Opus Dei and politics
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Opus Dei and politics is a discussion on Opus Dei's view on politics, its role in politics and its members involvement in politics.
General political matters
Opus Dei has been accused of supporting
However, supporters[who?] of Opus Dei point out that accusations of support to Hitler, Franco or totalitarianism have been often based in scattered information and individual testimonies of former members of the organisation.|date=December 2022}} They[who?] also note that the main position of the Socialist and Communist parties in the 1920s and 1930s was against organized religions, especially in mainly Catholic countries such as Spain, where the Church massively took side for Franco during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939).
Hitler and Nazism
The Unofficial Opus Dei Webpage says: Father Vladimir Felzmann, an ex-Opus Dei member and leader, tells about a discussion with Josemaría Escrivá, founder of Opus Dei : after he (Escrivá) insisted that with Hitler's help the Franco government had saved Christianity from Communism, he added: "Hitler against the Jews, Hitler against the Slavs, this means Hitler against communism." - a statement that did not bar the way to subsequent sainthood.[citation needed] An article in the Telegraph also reports that Felzmann heard Escrivá, "Vlad, Hitler couldn't have been such a bad person," the Father apparently said. "He couldn't have killed six million. It couldn't have been more than four million."[1] Opus Dei supporters state that Fr. Felzmann, on saying these things, is being inconsistent with a testimony he wrote in 1980 saying that Escrivá is "a saint for today." (Documentation Service Vol V, 3, March 1992) They claim that former members, called "apostates" by their former organization, often lend their voices to coalitions fighting their previous religious organizations (see Dr. Bryan R. Wilson).
Escrivá responded to these accusations in 1975, professing his "love for the Jewish people" [2][3]. In addition, according to Opus Dei supporters[who?], the one oral testimony regarding the supposed sympathies of Escrivá towards Hitler is disputed by various documented testimonies of non-members and members who state that Escrivá vigorously condemned Hitler, whom he called "an obsessed man, a rogue and tyrant."[citation needed] He also allegedly condemned Nazism for being a "heresy," "anti-Christian," "pagan," "totalitarian," "a political aberration," and "racist."[1] About the Nazi persecution against the Christians and the Jews, he was reported to say: "one victim is enough to condemn it". (Urbano 1995, p. 118-199) He condemned it, even going against Spain's public and official attitude of keeping silent about Nazism, despite the Holy See's condemnation of Hitler's ideology. Thus, del Portillo, the Opus Dei prelate who succeeded Escrivá, said that the attacks against the founder of Opus Dei are "a patent falsehood," part of "a slanderous campaign." (del Portillo 1996, p. 22-25). Though members of the Jewish community have defended Escrivá in the past, the issue was far from resolved at the time of his beatification in 1992.[2]
Francoist Spain
Opus Dei was founded in 1928 by an Aragonese Roman Catholic priest, Josemaría Escrivá, and it was subsequently recognized by the Roman Catholic Church as its first secular religious institution, then later a personal prelature, a secular jurisdictional structure of the Catholic Church akin to a diocese. Although attention has been drawn primarily to its activities in Spain, it is an international body with members and associates throughout the world. Members make a commitment to dedicate their professional talents to the service of God and to seek to win converts through their missionary zeal. The organization in Spain and everywhere else has emphasized professional excellence, whether they are farmers or teachers, and it has expected its members who have talents for politics to serve in government positions, in accord, it says, with the Social Doctrine of the Church.[citation needed]
There are many history books and books[
Allen also recounts the story of
Escriva and Franco
Critics[
John Allen in Opus Dei: Secrets and Power in the Catholic Church (2005) states that from the very beginning to the end of the Franco regime Escrivá maintained a complete silence about Franco's government. He claims that there is not one public statement on the records from Escriva — either critical of the regime or in favor. In the 1930s and 1940s, this silence was even interpreted as passive opposition. By the 1960s and 1970s, when the overwhelming sentiment in Spanish Roman Catholicism had become critical of Franco, his silence was interpreted as a kind of covert support. This silence, according to Allen, meant there was no corporate position of Opus Dei towards Franco.
“[I]t’s worth noting that in the context of the Spanish Civil War, in which anticlerical Republican forces killed 13 bishops, 4,000 diocesan priests, 2,000 male religious, and 300 nuns, virtually every group and layer of life in the Catholic Church in Spain was ‘pro-Franco.’” Allen goes on to note that despite this fact, “there is no instance in which [Escrivá] either praised or criticized the regime” throughout its long reign. “In the 1930s and 1940s, when the overwhelming sentiment in Catholic Spain was pro-Franco, Escrivá’s silence was therefore often read to betoken a hidden liberalism; by the 1960s and 1970s, when Catholic opinion had shifted, that same silence was interpreted as masking a pro-Franco conservatism,” he writes. “The overall impression one gets is that Escrivá strove to maintain neutrality with respect to the Franco regime, even if privately he felt some sympathy for a leader trying by his lights to be an upright Christian,” Mr. Allen concludes. “A charge of ‘pro-Franco’ cannot be sustained, except in the generic sense that most Spanish Catholics were initially supportive of Franco.... The most one can say is that Escrivá was not ‘anti-Franco’ either.”
Opus Dei members in Franco's government
Critics[who?] underline that several Opus Dei members were appointed ministers in General Francisco Franco's government.[citation needed] They say that this is evidence of the organization's penetration into the highest echelons of Spain's Fascist regime. Others note the origins of Opus Dei itself and the decision of its founder, Escrivá de Balaguer, to flee first to France during the Spanish Civil War and then to join the insurgent generals[citation needed] in Burgos, then capital for the rebels seeking to overthrow Spain's democratically elected leftist government. It is worth noting that Opus Dei's first offices in Madrid were in the same building as the Ministry of the Interior.[citation needed]
According to Berglar, the claim that ministers who served under Franco are proof of the link between
Historian
Brian Crozier also states: "The charge that Opus Dei had been aiming at political power, and had achieved it at last, was heard in February 1957, when Ullastres and Navarro Rubio joined Franco’s cabinet. In this bare form, the charge seems to be unfounded because based on a misconception of what Opus Dei is. It is not, as its enemies either think or want others to think, a political party; nor is it a political pressure group. Nor, for that matter, is it a kind of super labour-exchange for politicians... What happened was more pragmatic and less sinister. Franco had heard of the intellectual and technical merits of Ullastres and Navarro Rubio and sent for them; they happened to be members of Opus Dei. On the same occasion, he had heard of the intellectual and technical merits of Castiella and Gual Villalbi and sent for them; but Castiella and Gual Villalbi happened not to be members of Opus Dei. In other words, Opus Dei was not a group to be conciliated by being given a share in power, as the Monarchists were, or the Falange, or the Army." (Italics added)
Messori, who is not a member of Opus Dei, also states that there were only 8 members of Opus Dei (5 of whom served for only one term or but a few months) of the 116 ministers under Franco's regime, and they started serving only after 1956, a few years after the Allies recognized it. There was no Opus Dei member in his last cabinet. They were never a majority: "The myth of an Opus Dei dominated Franco government is just that--a myth" (Messori 1997, p. 30) (Berglar 1994, p. 186).
A number of historians[
Investigative journalist John L. Allen Jr., who is not a member of Opus Dei, supports Berglar's statements. John Allen also says that there were Opus Dei priests who were involved in opposition movements. He also states that the only Spanish bishop who was put in jail during the Franco era is one of the two Opus Dei cardinals, Cardinal
Allen also states that Opus Dei members (sociologically speaking and not institutionally speaking) acted towards Franco as all Spanish Catholics would. Sociologically at the beginning of Franco's regime, they hailed him as a savior who liberated them from the communism and anarchism of the Second Spanish Republic;this attitude evolved through time and in the end, like most Catholics, they were 50-50 for Franco.[citation needed]
Controversy about Opus Dei's political influence
Journalists John L. Allen Jr. and Vittorio Messori claim that Opus Dei as an institution was neither pro-Franco nor anti-Franco. It was "savagely attacked" says Allen by its enemies, starting with certain Jesuits immediately after the civil war. These Jesuits did not understand the novelty of its theological doctrine on the universal call to holiness, says Allen. And, according to Messori, its reputation was besmirched deliberately by some groups of the Falange for they wrongly viewed it as a political rival, since these Spaniards tended to have a Catholic one-party mentality in politics, and did not understand Escriva's new doctrine on the freedom and responsibility of each Catholic in temporal matters. They failed to see, says Messori, that there were many other members of Opus Dei who were against the Franco Regime, like Rafael Calvo Serrer and Antonio Fontán. This deliberate campaign of the Falange led to the black legend that Opus Dei is a type of political party, he says. Brian Crozier, an English historian, says that "Opus Dei is neither a political party nor a political pressure group as its enemies want people to believe." Messori says that Opus Dei's fidelity to the Catholic faith makes it capable of new ideas and its members contributors for the advancement of society.[citation needed]
See also
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain. Country Studies. Federal Research Division.
Footnotes
- ^ See Pilar Urbano (1995). "El hombre de Villa Tevere". Archived from the original on 2006-12-10. Retrieved 2007-01-28.
- ^ (Jewish Telegraphic Agency, January 1992)
- ^ "Opus dei and Franco".
- ^ "Opus dei and Franco".
- TheGuardian.com. 28 January 2005.
- ^ "Secret service. A chronicle of disenchantment with the Catholic organisation Opus Dei (about the book "Beyond the Threshold. A life in Opus Dei", by Maria del Carmen Tapia)". The New York Times. October 12, 1997.
References
- Arango, E. Ramón. 1995 (1985). Spain. Democracy Regained (Second Edition). Boulder, CO: Westview.
- Carr, Raymond, and Fusi, Juan Pablo. 1991 (1979). Spain: Dictatorship to democracy. London: Routledge.
- De Blaye, Edouard. 1976 (1974). Franco and the Politics of Spain. Middlessex: Penguin. [original title Franco ou la monarchie sans roi, Editions Stock]
- Descola, Jean. O Espagne, Albin Michel, Paris, 1976.
- Ellwood, Sheelagh. 1994. Franco. Harlow, UK: Longman.
- Graham, Robert. 1984. Spain. Change of a Nation. London: Michael Joseph.
- Gunther, Richard. 1980. Public Policy in a No-Party State. Spanish Planning and Budgeting in the Twilight of the Franquist Era. Berkeley, CA: University of California.
- Gunther. Richard. 1980. Public Policy in a No-Party State. Spanish Planning and Budgeting in the Twilight of the Franquist Era. Berkeley: University of California.
- Herr, Richard. 1971. Spain. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
- Hills, George. 1970. Spain. London: Ernest Benn Ltd.
- Paredes, Javier (coord.), Historia contemporánea de España (siglo XX), Ariel Historia, Barcelona 1998.
- Payne, Stanley G. 1999. Fascism in Spain. 1923-1977. Madison, WI: Wisconsin University.
- Preston, Paul. 1990. The Politics of Revenge. Fascism and the Military in Twentieth-Century Spain. London. Unwin Hyman.
- Preston, Paul. 1993. Franco. A Biography. London: HarperCollins.
- Salgado Araujo, Francisco Franco, Mis conversaciones privadas con Franco, Col. Espejo de España, Ed. Planeta, 1976.
- Tusell, Javier. Manual Historia de España: Siglo XX, Historia 16, Madrid, 1990.
- Jewish Telegraphic Agency, "Conservative Catholic Group Denies Candidate for Sainthood Hated Jews", January 1992
- Various Authors, (Manuel Ferrer, José de Armas, José Lino Feo, Manuel Fernández Areal, Charles Powell, Alfonso Ascanio), Franquismo y transición democrática: Lecciones recientes de Historia reciente de España, Centro de Estudios de Humanidades, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 1993.
External links
- [5], JTA article preceding beatification
- Peter Duffy, "The Work," Among Us, America Magazine, November 21, 2005
- The Evolution of Opus Dei by Alberto Moncada, former member.
- St Josemaría Escrivá and Nazism
- Freedom, politics and Opus Dei - about Franco
- What is Opus Dei? BBC World