User:Marax/Opus Dei controversy section

This is a proposal for a controversy section in Opus Dei in response to the structural problem seen by User:Jaimehy as "set em up and knock em down". This is also a response to the suggestion of Alecmconroy, seconded by Geometry Guy, of doing a private fork to attempt reaching a dream Opus Dei article.

I concur with Alecmconroy's point of allowing the opposition to make their case in toto. I also concur with Lafem's point that removing the supporting views in this controversy is a case of censorship. I also reiterate my view, expressed by others in the past, that Wikipedia has a bias in favor of the voice of prominent writers and experts. And am glad for the support of Malleus Fatuarum in this regard: "I completely agree with you that the research findings of Allen, Introvigne, Messori, Plunkett, et al are worthy of a serious encyclopedia, it's just that their presentation as an apparent refutation of the previously stated criticism that I think tips the POV-meter slightly into the red zone. With a little bit of reorganisation I think it would be a fine article, well up to GA"

I hope this takes care of the "little bit of reorganisation" suggested by Malleus Fatuarum.

Comments

Please put your comments on the discussion page. Thanks!

Controversy

Main article: Controversies about Opus Dei

Throughout its history Opus Dei has been criticized from many quarters, leading Catholic journalist John Allen, Jr. to describe Opus Dei as "the most controversial force in the Catholic Church" and Escrivá as a "polarizing" figure.

Controversies about Opus Dei have centered around criticisms of its recruiting methods, the rules governing members, the practice of mortification of the flesh, alleged secretiveness and elitism, and the alleged right-leaning politics of its members and their participation in extreme right-wing governments, especially the Francoist Government of Spain until 1978.

Supporting views

According to several journalists who have worked independently on Opus Dei, such as John Allen, Jr., Vittorio Messori, Patrice de Plunkett, Maggy Whitehouse, many of the criticisms of Opus Dei are myths. Allen and Messori say that most of these myths were created by its opponents, with Allen adding that he perceives that Opus Dei members generally practice what they preach.

Allen also states that accusations that Opus Dei is secretive are unfounded and stem from a clerical paradigm whereby Opus Dei members are expected to behave as monks and clerics (the traditional models for sanctity) who are externally identifiable as such. In contrast, he continues, its lay members, like any normal Catholic professional, are ultimately responsible for their personal actions, and do not externally represent the organization which provides them religious education: here he refers to abundant information from Opus Dei itself. To explain the celibate lifestyle of numeraries and their relationship with their family, supporters quote Jesus's comment that "He who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me". On accusations of seeking independence from church control, Catholic officials say that church authorities have even greater control of Opus Dei now that its head is a prelate appointed by the Pope, and therefore members are "even more conscious of belonging to the Church".

As to criticism on its alleged participation in the Francoist regime, British historians Paul Preston and Brian Crozier state that the Opus Dei members who were Franco's ministers were appointed for their talent and not for their Opus Dei membership. Also, there were notable members of Opus Dei who were vocal critics of the Franco Regime such as Rafael Calvo Serer and Antonio Fontan, who was the first Senate President of Spain's democracy. The German historian and Opus Dei member Peter Berglar calls any connection made between Opus Dei and Franco's regime a "gross slander." At the end of Franco's regime, Opus Dei members were 50:50 for and against Franco, according to John Allen. Similarly Álvaro del Portillo, the former Prelate of Opus Dei, said that any statements that Escrivá supported Hitler were "a patent falsehood," that were part of "a slanderous campaign". He and others have stated that Escriva condemned Hitler as a "rogue", a "racist" and a "tyrant". Various authors state that Escriva was staunchly non-political, and repeatedly stressed that freedom is an essential element of Opus Dei. Allen says that Escriva's relatively quick canonization does not have anything to do with power but with improvements in procedures and John Paul II's decision to make Escriva's sanctity and message known. (see Opus Dei and politics)

While Opus Dei spokepersons have admitted mistakes in dealing with some members and do not, as a rule, contest their grievances, supporters have also questioned the motives and reliability of some critics. Sociologists like Bryan R. Wilson write about some former members of any religious group who may have psychological or emotional motivations to criticize their former groups, and they state that such individuals are prone to create fictitious "atrocity stories" which have no basis in reality. Many supporters of Opus Dei have expressed the belief that the criticisms of Opus Dei stem from a generalized disapproval of spirituality, Christianity, or Catholicism. Expressing this sentiment, one Opus Dei member, Cardinal Julian Herranz, stated "Opus Dei has become a victim of Christianophobia." Massimo Introvigne, author of an encyclopedia of religion, argues that critics employ the term "cult" in order to intentionally stigmatize Opus Dei because "they cannot tolerate 'the return to religion' of the secularized society".

Regarding alleged misogyny, John Allen states that half of the leadership positions in Opus Dei are held by women, and they supervise men. The Catholic Church teaches that "the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven are not the ministers but the saints."

Critical views

In the English-speaking world, the most vocal critic of Opus Dei is a group called the Opus Dei Awareness Network (ODAN), a non-profit organization that exists "to provide education, outreach and support to people who have been adversely affected by Opus Dei." ODAN is headed by Diane DiNicola, mother of a former member, Tammy DiNicola. Other major critics are Maria Carmen del Tapia, an ex-member who was a high-ranking officer of Opus Dei for many years, liberal Catholic theologians such as Fr. James Martin, a Jesuit, and supporters of Liberation theology, such as Penny Lernoux and Michael Walsh, an ex-Jesuit.

David Clark, who specializes in helping people leave cults, says that Opus Dei is either a "cult", or at least "cult-like". Critics state that Opus Dei is "intensely secretive"— for example, members generally do not publicly disclose their affiliation with Opus Dei, and under the 1950 constitution, members were expressly forbidden to reveal themselves without the permission of their superiors. This practice has led to much speculation about who may be a member. Opus Dei has been accused of deceptive and aggressive recruitment practices such as showering potential members with intense praise ("Love bombing"), instructing numeraries to form friendships and attend social gatherings explicitly for recruiting purposes, and requiring regular written reports from its members about those friends who are potential recruits. Organisations such as ODAN further allege that Opus Dei maintains an extremely high degree of control over its members— for instance, there used to be a time when numeraries submitted their incoming and outgoing mail to their superiors to read, and members are forbidden to read certain books without permission from their superiors. Critics charge that Opus Dei pressures numeraries to sever contact with non-members, including their own families.

Sir Raymond Carr (one of the leading authorities on Spanish history) and Juan Pablo Fusi wrote in 1979: "It was the Opus which emerged as the ‘organised’ Catholic support to Francoism, backed, as its members were, by the most trusted of Franco’s ministers." Critics assert that Escrivá and the organization supported the governments of Augusto Pinochet, and Alberto Fujimori of Peru during the 1990's, both of which included members of Opus Dei amongst their ministers and prominent supporters. There have also been allegations that Escrivá expressed sympathy for Adolf Hitler. One former Opus Dei priest, Vladimir Felzmann, who has become a vocal Opus Dei critic, says that Escrivá once remarked that Hitler had been "badly treated" by the world and he further declared that "Hitler couldn't have been such a bad person. He couldn't have killed six million [Jews]. It couldn't have been more than four million." (see Opus Dei and politics)

Opus Dei central headquarters in Rome

Concerning the group's role in the Catholic Church, critics have argued that Opus Dei's unique status as a personal prelature gives it too much independence, making it essentially a "church within a church" and that Opus Dei exerts a disproportionately large influence within the Catholic Church itself, as illustrated, for example, by the unusually rapid canonization of Escrivá, which some considered to be irregular. Lastly, Opus Dei, as a part of the Roman Catholic Church, has been open to the same criticisms as Catholicism in general— for example female members of Opus Dei cannot become priests or prelates.

Other views

Sociologists Peter Berger and Samuel Huntington suggest that Opus Dei is involved in "a deliberate attempt to construct an alternative modernity," one that engages modern culture while at the same time is resolutely loyal to Catholic traditions. Van Biema of Time Magazine emphasises Opus Dei's hispanic roots as a source of misunderstandings in the Anglo-Saxon world, and suggests that as the United States become more hispanicized, controversies about Opus Dei (and similar Catholic organizations) will decrease.

In her 2006 book, Opus Dei: The Truth Behind the Myth, Maggy Whitehouse, a non-Catholic journalist, argues that the relative autonomy of each director and center has resulted in mistakes at the local level. She recommends greater consistency and transparency for Opus Dei, which she sees as having learned the lesson of greater openness when it faced the issues raised by The Da Vinci Code and other critics.