Four learned priests

pROFESSOR Joseph M.
Albareda, a leading Spanish geologist, was one of four members of Opus Del. the secular institute that originated in Spain, who were ordained to the priesthood in Madrid on December 20. All four rank high in their professions.
Fr. Albareda is a member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences at Rome and is also secretary general of the Higher Council of Scientific Research in Spain.
Opus Dei now has its own University in Spain: the Studium Generale of Navarre at Pamplona. This priest professor is its new Rector. He has also , been appointed a member of several academies in Europe and America.
A correspondent in close touch with the institute in Spain writes: " Members of Opus Dei who become priests (these are proportionately few because the majority are laymen) receive Holy Orders after having previously obtained a doctorate in a civil University and after having practised their profession-medicine law., engineering, etc.-for several years.
"They must obtain a doctorate at one of the Pontifical Universities.
"To this sound human and doctrinal preparation is added the apostolic experience the candidate for the priesthood acquires in the exercise of the apostolate proper to the institute "Thus the priesthood normally follows for these men. dedicated to God from the very beginning of their vocation as the crowning of a life of apostolic effort."
In this country Opus Dei has houses at London and Oxford. The first English member to be ordained is Fr. Michael Richards.
Cardinal protector
Cardinal Tardini, Vatican Secretary of State. has been appointed by the Pope to be protector of Opus Dei. the secular institute founded in Madrid in 1928. The institute today has over 18,000 members. 800 of whom are women, and has been established in nearly every country of Europe and America.