Editing Opus Dei (section)

=== Activities ===
{{Main|Opus Dei in society}}
[[File:Universidad de navarra.JPG|thumb|250px|right|Central building of the [[University of Navarra]]]]
Leaders of Opus Dei describe the organization as a teaching entity whose main activity is to train Catholics to assume personal responsibility in sanctifying the secular world from within.<ref name="Van Biema 2006">{{cite magazine |author=David Van Biema |title=The Ways of Opus Dei |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1184078,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060519210025/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1184078,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=19 May 2006 |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |date=19 April 2006 |access-date=24 March 2007}}</ref><ref>Escrivá said, "Opus Dei is a great catechesis." {{cite web |url=http://www.josemariaescriva.info/index.php?id_cat=229&id_scat=35&modeprint=active |work=JosemariaEscriva.info |title=Catechetical Trips |access-date=27 November 2006}}</ref> Others describe it as a [[cult]].<ref name="Moncada 2006" /> This teaching is done by means of theory and practice.<ref>{{cite web |title=Opus Dei Celebrates 25th Anniversary of Status: Church Leaders Reflect on 1st Personal Prelature |url=http://www.zenit.org/article-22047?l=english |agency=Zenit News Agency |date=13 March 2008 |access-date=20 March 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081205140830/http://www.zenit.org/article-22047?l=english |archive-date=5 December 2008}}</ref>

Its lay people and priests organize seminars, workshops, retreats, and classes to help people put the Christian faith into practice in their daily lives. [[Spiritual direction]], one-on-one coaching with a more experienced lay person or priest, is considered the "paramount means" of training. Through these activities, they provide religious instruction (doctrinal formation), coaching in spirituality for lay people (spiritual formation), character and moral education (human formation), lessons in sanctifying one's work (professional formation), and know-how in evangelizing one's family and workplace (apostolic formation).

The official Catholic document, which established the prelature, states that Opus Dei strives "to put into practice the teaching of the universal call to sanctity, and to promote at all levels of society the sanctification of ordinary work, and by means of ordinary work."<ref name="Pope John Paul II 2006" /> Thus, the founder and his followers describe members of Opus Dei as resembling the members of the early Christian Church—ordinary workers who seriously sought holiness with nothing exterior to distinguish them from other citizens.<ref name="Van Biema 2006" /><ref>{{cite web |url=http://lukeraid.tripod.com/opusdei/id19.html |work=Opus Dei: A Dialogue Between Friend and Foe |title=St. Liguori et Als on vocation and Opus Dei |access-date=27 November 2006}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://en.romana.org/?s=8.0&n=29&ID=1 |work=Romana: The Official Bulletin of Opus Dei |title=The Example of the Early Christians in Blessed Josemaria's Teachings |last=Ramos-Lissón |first=Domingo |access-date=27 November 2006}}</ref>

Opus Dei runs residential centers throughout the world. These centers provide residential housing for celibate members and provide doctrinal and theological education. Opus Dei is also responsible for a variety of non-profit institutions called "[[Opus Dei in society|Corporate Works of Opus Dei]]."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://opusdeisites.tripod.com/ |title=Opus Dei Corporate Works |access-date=27 November 2006}}</ref> A study of the year 2005 showed that members have cooperated with other people in setting up a total of 608 social initiatives: schools and university residences (68%), technical or agricultural training centers (26%), universities, business schools, and hospitals (6%).<ref name="Allen 2005" /> The [[University of Navarra]] in Pamplona, Spain, and the Austral University in Buenos Aires, Argentina, are both examples of the corporate work of Opus Dei. These universities usually perform very high in international rankings. IESE, the University of Navarra's Business School, was adjudged one of the best in the world by the ''[[Financial Times]]'' and the ''[[Economist Intelligence Unit]]''.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://mba.eiu.com/index.asp?layout=view_article&eiu_article_id=1731266158 |work=Economist Intelligence Unit: Which MBA |title=Top of the Class |access-date=5 July 2007}}{{dead link |date=September 2022|fix-attempted=yes}} </ref> The total assets of non-profits connected to Opus Dei are worth at least $2.8&nbsp;billion.<ref name="Newsday 2006">{{cite web |url=http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/world/ny-woopus0415,0,7378258.story?coll=ny-top-headlines |work=Newsday |title=Opus Dei has stake in new pope |access-date=27 November 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060614194006/http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/world/ny-woopus0415%2C0%2C7378258.story?coll=ny-top-headlines |archive-date=14 June 2006 |url-status=dead}}</ref>