2012 Holds Multiple Anniversaries for Opus Dei

The National Catholic Register ^ | 5/4/12 | Jim Graves

[marshmallow]

Organization marks third decade as a personal prelature and 10th anniversary of St. Josemaria Escriva’s canonization.

The beginning of each of the past three decades has brought about a significant event for Opus Dei, whose mission is to promote holiness among laypeople as they go about their daily work.

In 1982, Pope John Paul II approved changing the organization’s status from a secular institute to a personal prelature. In 1992, Opus Dei’s founder, Msgr. Josemaria Escriva, was beatified, and, in 2002, he was canonized. As the prelature celebrates the anniversaries of each of these major events, it continues to enjoy steady growth and have far-reaching influence as it goes about its mission.

Pope Benedict XVI has long supported the unique apostolate of Opus Dei. Upon St. Josemaria’s canonization, then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger expressed the belief that the saint’s message helped correct an erroneous idea of sanctity — that holiness was reserved only for “the great.”

More recently, Pope Benedict told the head of Opus Dei, 79-year-old Bishop Javier Echevarria Rodriguez, “When you foster the eagerness for personal sanctity and the apostolic zeal of your priests and laypeople, not only do you see the flock that has been entrusted to you grow, but you provide an effective help to the Church in her urgent evangelization of present-day society.”

Opus Dei (which is Latin for “Work of God”) was founded by a young Father Escriva in 1928, and it was approved by Pope Pius XII in 1950. Today, it has 90,000 members in 60 countries, including 3,000 in the United States. Typical elements of its apostolate include evenings of recollection, retreats, spiritual direction and religious-education classes. Opus Dei members also oversee schools, including the respected IESE Business School, the graduate school of management at the University of Navarra in Spain. IESE recently opened up..........