Madam, - The recent apologia for Opus Dei by Garry O'Sullivan, editor of The Irish Catholic (Rite and Reason, September 2nd) was a very perceptive study of a new approach by that organisation. If Opus Dei's purported new approach of openness and facing criticism is verified, it should make a major change in the public reaction to its presence in parish work in the Dublin archdiocese.
I am, however, somewhat disturbed by Mr O'Sullivan's reference to Opus Dei as "the church and its members" (sic). I am also mystified by his news that Opus Dei was holding a week-long seminar "to introduce journalists to the Vatican up close". Does Opus Dei run the Vatican? And again: "Between the Pope and Opus Dei, the Church in Rome seems to be at last 'getting' communications." Indeed.
With this new approach to open communication, perhaps Mr O'Sullivan, with his obviously "insider" information about Opus Dei, might answer two questions which worry me.
1. Was Pope John Paul II ever, at any level, a member of Opus Dei? If the answer is affirmative, it would explain at last why John Paul inserted Canons 294-7 into his 1983 Code of Canon Law - canons which gave Opus Dei unprecedented power in the Catholic Church and effectively made it a church within a church.
2. Was the current editor of The Irish Catholic newspaper ever, at any level, a member of Opus Dei? Again, if the answer is affirmative, it would explain another mystery: how Mr O'Sullivan knows so much of the internal affairs of Opus Dei, and also why whenever he writes to The Irish Times, he identifies himself as editor of The Irish Catholic newspaper. Such an affirmative answer would also open up the rather terrifying prospect of a takeover bid for The Irish Times by The Irish Catholic. They have the lolly to do it, you know. - Yours, etc,
Fr JAMES GOOD,
Parkview,
Church Street,
Douglas,
Cork.