Yesterday, reading the Collector’s Edition of U.S. News and World Report
dedicated to “The Secrets of Angels and Demons” – no I did not buy it! – I
ran across this sentence: “In The Da Vinci Code, it was the mysterious
Priory of Sion and the religious order, Opus Dei.” My heart sank a little, and I thought, enough
is enough. Can’t we put at least of few of these chestnuts of
misinformation to rest? So, for the journalists and all those who like to
get their facts straight, here are a few classic FFS regarding Opus Dei.

Is Opus Dei a religious order?

Absolutely not. Opus Dei is NOT a religious order. When a
man or woman makes a religious profession, that person enters into a
special class within which they have chosen to pursue the goal of
holiness. Members of Opus Dei very explicitly do NOT do this. The whole point of Opus Dei’s existence is to foster the pursuit
of holiness among those who do not form part of that special class. It’s designed for the
laity and the “secular clergy” (diocesan priests). In this sense,
comparing Opus Dei with the Franciscans, Jesuits or Domincans is
comparing apples and oranges, and many of the misunderstandings of Opus
Dei stem from precisely this confusion: people expect members of Opus Dei
to behave like members of a religious order, when they are NOT members of
a religious order.

The vast majority of the members of Opus Dei, all of whom share exactly the same
vocation, are lay people (mostly married). There are also some priests who
are, like diocesan priests, not members of any religious order, but rather
secular clergy.

Do members of Opus Dei take vows?

No, members of Opus Dei do NOT take vows. This is really a
corollary of the preceding question, since vows are one of the hallmarks
of religious orders. Opus Dei is interested in virtues, not vows. For example, all members of Opus Dei strive to live the virtue of
chastity to a heroic degree, and some members of Opus Dei (the numeraries
and associates) have decided to live apostolic celibacy, but NO ONE takes
vows of celibacy as a member of Opus Dei. The same goes for the virtues of poverty (detachment) and obedience, ven though some members give all their money to Opus Dei and try to be heroically obedient.

Another corollary is that members of Opus Dei, like the ordinary lay
Catholics that they are, do not wear habits or distinctive clothing.
So forget about Silas and his capes and cowls and – am I the only one puzzled
by this word? – his “swaddle.” (I can’t help imagining some kind of diaper. Pity the poor actor who pays him.)

Is Opus Dei a personal prelature of the pope or the Vatican?

Opus Dei is a personal prelature – so far, it’s the only one in the Church,
but perhaps that will change – but not “of the pope or the Vatican.”

A “prelature” is an ecclesiastical jurisdiction consisting of priests and
laity under a prelate, which the Church establishes for some particular
pastoral purpose. The purpose of Opus Dei is to foster and faciliate the
pursuit of holiness in ordinary secular life.

A “personal prelature” is a prelature that is defined not in terms of a
geographical area (as is the case with dioceses), but rather in terms
of particular persons, wherever they may happen to be. Thus the “personal”
in personal prelature has NOTHING TO DO with the pope (pace Dan Brown) or even
with the prelate; it does not mean that the prelature is someone’s personal
fiefdom. It simply means that this prelature is defined by
persons and not by land.

A personal prelature is NOT a “church within the Church”. The members of
Opus Dei ARE under the jurisdiction of the local bishops in exactly the
same way as all ordinary Catholics are. Naturally, the priests
incardinated in the prelature of Opus Dei are, like any diocesan priest,
under the jurisdiction of their own bishop, who is, in this case, the
prelate of Opus Dei. The laity of Opus Dei are under the jurisdiction of
Opus Dei’s prelate only in those matters relating to the internal life of Opus
Dei. There is no conflict between the prelate’s jurisdiction and that of
the local bishop.

Is The Way an Opus Dei manual?

No. A glance at St. Josemaria’s book The Way is enough to make clear that
it’s no treatise or guide to Opus Dei. In fact, Opus Dei is not even
mentioned in The Way. The book is a collection of notes or “points” -
drawn from the daily life and preaching of St. Josemaria in the 1930s -
that were written in no particular order, and these jottings were later
gathered into chapters. Some are lofty, some are very down to earth. Some
are long, some are short. Some are crystal clear, others are rather opaque.

Confusion about the nature of this book stems from the English title, The
Way, which sounds as if it might be a how-to book for members of Opus Dei.
But the original title in Spanish is simply Camino – with no definite
article. The Spanish word means many things: “road¬®” “path,” “way,” “journey,” etc. The title then is not “THE road,”
but simply “road.” (In fact, it’s more ambiguous than that, since the
word “camino” can also be a verb: I walk.) But since the word “Way,” all by itself, would sound odd as a title, the English edition’s title was given a definite article
that has turned out to be somewhat misleading.

An even earlier version – much shorter and with very limited distribution -
of Camino was simply called “Spiritual Considerations,” which is a very
accurate, if somewhat prosaic, description of its contents.

Well, these are the FFS that come immediately to my mind, but I bet that
readers can think of a few others.