Editing Josemaría Escrivá (section)

===Relations with other Catholic leaders===
[[Society of St. Paul|Pauline priest]] Giancarlo Rocca, a church historian and a professor at the ''[[Institute of the Theology of the Consecrated Life Claretianum|Claretianum]]'' in Rome, says that Escrivá actively sought the rank of [[Bishop (Catholic Church)|bishop]] but was twice refused by the [[Roman Curia|Vatican curia]], first in 1945, and later in 1950 (when he and his followers had lobbied for his appointment as [[Roman Catholic Diocese of Vitoria|bishop of Vitoria]]). According to Rocca, in both instances the curial officials expressed concerns about the organization of Opus Dei and about the psychological profile of Escrivá.<ref name="Rocca" />

Sociologist Alberto Moncada, a former member of Opus Dei, has collected and published various oral testimonies about Escrivá's strained relations with other officials of the Catholic Church.<ref name="Moncada-oral">Alberto Moncada, ''Historia oral del Opus Dei'', (Barcelona: Plaza & Janés, 1987).  {{ISBN|84-01-33337-7}}. Available in Spanish [http://www.opuslibros.org/libros/historia_oral/capitulo1.htm here]</ref> In particular, Moncada quotes Antonio Pérez-Tenessa, who at the time was secretary general of Opus Dei in Rome, as witnessing Escrivá's intense displeasure over the election of [[Pope Paul VI]] in 1963, and later expressing doubts in private about the salvation of the Pope's soul.<ref name="Moncada-oral" />  According to María del Carmen Tapia, who worked with Escrivá in Rome, the founder of Opus Dei had "no respect" for Popes [[Pope John XXIII|John XXIII]] or Paul VI and believed that his own organization of Opus Dei was "above the Church in holiness."<ref name="Woodward" />

[[Luigi de Magistris (cardinal)|Luigi de Magistris]], at the time the regent of the Vatican's [[Apostolic Penitentiary]], wrote in a 1989 confidential vote asking for the suspension of the proceedings for Escrivá's beatification, that "it is not a mystery that there were serious tensions" between Escrivá and the [[Society of Jesus|Jesuits]].<ref name="VoteSuspension" />  De Magistris then alluded to Escrivá distancing himself from the Jesuit priest Valentino Sánchez, who had previously been Escrivá's confessor, over the Jesuits' opposition to the proposed constitutions of Opus Dei.<ref name="VoteSuspension" />  Journalist Luis Carandell says that, during his years in Rome, Escrivá kept his distance from the Jesuit [[Superior General of the Society of Jesus|Superior General]], the Spaniard [[Pedro Arrupe]], to the extent that Arrupe once joked with [[Antonio Riberi]], the [[nuncio|apostolic nuncio]] to Spain, about doubting whether Escrivá really existed.<ref>Luis Carandell, ''Vida y milagros de Monseñor Escrivá de Balaguer, fundador del Opus Dei''. The relevant passage is available in Spanish [http://www.opuslibros.org/libros/Carandell/prologo1992.htm here]</ref>

According to Alberto Moncada, Escrivá's years in Rome were dedicated in large part to his campaign to make Opus Dei independent from the authority of [[Catholic Church hierarchy#Diocesan bishops|diocesan bishop]]s and of the Vatican curia, something which was finally achieved, after Escrivá's death, with the establishment in 1982, by Pope [[John Paul II]], of Opus Dei as a [[personal prelature]], subject only to its own prelate and to the Pope.<ref name="Moncada-oral" /> As such, Opus Dei is currently the only personal prelature in the Catholic Church, although this juridical figure ―similar in nature to other kinds of hierarchical organization in the church's history, such as military and personal ordinariates― is fruit of the Second Vatican Council's aim to provide pastoral attention in ways more suited to the actual situation of many of its faithful.<ref name="Prelatures, Ordinariates">{{cite web|title=Preguntas Frecuentes|url=http://prelaturaspersonales.org/prelaturas-personales/preguntas-frecuentes-2/|website=Prelatures, Ordinariates, and other personal circumpscriptions|date=24 February 2012 |access-date=3 October 2017}}The relevant passages are available in Spanish.</ref> In this way, its work complements that of the dioceses, and in some cases even takes the form of a more direct collaboration: for example, when priests of Opus Dei assume pastoral care of parishes at the request of the local bishops.<ref name="Dolan">{{cite news|last1=Stagnaro|first1=Angelo|title=Faith and the City: Opus Dei Assumes Responsibility for St. Agnes Church|url=http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/faith-and-the-city-opus-dei-assumes-responsibility-for-st.-agnes-church|access-date=3 October 2017|work=National Catholic Register|date=15 June 2016}}</ref> Escrivá may have had this in mind when he wrote, "The only ambition, the only desire of Opus Dei and each of its members is to serve the Church as the Church wants to be served, within the specific vocation God has given us."<ref>{{cite book|last1=Ocariz|display-authors=etal|first1=Fernando|title=The Canonical Path of Opus Dei|date=1994|publisher=Scepter|page=360}}</ref> Membership in the prelature does not exempt a Catholic from the authority of the local diocesan bishop.<ref name="ALLENBOOOK" />