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To: Tom Clarke who wrote (16590)	5/27/2000 6:48:00 AM
From: GUSTAVE JAEGER	Respond to of 17770

Opus Dei Religion and politics have always been dangerous bedfellows. Christian fundamentalists have brought a backward looking, anti-scientific movement into US politics. The rise of militant Islamic parties has reintroduced theocratic notions that were thought to have died with the Dark Ages. But there is another, less publicised movement that has been quietly pushing at the doors of power on five continents. Opus Dei, the controversial organisation at the heart of the Roman Catholic Church, is seeking to recreate an alliance between the spiritual and secular worlds that was last attempted during the Renaissance ?with catastrophic results. In countries where it has a strong presence, Opus Dei labours silently and stealthily to align government policies with those of the Vatican. But its quest to introduce a neo-Renaissance to the Catholic world has so far produced mixed results. Because they form a closed, disciplined group guided by an authoritarian ideology, Opus Dei strategists have been largely successful at the Vatican. Under John Paul II, the organisation has become the most dominant force in the Roman Curia, the body of 2,500 prelates and trusted lay people that governs the Catholic Church. Opus Dei's manoeuvrings evoke endless speculation in Rome, where getting on the wrong side of God's Work is not something to be lightly undertaken. But Opus Dei is a relative newcomer to the Vatican power structure. Founded in 1928 by Josemaria Escriv , the son of a bankrupt Aragonese mercer who found power and fame in the priesthood, Opus Dei's rise to influence and fortune has been nothing short of spectacular. As a socio-religious phenomenon, it was intricately bound up with the politics of Franco's Spain. Today, according to Annuario Pontificio (the Vatican yearbook), Opus Dei has 80,000 members around the world, of whom about 2,000 are priests. As the Catholic Church's only floating diocese - known as a personal prelature - it is governed by a prelate-general, who holds the rank of bishop, and operates above and beyond the authority of local bishops. Said to be richer than many Third World states, Opus Dei publishes no financial statements, no membership lists, and it reports - once every five years - only to the pope. Excerpted from: users.skynet.be