Pope Francis has outlined new rules that take away power from Opus Dei. Photo: ANSA
A series of regulations established by Pope Francis with the aim of tighten control over Opus Dei and take it away the power came into effect this Thursday, after the publication of a pontifical decree at the end of July.
The papal document, under the title Ad charisma tuendum (“To protect the charisma”), he indicates “take away power and independence” to the powerful organization within the church, according to religious affairs experts.
“Some have interpreted the provisions of the Holy See in terms of “downgrade” or “power loss”. We are not interested in this type of dialectic, because for a Catholic the use of categories of power or worldliness makes no sense “, Manuel Sánchez, of the Opus Dei press office, assured AFP, reiterating the official position of the institution. .
Pope Francis advances in his intention to reform the Roman Curia. Photo: AP
Among other restrictions, the norm obliges the group linked to the conservative sectors of the Church to submit, every year, “to the Dicastery for the Clergy a report on the state of the Prelature and on the the development of his apostolic work“and no longer with a five-year format as before.
On the other hand, from now on, the authority of Opus Dei, called prelate, will no longer be a bishopadapting to the theory what is currently the case of Fernando Ocáriz, who did not receive episcopal ordination.
The document also added in one of its six articles that, based on these changes, the statutes of Opus Dei “will be suitably adapted”through proposals of the institution itself, but which must ultimately be approved by the Vatican.
Reforming the curia, Pope Francis’ goal
The Argentine pontiff, who since he assumed the pontificate in 2013 has committed to reforming the Roman Curiathe central government of the church, mired in a series of scandals, has approved several measures to modernize and ensure greater transparency within the institution.
On this occasion, the pope’s dispositions touch upon the powerful religious organization, which the pope and now Saint John Paul II elevated at the beginning of his pontificate, in 1982, to the rank of “personal prelature”.
In the case of Opus Dei it is also the only existing prelature, a real privilege since he equated it with a diocese with all the decision-making power that this means.
“Forty years later, Francesco tries put an end to an excessively hierarchical structure and ‘saving’ the charismatic values of an institution marked by struggles for power and singularity, which makes it unique (for the moment) in the world “, commented Jesús Bastante, from the specialized page Religión Digital.
Accused by her detractors of being some kind of secret sect to pull the strings of power inside and outside the Vatican, which she promptly denies, Opus Dei is present in more than 60 countries and it is made up of about 90,000 lay members, including political or business personalities, and more than 2,000 priests, mainly in Europe and Latin America.
Founded in 1928 by the Spanish priest Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer, who died in Rome in 1975 at the age of 73, his canonization in 2002 by John Paul II aroused controversy for its proximity to the Spanish dictatorship of Francisco Franco.
Source: AFP and Télam
Source: Clarin
