[sinkspur]

Opus Dei is exclusive. It also fosters certain practices that can be abusive. I have talked personally with people who became members of Opus Dei who described what, to me, sounded like a cultic-relationship with their "spiritual directors." OD also uses "front groups" on college campuses for recruitment purposes.

This kind of stuff is just shady, IMO.

Religious Orders in no way seek to hold on to "recruits" the way the Opus Dei does.

I was pointed to this website by a former member who said it's pretty much on target.

[netmilsmom]

Ooooo! I was just going to link you to that website and ask if it was correct!

I guess it is.

[CouncilofTrent]

I heard that they practice self-mutilation.

[veritate]

So you got your discussion on the evils of Opus Dei after all.
Much of what is described on the website you give could be compared with the early years of the Jesuit Order. "Cultic" control by the spiritual director, highly-organised and structured apostolate, pressure on members to conform and certainly to remain in the Order. In fact, in the past, diocesan priests thinking of "laicizing" had pressure placed on them by not just their families but the whole community of relations and confreres.
The difference with Opus Dei is that it uses these structures for the laity. It is successful, and it certainly is a sign of contradiction to the modern world.
It is difficult to see how one would bring about a powerful radical revitalization of the Church in the working world without highly-structured, disciplined lay-people seeking converts to the Church.
Yes, I know "cult" groups can be highly dangerous - early Christians were accused of exactly the same thing by the Roman authorities.
But, the fact that Opus Dei encourages laity to live and to work with and in their local parish communities is surely a good and encouraging thing. We should stand back a little and see how things develop in the Church under enormous pressures of the modern world, in the next few years, before damning a movement which aims at total submission to the authority of the Magisterium - unlike other movements within the Church which seek to relativize doctrine and practise.

[TradicalRC]

Hermann, weren't you in Opus Dei once upon a time? Is this your experience as well, or is this just another disgruntled Catholic?