Reading this time magazine article on Opus Dei I wonder in anybody in Opus Dei just refers to it as Opus as Time constantly does and people part of Opus Dei as Opus people. But they really get the following wrong.
For years, Catholics in Washington have kept informal count of possible high-profile Opus people, including Justice Antonin Scalia and almost-Justice Robert Bork, Republican Sens. Rick Santorum and Sam Brownback, columnist Robert Novak and former FBI head Louis Freeh.
It has previously been confirmed that Louis Freeh and Judge Antonin Scalia are not members of Opus Dei and Judge Bork was baptized and entered the Catholic Church only three years ago. I doubt if Opus Dei will find this article helpful in dispelling myths.
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I have never heard a member of Opus Dei call it Opus. Usually, I have heard it refered to as The Work. (Which is English for Opus.)
I think it is possible to be a cooperator of Opus Dei (though not a full member) even if you are not Catholic or even Christian for that matter. So while it is impossible that Robert Bork was a member before becoming Catholic I beleive it is possible he was a cooperator though I have no info either way. see the following link http://www.opusdei.us/art.php?p=300
Not only does no one in the Work ever refer to it as simply “Opus,” doing so is a standard way in which ignorant snarkers try to simulate “insider” knowledge.
The article is accompanied by a photo-essay .
Picture number two is captioned as “Bibles are stacked on a tab;e in the hallway outside the men’s chapel.”
Except they’re not bibles, they’re missals. You can tell because the lettering on the side clearly says “Daily Roman Missal.”
Surely the editors of Time Magazine can read the titles of books?
The photo essay is weirder than that. One shot features a woman “posing” in the chapel. Now, she is turned slightly sideways– my guess is that she probably has a book for spiritual reading right next to her on the pew seat, or perhaps she is jotting a note down from her prayer. If she is, indeed, “posing,” it would only be because the photographer said he needed someone to sit in the chapel for the shot…
Then there’s the photo of a stair landing, captioned “The Women’s Wing” or something along those lines. People, it’s a flight of stairs. Trust me, the women are not required to sleep on stairs. They have their own bedrooms.
And I’ll second Cacciaguida– I can always tell someone who has spent essentially no time hanging around Opus Dei when they just call it Opus. Just because we call it “the Work” in English doesn’t mean we call it Opus. 🙂
Opus is a milquetoast penguin appearing in the comics section of Sunday newspapers, not an organisation libelled by Dan Brown.
PVO
opus people? eww, that’s so linguistically unappealing.
This whole article, and the journalist, reminds me of a medical student being sent into an NFL football locker room to do an interview with the janitor in hopes of getting some juicy tid bits about the players. Sheesh. PU. Get real.