Doubts on Opus Dei

by Mgr. BRUCE KENT
ConversationswithMgr. Eseriva de Balaguer (Scepter Rooks 15s.)
AT 15s. for 14.6 pages of readable print this book. which consists of a series of interviews with Mgr. Balaguer, the founder of Opus Dei, is good value, and seems to call for additional notice.
In parts the interviews are repetitive and the answers more so, but this is not surprising, since seven journalists are involved. The interests of the book consists of the insight given into the attitudes of the Opus Dei as seen by its originator.
The suggestion is made that far from having to catch up with Vatican II it is in part Vatican II which has caught up with the spirit of Opus Dei!
There are certainly weaknesses in the answers at various points. It is not clear that the answer on page 56 successfully explains away the quotation from Mgr. Balaguer's bestselling work, "The Way," where he says "Marriage is for the soldiers and not for the General Staff of Christ's Army."
The suggestion on page 44 that Opus Dei is "one of the best loved Catholic organisations in the world" seems perhaps to be dangerously unreal.
The main interest, however, to a university chaplain is that while admiring the open spirit which animates the founder of Opus Dei, he must contrast this with the spirit of separation which exists in practice.