Editing Opus Dei (section)

== Relations with Catholic leaders ==
{{Main|Opus Dei and Catholic Church leaders}}
[[File:JohannesPaul2-portrait.jpg|thumb|[[Pope John Paul II]]: Opus Dei was founded "led by divine inspiration".]]
Leopoldo Eijo y Garay, the bishop of Madrid, where Opus Dei was born, supported Opus Dei and defended it in the 1940s by saying that "this ''opus'' is truly ''Dei''" (this work is truly God's). Contrary to attacks of secrecy and heresy, the bishop described Opus Dei's founder as someone who was "open as a child" and "most obedient to the Church hierarchy".<ref>Vázquez de Prada, Andrés, ''The Founder of Opus Dei: The life of Josemaría Escrivá'', Volume 1: The early years, New York, 2000.</ref>

In the 1950s, Pope Pius XII told the most senior Australian bishop, Cardinal [[Norman Gilroy]], that Escrivá "is a true saint, a man sent by God for our times".<ref>Jose Manuel Cerda, [http://warrane.unsw.edu.au/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=58&Itemid=81 "Like a bridge over troubled waters in Sydney: Warrane College and the student protests of 1970"], ''Studia et Documenta'' 4(2010) 147–181</ref> Pius XII gave Opus Dei the canonical status of "[[pontifical right]]", an institution depending directly and exclusively on the Vatican in its internal governance.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://opusdeitoday.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=428 |title=24 February 1947 – Granting of the 'decretum laudis' |website=Opus Dei today |access-date=11 December 2016}}{{dead link|date=January 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> In 1960, [[Pope John XXIII]] commented that Opus Dei opens up "unsuspected horizons of [[wikt:apostolate|apostolate]]".<ref name="Opus Dei 2006b">{{cite web |title=Papal statements on Opus Dei |url=http://www.opusdei.us/art.php?p=12238 |access-date=27 November 2006 |publisher=Opus Dei}}</ref> Furthermore, in 1964, [[Pope Paul VI]] praised the organization in a handwritten letter to Escrivá, saying:

<blockquote>
Opus Dei is "a vigorous expression of the perennial youth of the Church, fully open to the demands of a modern apostolate&nbsp;... We look with paternal satisfaction on all that Opus Dei has achieved and is achieving for the kingdom of God, the desire of doing good that guides it, the burning love for the Church and its visible head that distinguishes it, and the ardent zeal for souls that impels it along the arduous and difficult paths of the apostolate of presence and witness in every sector of contemporary life."<ref name="Opus Dei 2006b" />
</blockquote>

The relationship between Paul VI and Opus Dei, according to Alberto Moncada, a doctor of sociology and ex-member, was "stormy".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.takingfive.com/ethics_opusdei.htm |work=TakingFive.com |author=Ruth Bertels |title=The Ethics of Opus Dei |access-date=27 November 2006 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060830191112/http://www.takingfive.com/ethics_opusdei.htm |archive-date=30 August 2006}}</ref> After the [[Second Vatican Council]] concluded in 1965, Pope Paul VI denied Opus Dei's petition to become a personal prelature, Moncada stated.<ref name="Moncada 2006">{{Cite magazine |url=http://www.icsahome.com/articles/opus-dei-moncada-en5-2 |last=Moncada |first=Alberto |title=Opus Dei Over Time |magazine=ICSA e-Newsletter |volume=5 |issue=2 |year=2006 |publisher=International Cultic Studies Association |access-date=1 January 2015 |archive-date=16 July 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190716081800/https://www.icsahome.com/articles/opus-dei-moncada-en5-2 |url-status=dead}}</ref> [[Pope John Paul I]], a few years before his election, wrote that Escrivá was more radical than other saints who taught about the [[universal call to holiness]]. While others emphasized monastic spirituality applied to lay people, Escrivá "it is the material work itself which must be turned into prayer and sanctity", thus providing a lay spirituality.<ref name="Luciani 2007">{{cite web |url=http://gabriel.mps.ohio-state.edu/od/opus.see |author-link=Pope John Paul I |first=Albino |last=Luciani |work=Opus Dei Files |title=Seeking God Through Everyday Work: A profile of the Founder of Opus Dei, Josemaria Escrivá |publisher=Ohio State University |access-date=3 April 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070311125047/http://gabriel.mps.ohio-state.edu/od/opus.see |archive-date=11 March 2007}}</ref>

[[Controversies about Opus Dei|Criticisms against Opus Dei]] have prompted Catholic scholars and writers like [[Piers Paul Read]]<ref name="Read 2005">{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/3647365/You-can-trust-them-to-sell-you-a-car.html |work=The Daily Telegraph |title=You can trust them to sell you a car |access-date=17 October 2024 |location=London |date=23 October 2005 |first=Piers Paul |last=Read |author-link=Piers Paul Read}}</ref> and [[Vittorio Messori]] to call Opus Dei a [[sign of contradiction]], in reference to the biblical quote of Jesus as a "sign that is spoken against".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.theuniversityconcourse.com/I,1,2-13-1996/Gordon.htm |work=The University Concourse |first=Richard |last=Gordon |title=What is Opus Dei, and what role does it play at Franciscan University? |access-date=27 November 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061111112830/http://www.theuniversityconcourse.com/I%2C1%2C2-13-1996/Gordon.htm |archive-date=11 November 2006 |url-status=dead}}</ref> [[John Carmel Heenan]], Cardinal [[Archbishop of Westminster]], said: "One of the proofs of God's favor is to be a sign of contradiction. Almost all founders of societies in the Church have suffered. Monsignor Escrivá de Balaguer is no exception. Opus Dei has been attacked, and its motives misunderstood. In this country and elsewhere, an inquiry has always vindicated Opus Dei."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://horatio.uap.edu.ph/opusdei/opusdei_chapter2.html |work=University of Asia and the Pacific |first=William |last=O'Connor |title=Opus Dei: An Open Book |access-date=2 April 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120719234319/http://horatio.uap.edu.ph/opusdei/opusdei_chapter2.html |archive-date=19 July 2012}}</ref>

One of Opus Dei's most prominent supporters was Pope [[John Paul II]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Opus_Dei |work=SourceWatch |title=Opus Dei |access-date=27 November 2006}}</ref> John Paul II cited Opus Dei's aim of sanctifying secular activities as a "great ideal". He emphasized that Escrivá's founding of Opus Dei was {{lang|la|ductus divina inspiratione}}, led by divine inspiration, and he granted the organization its status as a personal prelature.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ewtn.com/library/CURIA/CBISUTSI.HTM |author=[[Pope John Paul II]] |title=Ut Sit |access-date=27 November 2006}}</ref> Stating that Escrivá is "counted among the great witnesses of Christianity", John Paul II canonized him in 2002 and called him "the saint of ordinary life".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.opusdei.us/art.php?p=14246 |work=Opus Dei Official Site |title=St. Josemaría's Canonisation |access-date=27 November 2006 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061005002542/http://www.opusdei.us/art.php?p=14246 |archive-date=5 October 2006}}</ref> Of the organization, John Paul II said:

{{quote|[Opus Dei] has as its aim the sanctification of one's life, while remaining within the world at one's place of work and profession: to live the Gospel in the world, while living immersed in the world, but in order to transform it, and to redeem it with one's personal love for Christ. This is truly a great ideal, which right from the beginning has anticipated the theology of the lay state of the [[Second Vatican Council]] and the post-conciliar period.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.opusdei.org/art.php?w=32&p=9319 |publisher=Opus Dei |title=Opus Dei's focus on secular life |access-date=2006-11-27}}</ref>}}

[[File:Pope Francis Korea Haemi Castle 19 (cropped).jpg|thumb|Pope Francis: "St. Josemaria is a precursor of Vatican II in proposing the universal call to holiness"<ref name="Ricorda">{{cite news |url=http://www.opusdei.it/art.php?p=56109 |title=Papa Francesco ricorda san Josemaría come 'precursore del Concilio Vaticano II' |language=it |publisher=Opus Dei |access-date=11 December 2016}}</ref>]]
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,<ref name="Walsh 2004" /> as illustrated, for example, by the rapid [[Josemaría Escrivá: Canonisation|canonization of Escrivá]], which some considered to be irregular (27 years).<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2005/0510.baumann.html |work=Washington Monthly |title=Let There Be Light: A look inside the hidden world of Opus Dei |first=Paul |last=Baumann |access-date=27 November 2006 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060829105702/http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2005/0510.baumann.html |archive-date=29 August 2006}}</ref> In contrast, Catholic officials say that church authorities have even greater control of Opus Dei now that its head is a prelate appointed by the Pope,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.opusdei.us/art.php?p=20829 |publisher=Opus Dei |author=Francesco Monterisi |title=The Personal Prelature: a Framework which Enriches the Communion of the Church |access-date=17 February 2007}}</ref> and its status as a prelature "precisely means dependence".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://zenit.org/article-22167?l=english |agency=Zenit News Agency |first=Miriam |last=Díez i Bosch |title=Opus Dei Opens its Doors to Everyone: Interview With the Vicar General of the Personal Prelature |access-date=2 April 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080412003434/http://www.zenit.org/article-22167?l=english |archive-date=12 April 2008}}</ref> Allen says that Escrivá'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 Escrivá's sanctity and message known. The canonizations of John Paul II himself and [[Mother Teresa]] were much faster than Escrivá's.<ref name="Allen 2005" />

Pope [[Benedict XVI]] has been a particularly strong supporter of Opus Dei and of Escrivá. Pointing to the name "Work of God", Benedict XVI (then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger) wrote that "The Lord simply made use of [Escrivá] who allowed God to work." Ratzinger cited Escrivá for correcting the mistaken idea that holiness is reserved for some extraordinary people who are completely different from ordinary sinners: Even if he can be very weak, with many mistakes in his life, a saint is nothing other than to speak with God as a friend speaks with a friend, allowing God to work, the Only One who can really make the world both good and happy.

Ratzinger spoke of Opus Dei's "surprising union of absolute fidelity to the Church's great tradition, to its faith, and unconditional openness to all the challenges of this world, whether in the academic world, in the field of work, or in matters of the economy, etc."<ref name="Opus Dei 2006a" /> He further explained:

{{quote|the theocentrism of Escrivá&nbsp;... means this confidence in the fact that God is working now and we ought only to put ourselves at his disposal&nbsp;... This, for me, is a message of greatest importance. It is a message that leads to overcoming what could be considered the great temptation of our times: the pretense that after the '[[Big Bang]]' God retired from history.<ref name="Opus Dei 2006a" />}}

[[Pope Francis]] is "the first Pope who has dealt with Opus Dei closely as a bishop",<ref name="Opus Dei 2016">{{cite news |url=http://opusdei.org.au/en-au/article/interview-with-mariano-fazio-2/ |title=Interview with Vicar General of Opus Dei |newspaper=Opus dei |access-date=11 December 2016}}</ref> and, according to fellow [[Society of Jesus|Jesuit]] James V. Schall, is a "friend of Opus Dei".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.catholicworldreport.com/Item/2095/the_pope_and_the_poor.aspx |title=The Pope and the Poor |website=Catholic World Report |access-date=11 December 2016}}</ref> Pope Francis himself said that "I am very close friend of the Opus Dei, I love them a lot."<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://zenit.org/2022/12/20/pope-francis-to-spanish-press-im-a-very-close-friend-of-the-opus-dei-i-love-them-a-lot-and-the-good-they-do-is-very-great/?eti=8006 |title=Pope Francis to Spanish Press: 'I'm a Very Close Friend of the Opus Dei, I Love Them a Lot and the Good They Do Is Very Great' |date=19 December 2022}}</ref> Francis referred to St. Josemaria as "a precursor of Vatican II in proposing the universal call to holiness".<ref name="Ricorda" /> In the analysis of John Allen, Pope Francis' strong dislike for [[clericalism]], which he calls "one of the worst evils" in the church, is a key factor for "what Francis admires about Opus Dei since Escrivá's emphasis on the dignity of the laity was a challenge to the ultra-clerical ethos of Spanish Catholicism in the late 1920s."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cruxnow.com/church/2014/09/27/australian-cardinal-faces-the-vaticans-law-of-the-jungle/ |title=Australian cardinal faces the Vatican's law of the jungle |website=Crux |date=27 September 2014 |access-date=11 December 2016 |archive-date=10 May 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160510082345/http://www.cruxnow.com/church/2014/09/27/australian-cardinal-faces-the-vaticans-law-of-the-jungle/ |url-status=dead}}</ref> He has a devotion to St. Josemaria,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.opusdei.es/art.php?p=53061 |title=Presentar a la Iglesia como grupos separados sería propio de una óptica carente de fe |access-date=11 December 2016}}</ref> and he prayed before his relics for 45 minutes when he once visited the church of the prelature in Rome.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.es.josemariaescriva.info/articulo/entrevista-javier-echevarria-el-papa-francisco-sentira-la-fuerza-y-compania-espiritual-de-benedicto |work=St. Josemaria |title=Javier Echevarría: 'El Papa Francisco sentirá la fuerza y la compañía espiritual de Benedicto XVI' |language=es |access-date=4 May 2013}}</ref> Francis beatified [[Alvaro del Portillo]], the successor of Escrivá.<ref name="Zenit 2014" /> Bergoglio said that what he most liked about Opus Dei was the work done for the poor by one of its schools in Buenos Aires.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.opusdei.org.ar/art.php?p=52754 |publisher=Opus Dei |title=La autenticidad del Papa Francisco nos ha cautivado |language=es |access-date=3 May 2013}}</ref> He thanked Opus Dei for its work to further the holiness of priests in the Roman Curia.<ref name="Opus Dei 2016" />