures while preparing through devotion and obedience for eternal salvation. This meant that they should remain meek and hard toiling throughout their lives on earth in order to enjoy the majesty of after-life in Christ’s kingdom.

“…The Jesuit General Pedro Arrupe urged his troops to become more involved with social justice and did not rule out ‘a critical collaboration with Marxist-inspired groups and movements.’ [Eric O. Hanson, The Catholic Church in World Politics, Princeton University Press, Princeton 1990, pages 88-89] This placed Arrupe on a direct confrontation course with Opus Dei, whose members were very much part of the ‘Church of the Rich.’ The first battle was for control of the Catholic universities in Latin America.

“…‘In addition to controlling universities, what Opus Dei wanted,’ Moncada contended, ‘was to enter the economic and political superstructure in Latin American countries. In this they were successful in Argentina, Chile and Uruguay, while in Peru…it was much harder [because the ruling junta was leftist-oriented] until they persuaded the nuncio to appoint six Opus Dei bishops,’ he explained. [Interview with Alberto Moncada, Madrid, 1 March 1995]”

—Robert Hutchison, Their Kingdom Come (1996), pages 215-217

4. Authoritarianism

begin The Way was more accurately a handbook of authoritarian clericalism [all capitals mine]. Professor Jose Maria Castillo went even further. He claimed it lacked discernment, a serious charge, for in theological terms discernment is a loaded word. “Discernment is the expression of the true cult of Christians; it puts into practice our living as ‘children of the light’ rather than ‘children of darkness,’” explained Castillo, a Jesuit professor of theology at the University of Granada.

“If a book which claims to be a programme of the spiritual life says nothing about Christian discernment, one can say quite surely that it has only a superficial veneer of Evangelical spirit. One can, in fact, say that, deep down, the book is not Christian,” Castillo wrote in an article that engendered Opus Dei’s wrath. Shortly after, Castillo’s licence to teach theology was revoked.

…Discernment denied, Escriva’s lay children would be unlikely to attain spiritual maturity. They are told that if they wish to achieve Christian perfection they must give up their inner self to a superior.

…With the elimination of discernment, the Gospel is empty, faith alienated, and the individual demeaned. …Once alienation has been achieved, the foundations of a cult have been established. Father Castillo concluded: “The Way leads inevitably to the alienation of the individual and to an ill-conceived complicity with ‘the world’ which Jesus rejected, and by which He was rejected, unto death.” [Jose Maria Castillo, La Anulacion del Discernimiento (The Elimination of Discernment). Father Castillo is also the author of El discernimiento cristiano segun San Pablo (Granada, 1975)] end  

“Authoritarian clericalism” is classic Opus Dei.

Also, see “Is Opus Dei is a Cult?” No. 2:

http://oddsandendsgonzalinhodacosta.blogspot.com/2017/11/is-opus-dei-cult.html

5. Group superiority complex

“I can do all things in him who strengthens me.” With him there is no possibility of failure, and this conviction gives rise to the holy “superiority complex” whereby we take on things with a spirit of victory, because God grants us his strength.

—The Forge, 337

“When we’re working for God we have to have a superiority complex,” I told you. “But isn’t that a sign of pride?” you asked me. “No. It is a consequence of humility, the humility which makes me say, ‘Lord, you are who you are. I am nothingness itself. You have all the perfections: power, strength, love, glory, wisdom, authority, dignity... If I unite myself to you, like a child who goes to the strong embrace of his father or sits on his dear mother’s knee, I will feel the warmth of your divinity, I will experience the light of your wisdom, I will sense your strength coursing through my veins.’”

—The Forge, 342

I suppose that if you construct “superiority complex” in the above manner, you could argue that you are justified in deeming yourself “superior.” However, this argument assumes that you are indeed doing “God’s work.”

Question: Is human cooperation with God’s grace necessarily assured of freedom from error, untainted by sin and darkness? Answer: No.

Genuine humility acknowledges the possibility of co-opting the name of God in prosecuting the works of the world, the flesh, and the devil.

6. Metaphysical community

begin Maria del Carmen Tapia, the eldest and only girl in her family, was engaged to be married when she was recruited. She broke the engagement, gave up her job, and left her family. …She was convinced at the time that, in joining Opus Dei, she had become a member of a saintly family. “Brotherhood is more important than the linkages of blood relatives. Father is the main figure. That’s a typical thing of the sects.” [Tapia, “Good Housekeepers for Opus Dei”] end

—Penny Lernoux, People of God: The Struggle for World Catholicism (1989), page 313

“Ties of the spirit supersede ties of blood.”

—Ideological principle taught during the first talk that an Opus Dei numerary receives

Escriva’s “theo-ideology” or “ideo-theology,” however you make it, eerily recapitulates a core motif of Nazi ideology:

begin Though a German expression decades before Hitler came to power, “Blood and Soil” was popularized by the prominent Nazi theorist Richard Walther Darré in 1930, three years before he became Hitler’s minister of food and agriculture. Darré maintained that the preservation of the Nordic race was inextricably tied to Germany’s agrarian population. The idea painted farmers as national heroes who protected the purity of Germany. Under Darré, and with Hitler’s support, the Nazi Party embraced “Blood and Soil” as one of its chief ideologies.

The ideology also helped the Nazi Party blame the decline of Germany’s rural class on Jews. Nazi propaganda usually depicted Jewish Germans as bankers and merchants—a stark contrast to the glorified “Blood and Soil” peasants that Darré and Hitler argued were the backbone, and future, of Germany.

In 1933, the Nazi Party made “Blood and Soil” an official policy, declaring some farmland hereditary. Farmers needed an Aryan certificate to prove that they were a member of the Aryan race in order to receive the law’s benefits. end

https://qz.com/1052725/the-definition-of-the-nazi-slogan-chanted-by-white-nationalists-in-charlottesville/

—Adam Epstein, “’Blood and soil’: The meaning of the Nazi slogan chanted by white nationalists in Charlottesville,” Quartz, August 14, 2017 

 

7. Mythic ideology

“...As a condition of membership [Escriva] demanded acceptance that ‘The Work’ was divinely revealed to him, that it was therefore ‘absolutely perfect,’ and that he was infallible in matters of the ‘spirit of the Work.’”

—John Roche, former Opus Dei numerary, “The Inner World of Opus Dei,” unpublished manuscript (1982)

“...Escriva always insisted that Opus Dei was not his own invention, that it was not the consequence of a series of speculations, analyses, discussions, or experiments, and that it was not the result of good and pious intentions. He clearly implied that the actual founder was God Himself and that the commission of the task to a young priest was a supernatural act, a unique grace.”

—Peter Berglar, Opus Dei: Life and Work of Its Founder Josemaria Escriva (1994)

Opus Dei mythology would easily fill a multi-volume series. However, it would serve no worthwhile purpose to recapitulate Opus Dei’s fantastical corpus here.

8. Triumphalism

See, for example, “Is Opus Dei is a Cult?” No. 5:

http://oddsandendsgonzalinhodacosta.blogspot.com/2017/11/is-opus-dei-cult.html

Anti-liberalism, anti-Communism, religious reaction, authoritarianism, group superiority complex, metaphysical community, mythic ideology—triumphalism readily proceeds from the foregoing.

9. Aggression

begin Monsignor Escriva instructed us to take note of the things he said as we went along, “because they would be for posterity.” I paid attention to what he had to say during my time in Rome. I regarded it as a special sign of trust.

…Encarnita instructed me that when I noticed that the Father showed obvious anger, I had to use a phrase such as “Today the Father was displeased because we did not put enough love of God in such and such task.” I wrote the diary for a number of years.

…One day in the ironing room we heard great shouting and screams from the Father. Frightened, I thought that something very serious was happening and he was calling us. I was about to open the door from the ironing room…when one of the senior numeraries in the house warned me quietly: “Don’t go out. The Father must be correcting the architect.” In fact, I heard Monsignor Escriva shout at the architect many times. First, Fernando de La Puente, and later, when he was sent back to Spain because of illness, a rather young man named Jesus Gazapo....

…It was easy to pick out those whom the Father scolded. The kitchen often triggered Monsignor Escriva’s bad temper. …Although the architects experimented with different exhaust systems, there were always cooking odors. This exasperated Monsignor Escriva to a degree that is difficult to describe.

…there was a phrase repeated among the numeraries of many countries: “Blessed are they who receive the Father’s scoldings,” because they were a sign that they were close to him. Monsignor Escriva certainly did not have a mild manner. end

—Maria del Carmen Tapia, Beyond the Threshold: A Life in Opus Dei (1998), pages 120-22

begin Monsignor Escriva did not have natural good manners. He was rough, brusque, and rude. When he was angry and had someone to reproach, he had no measure of charity in his language. His offensive, violent words profoundly wounded persons. end

—Maria del Carmen Tapia, Beyond the Threshold: A Life in Opus Dei (1998), page 309

begin The Father’s scoldings were famous throughout the Work. He was saintly before the multitudes, frequently calling himself a sinner, but he was capable of the most terrible insults for the slightest reason. For instance, if a fried egg was not done to his taste, he would abuse the director of the house. If an altar cloth did not hang exactly at the stipulated number of centimeters above the floor, he was capable of scolding the director; similarly, he would go into a rage if there was noise in the kitchen when the pots and pans were scrubbed. However, you could not write in the house diary, “The Father was angry or caused a row,” but had to say: “The Father taught us this and that today.” end

—Maria del Carmen Tapia, Beyond the Threshold: A Life in Opus Dei (1998), pages 310-11

We point out that because Escriva represented himself as the infallible instrument of God in originating the so-called “spirit of the Work,” his aggression is regarded as exemplary by Opus Dei members. It establishes the pervasive tone of the organization to the present day.

Aggression in Opus Dei is applied principally toward recruitment.

Aggression internally directed, as documented, for example, in Tapia’s account, is believed “through supernatural means” to accomplish the same goal.

“We do not have any other aim than the corporate one: proselytism, winning vocations.”

—Cronica, 1963

“Our ego has died and our only concern is the collective ideal of uniting our efforts towards the same end.”

—Cronica, 1954

“This holy coercion is necessary, compelle intrare the Lord tells us.”

—Cronica, 1971

begin [It] is so important to read the Spanish sources and not the official [English] translations of Opus Dei…Escriva’s language creates confusion and misleading ideas. For instance, it is interesting how Escriva translates the Latin “compelle intrare”: “obligalos a entrar” [J. M. Escriva, “Instruccion para los Directores,” 1936, no. 103], that is, “compel them to come in.” The New American Bible published by the Vatican translates this Latin text as “make people come in that my home may be filled”—in Spanish, “insiste a la gente,” that is, “to insist,” a behavior that…is very different from “compel.” …If it is not “coercion,” then why does Escriva use that word? The paradox creates ambiguity and confusion, and that seems to be the purpose of the paradoxical language. end

—E. B. E., Opus Dei as Divine Revelation (2016), page 104

10. Militarism

begin [Francisco] Pons told [Alvaro del] Portillo that becoming a member was like being a ‘Crusader with cape and sword.’ [Fisac Notes, 8 June 1994]

…[Miguel Fisac] remembered on one occasion Escriva telling [Pedro] Casciaro and Juan Jimenez Vargas that for certain inner-circle ceremonies he was thinking of having them wear white capes emblazoned with a red cross whose extremities would be shaped like arrowheads. [Fisac Notes, 8 June 1994] end

—Robert Hutchison, Their Kingdom Come (1996), pages 65-66

begin …Opus Dei’s prelates are convinced that they possess the divine truth and by the same measure they are the ‘inheritors’ of the Templars.

‘They feel assured that Opus Dei is no ordinary religious organization, and therefore not subject to the hierarchy of the Church. That same arrogance characterized the Templars – Christian warriors full of zeal, celibate and virile – and their determination to remain outside all control pushed them towards material ends. They acquired wealth in spite of their desire to remain poor. Their monastic zeal and obedience slowly transformed them, for extremely complex reasons, into a powerful economic and political force,’ affirmed Father [Vladimir] Felzmann.

‘The Second Psalm was the Templar hymn. Why do the nations conspire, and the peoples plot in vain? Each celibate member of Opus Dei, man or woman, must recite the Second Psalm upon rising every Tuesday. “We are the children of God and we sing the Second Psalm.” The Templars and Opus Dei sing the same psalm.

‘In Opus Dei you find the same elitism as with the Templars, and this comes, I suppose, from that warrior mentality, from the idea that there is an enemy outside, and from a highly focused esprit de corps. In the long run, those who remain too long in that sort of atmosphere become paranoid. They have delusions of grandeur. They feel superior. They are the best, unique, and, at the same time, they believe there is an enemy stalking them. And so, because they are suspicious, they are reticent to be open and frank with the rest of the world.

‘Deus le volt! We are God’s chosen. These are not the words of the Founder. They are the words of the current Opus Dei leaders in Rome. I lived with them for four years. They told me with utter conviction, “We have been chosen by God to save the Church.” Some of them openly state that in twenty or thirty years Opus Dei will be all that remains of the Church. The whole Church will become Opus Dei because “We have an orthodox vision that is pure, certain, solid, assured of everything. The Founder was chosen by God to save the Church. Therefore God is with us.”

‘Gott mit uns! Think about it. That was the cry of the German Crusaders.’ end

—Robert Hutchison, Their Kingdom Come (1996), pages 439-40

“’Military men, by the very fact of their being that, already have half the vocation to Opus Dei,’ Escriva used to preach.”

—Alberto Moncada, “The Evolution of Opus Dei,” 2003

Numerous times in Opus Dei we were indeed told that those with military training had “half the vocation to Opus Dei.”

begin Opus Dei is a highly disciplined “army” without any “exclusive human affection.”

…begin block quote Our home is not a convent…or a school, or an asylum, or a barracks: it is a clean and happy Christian family home. [“Catechism,” 1995, no. 76] end block quote

This statement is contradictory: a happy family home is hardly compatible with a disciplined army. …Opus Dei centers are a very peculiar place…the Work has the appearance of being a happy family consisting of lay members, but actually, it is a highly disciplined organization whose members are as similar as possible to religious rather than to laity. end

—E. B. E., Opus Dei as Divine Revelation (2016), pages 240-41

begin Opus Dei considers sentiments inferior to reason, which has to be submitted to the most severe military discipline.

…In October 1931 Escriva had written:

begin block quote The Work of God will be an admirably disciplined army. end block quote [“Apuntes intimos,” no. 42]

Opus Dei is [closer] to an army than to a family. end

—E. B. E., Opus Dei as Divine Revelation (2016), pages 236-37

11. Repression

begin Another Opus practice that disturbs critics is censorship. Escriva said, “Don’t buy [books] without advice from a Catholic who has real knowledge and discernment. It’s so easy to buy something useless or harmful.” To ensure good reading habits, a division, euphemistically called the Department of Bibliographical Studies, categorizes books, newspapers, magazines, and films. One circle means that members should exercise care when reading or seeing the work. Only Opus Directors or specially trained members may read or see material with two circles, three circles means the work is prohibited to all. In the third category are Marxist theory and liberation theology. …Members are discouraged from reading the works of twentieth-century writers unless they are by an Opus Dei member or sympathizer. Opus is particularly insular about theology, sending its seminarians to study at its own institute in Rome and discouraging any theological innovation. “Intellectual control is so complete,” said a Spanish priest and former Opus Dei member, “that members accept a life without discussion of anything.” A former Colombian member agreed that the lack of intellectual freedom contributed to a tendency among members to be imperceptive about themselves and to attribute all criticism to ignorance. end

—Penny Lernoux, People of God: The Struggle for World Catholicism (1989), page 311

“Spiritual childhood demands submission of the mind, which is harder than submission of the will. In order to subject our mind we need not only God’s grace, but a continual exercise of our will as well, denying the intellect over and over again, just as it says ‘no’ to the flesh.”

—The Way, 856

What is problematic about this regime of censorship in Opus Dei is that it unjustifiably assumes that religious and spiritual authority is infallible in adjudicating truth. Yet we know that religious and spiritual authority in the Roman Catholic Church is infallible, or at least claims to be so, according to a very limited domain—far, far smaller, certainly, than the all-encompassing scope of Opus Dei’s Index of Forbidden Books. Opus Dei’s system of intellectual control, therefore, amounts to, simply, brainwashing.

In Opus Dei, truth is sacrificed on the altar of asceticism, through the “mortification of the intellect.”

The Opus Dei regime is particularly abusive when it comes to the so-called “spirit of Opus Dei,” which is accorded the status of religious dogma. By far many aspects of this “spirit” do not deserve anything approximating the seal of infallibility.

See “The Infallibility of the Opus Dei ‘Spirit’”:

http://oddsandendsgonzalinhodacosta.blogspot.com/2017/10/the-infallibility-of-opus-dei-spirit.html

And “The Fourth Level of the Magisterium”:

https://oddsandendsgonzalinhodacosta.blogspot.com/2017/09/the-fourth-level-of-magisterium.html

Also, “The Fallibility of the Ordinary Magisterium”:

http://oddsandendsgonzalinhodacosta.blogspot.com/2017/09/the-fallibility-of-ordinary-magisterium.html

When an Opus Dei numerary is taught, for example, that it is a point of the Opus Dei “spirit” to prefer the purchase of the “most expensive” item in a category of products or services, how are they supposed to accept as authoritative, more so infallible, an assertion that is so evidently at variance with Christian values, not to mention plain common sense?

There are many aspects of the Opus Dei “spirit,” such as deception, manipulation, and the violation of fundamental human rights, that are demonstrably unchristian. It would be immoral to insist that the “intellectual submission” of Opus Dei members to questionable and objectionable beliefs and practices is religiously mandated, or virtuous, especially when the voice of conscience resists.

begin “Problems of perseverance”—as they are known internally—start when the discipline proper to Opus Dei is called into question. 

 

“Problems of logic”…dialogue becomes impossible [because] there is no dialogue at all, only one possibility: “The spirit must be to obey or to leave” (The Way, 941). Given the absence of dialogue, you leave.

…Escriva used to say he was a defender of freedom. However, he did not allow members [of Opus Dei] to discuss any aspect of the Opus Dei way of life. end

—E. B. E., Opus Dei as Divine Revelation (2016), pages 302-303

12. Recapitulation of fascist motifs, e.g. struggle, “will,” purity, cleansing, etc.

Struggle

“’The life of man upon earth is warfare.’ So said Job many centuries ago.”

—The Way, 306

“Trust always in your God. He does not lose battles.”

—The Way, 733

Will

“Will-power. Energy. Example. What has to be done is done…without wavering…without worrying about what others think…

—The Way, 11

“Temper your will. Strengthen your will. With God’s grace, let it be like a sword of steel.”

—The Way, 615

Superman

The concept of “Superman” is implicit in the following counsels.

“Be firm! Be strong! Be a man! And then…be an angel!”

—The Way, 22

“Will-power. A very important quality…by the constant practice of repeated self-denial in little things, with God’s grace you will increase in strength and manliness of character. In that way you’ll first become master of yourself, and then a guide and a leader: to compel, to urge, to draw others with your example and with your word and with your knowledge and with your power.”

—The Way, 19

begin “Superman” is a term significantly used by Friedrich Nietzsche…although it had been employed by J. W. von Goethe and others. This superior man would not be a product of long evolution; rather, he would emerge when any man with superior potential completely masters himself and strikes off conventional Christian “herd morality” to create his own values…a “Caesar with Christ’s soul.” end

https://www.britannica.com/topic/superman-philosophy

—“superman,” Britannica.com, May 14, 2015 

 

Escriva is Nietzsche’s “Superman,” in fact, it is the term used by a former numerary to describe how Escriva is portrayed in Opus Dei—“Escriva is Superman.” In Opus Dei Escriva creates his own values, the so-called “spirit of Opus Dei.”

Purity

Because one major item in the Opus Dei agenda is the “purification” of the Roman Catholic Church, the “purification” of the apostle is necessary, because only the Opus Dei member who is “purified”—“brutalized,” perhaps?—is a fit instrument for God to “purify” the “unclean.”

“Purify yourself. Make your sight cleaner with humility and penance. Then the pure light of love will not fail you. And you will have perfect vision. The image you see will really be his: Jesus himself.”

—The Way, 212

“We are stones—blocks of stone—that can move, can feel, that have completely free wills.

“God himself is the stonecutter who chips off the edges, shaping and modifying us as he desires, with blows of the hammer and chisel.

“Let us not try to draw aside, let us not try to evade his will, for in any case we won’t be able to avoid the blows. We will suffer all the more, and uselessly. Instead of polished stone suitable for building, we will be a shapeless heap of gravel that people will trample on contemptuously.”

—The Way, 756

Cleansing

“How pitiful are those crowds—high and low and middle-class—without an ideal! They give the impression that they do not know they have souls: they are a flock, a drove, a herd.

“Jesus, only with the help of your merciful love, will we turn the flock into a legion, the drove into an army, and from the herd of swine draw, purified, those who no longer wish to be unclean.”

 —The Way, 914

War

War is one of Escriva’s dominant motifs. He conceives of existence as “struggle,” a battle to be won by will power joined to God’s strength.

“What does it matter if the whole world with all its power is against you? Forward!

“Repeat the words of the psalm: ‘The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?...Si consistant adversum me castra, non temebis cor meum—If armies in camp should stand together against me, my heart shall not fear.’”

—The Way, 482

“‘Frater qui adiuvatur a frater quasi civitas firma’—‘A brother who is helped by his brother is like a strong city.’

“Think for a moment and make up your mind to live that brotherhood I’ve always recommended to you.”

—The Way, 460

“Patriotic fervor—which is praiseworthy—leads many men to give their lives in service, even in a ‘crusade.’ Don’t forget that Christ, too, has ‘crusaders’ and people chosen for this service.”

—The Way, 905

“Leaders! Strengthen your will so that God will make a leader of you.

“Don’t you see how evil secret societies work? They’ve never won over the masses. In their dens they form a number of demon-men who set to work agitating and stirring up the multitudes, making them go wild, so that they will follow them over the precipice, into every excess…and into hell. They spread an accursed seed.

“If you wish, you will spread God’s word, which is a thousand times blessed and can never fail. If you’re generous, if you correspond, with your personal sanctification you can bring about the sanctification of others, the kingdom of Christ, the ‘Omnes cum Petro ad Jesum per Mariam’—‘All with Peter to Jesus through Mary.’”

—The Way, 833

Conquest

“You are right. ‘The peak,’ you write me, ‘dominates the country for miles around, and yet there is not a single plain to be seen: just one mountain after another. At times the landscape seems to level out, but then the mist rises and reveals another range that had been hidden.’

“So it is, so it must be, with the horizon of your apostolate: the world has to be crossed. But there are no roads made for you. You yourselves will make the way through the mountains, beating it out by your own footsteps.”

—The Way, 928

Anyone who becomes acquainted with Opus Dei, at some point will become aware of Escriva’s bellicose temperament—one reason, possibly, why Escriva was so drawn to the image of war.

Elitism

“Don’t you think that equality, as many people understand it, is synonymous with injustice?”

—The Way, 46

“After the prayer of priests and consecrated virgins, the prayer most pleasing to God is that of children and of the sick.”

—The Way, 98

Hierarchy

“Hierarchy: Each piece in its place. What would be left of a Velazquez painting if each color were to go out of its place, each thread of the canvas were to break apart, each piece of the wooden frame were to separate itself from the others?”

—The Way, 624

Totalitarianism

“We must give ourselves in everything, we must deny ourselves in everything. Our sacrifice must be a holocaust.”

—The Way, 186

“You have come to the apostolate to submit, to annihilate yourself, not to impose your own personal viewpoints.”

—The Way, 936

Many of Escriva’s motifs are of Christian origin, or at least, they can be located somewhere in Christian history. However, incorporated into a right-wing ideological framework for the purpose of advancing religious reaction, they show fascist character.

13. Corporatism

What is corporatism?

“Corporatism, Italian corporativismo, also called corporativism, the theory and practice of organizing society into “corporations” subordinate to the state. According to corporatist theory, workers and employers would be organized into industrial and professional corporations serving as organs of political representation and controlling to a large extent the persons and activities within their jurisdiction. However, as the “corporate state” was put into effect in fascist Italy between World Wars I and II, it reflected the will of the country’s dictator, Benito Mussolini, rather than the adjusted interests of economic groups.

“…After the war the governments of many democratic western European countries—e.g., Austria, Norway, and Sweden—developed strong corporatist elements in an attempt to mediate and reduce conflict between businesses and trade unions and to enhance economic growth.”

https://www.britannica.com/topic/corporatism

—“corporatism,” Britannica.com, February 13, 2014 

 

“Corporatism is collectivist; it is a different version of collectivism than socialism but it is definitely collectivist. It places some importance on the fact that private property is not nationalized, but the control through regulation is just as real. It is de facto nationalization without being de jure nationalization.

“Although Corporatism is not a familiar concept to the general public, most of the economies of the world are corporatist in nature. The categories of socialist and pure market economy are virtually empty. There are only corporatist economies of various flavors.”

http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/corporatism.htm

—T. Watkins, “The economic system of corporatism,” San Jose State University, 2016 

 

Corporatism is associated with Opus Dei in at least three ways: first, as a result of the corporatist tradition in Roman Catholicism, particularly the corporatist social teachings of Leo XIII, Rerum Novarum, and Pius XI, Quadragesimo Anno; second, because of the close association of members of Opus Dei with the development of Spain under the fascist Franco regime, which showed strong corporatist elements; and third, most significantly, the fascist elements in Opus Dei ideology—specifically, authoritarianism, elitism, and totalitarianism—naturally leads the organization to seek right-wing political and economic alliances, so that although Opus Dei does not profess corporatism as a matter of its own political and economic ideology, because of the purposeful association of the organization with political and economic elites, it is co-opted by right-wing regimes, which are predominantly corporatist in character.

Corporatism in Catholic Social Teaching

Leo XIII promoted and expounded corporatist ideas in Rerum Novarum, 49, 55-61. See:

 

https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_l-xiii_enc_15051891_rerum-novarum.html  

—Leo XIII, Rerum Novarum: Encyclical of Pope Leo XIII on Capital and Labor, The Holy See

Pius XI, corporatism in Quadragesimo Anno, links:

https://books.google.com.ph/books?id=Vc4UAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA159&lpg=PA159&dq=pius+xii+quadragesimo+anno+corporatism&source=bl&ots=R1LJrSdrRa&sig=O0iRSVkOKM0Ibcc-wrCvsEkDBEo&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjticPEu9bXAhUCppQKHRGWC6g4ChDoAQg4MAQ#v=onepage&q=pius%20xii%20quadragesimo%20anno%20corporatism&f=false

—Richard L. Camp, The Papal Ideology of Social Reform (1969)

 

https://social-spirituality.net/quadragesimo-anno/

—Sandie, “Quadragesimo Anno,” Social Spirituality, November 18, 2011 The Corporatist Franco Regime

The Franco regime was originally corporatist:

“Spain existed under the authoritarian rule of Francisco France (1939-1975)…[this regime] ruled using the corporatist model, which uses well-established social and economic organizations, such as the Catholic Church or the military-industrial complex, to control the citizenry. Corporatism was popular with the citizenry until the spread of new technology and ideas, such as the development of the stark contrast between the old culture (corporatist) and the new culture (liberalism) due to the economic growth of the later years of the Franco [regime]…, [which] gave rise to social change and created calls for liberalism.”

https://books.google.com.ph/books?id=oWzFAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA200&lpg=PA200&dq=corporatist+regime+of+francisco+franco&source=bl&ots=_V-K2ljSsb&sig=fwjPpfVO9P5rSCw3wDuQjYSEaj4&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiwhuiQ6drXAhUDS48KHbWfA-84ChDoAQg7MAU#v=onepage&q=corporatist%20regime%20of%20francisco%20franco&f=false

—Matt Clary, “Transitions to Democracy: Grand Theory or Grand Idea?” in Howard J. Wiarda, ed., Grand Theories and Ideologies in the Social Sciences (2010), page 200

 

Opus Dei members played a major role in the modernization of Spain under Franco:

begin Critical to the process of modernizing Spain was the rise of “technocratic” governance, in which the upper echelon of the Spanish government bureaucracy was filled with people who had a vision of a modernized Spain and were ready to use their bureaucratic power to make it a reality. A large number of the technocrats were Opus Dei members…. end

https://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/publications/the-opus-dei-ethic-the-technocrats-and-the-modernization-of-spain

 

—José Casanova, “The Opus Dei Ethic, the Technocrats and the Modernization of Spain,” Berkley Center for Religion, Peace & World Affairs, February 1, 1983

 

Alliance of Opus Dei with the Right Wing

Concerning the alliance of Opus Dei with right-wing regimes, see “Roman Catholic Fascism”:

http://oddsandendsgonzalinhodacosta.blogspot.com/2017/06/duterte-toots-his-horn-roman-catholic.html

***

Understandably, given the ideological climate in which Escriva flourished, his rightist predilections besides, he would have spoken in defense of Adolph Hitler:

“Escriva once remarked to Felzmann that Hitler had been ‘badly treated’ by world opinion because ‘he could never have killed 6 million Jews. It could only have been 4 million at the most.’”

—Robert Hutchison, Their Kingdom Come (1996), page 15

“Hitler against the Jews, Hitler against the Slavs, this means Hitler against Communism.”

—Saint Josemaria Escriva, reported by his personal assistant, Father Vladimir Felzmann

https://books.google.com.ph/books?id=shB2AwAAQBAJ&pg=PA227&lpg=PA227&dq=escriva+hitler+against+the+jews+slavs+communism&source=bl&ots=BuX6VJKdmU&sig=qw6FVSjFLAPqe8AFoSqBo9BpxgA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi5zMjbhtvXAhUHo5QKHTgUBtEQ6AEIVTAI#v=onepage&q=escriva%20hitler%20against%20the%20jews%20slavs%20communism&f=false

 

—Anthony J. Sciolino, The Holocaust, the Church, and the Law of Unintended Consequences: How Christian Anti-Judaism Spawned Nazi Anti-Semitism (2014), page 227