OPUS
JUDEI
by Alfonso Carlos de Borbón
Prologue
1. The
Suspicion is Confirmed
2. What is a Sect?
3. The Hidden Secret and The
Revealed
Mystery
4. The Charismatic Leader
5. Community of The Chosen:
Followers
and Initiates
6. Ambition for Wealth and Power
-
Unbridled Greed
7. Recruitment and Proselytism
of
Members
8. Mistreatment and Coercion
9. Human Waste, Psychological
Destruction
10. Sects and Religion: the Fraudsters
of God
11. An Outrageous Usurpation
12. Totalitarianism and Fanaticism
13. Sex and Contingency
14. Judas in Action
15. Abandoning the Work of God:
Harassment of Fugitives and Social Death
1. The
merciless lie
2. The family environment
3. Seminary and
adolescence
4. A seer with much
sight? Divine revelation?
In Spanish
(English translation
pending):
5. Nefarious
tendencies
6. Escriva
and women
7. Escriva
and the
seven deadly sins
8. Man
without a name.
Delusions of grandeur
9. Freemasonry
10. Death
and resurrection
11. Holy
and sign
12. The
scandal of a beatification
NOTE.
If a reader wishes to read in English any of the not yet translated
sections, he/she may use this
very accurate on-line translator.
1. The problem of cryptojudaism in Spain
2. Secular infiltration of cryptojudaism in
the clergy
3. The Jewish roots of Escrivá de
Balaguer
4. The Kabbalistic symbolism of Opus Dei
5. The Jewish ghettos as a model for Opus Dei
6. Opus Dei and the Jewish question
7. The finances of Opus Dei and international
Judaism
8. Identity between the "spirit of the work"
and the "Jewish
soul"
9. Jesuit influences in Opus Dei
10. World government, the new order and Opus Dei
Bibliography
OPUS
JUDEI
by Alfonso Carlos de Borbón
A Clarification and
Disclaimer
An important aspect of this work, with which we cannot
agree, is that
Mr de Bourbon seems to refer to the Jews as if they were a homogeneous
monolith, i.e. that they are all equal and have the same agenda.
This would be the same and as wrong as considering all Catholics as if
they constituted a homogenous monolith with Opus Dei and shared
Escriva's agenda - which could not be further from the truth.
There is no doubt that there is a Jewish faction that cooperates with
Opus Dei, and that is what Mr. de Borbón rightly wants to
expose. This Jewish faction obviously does not know the true
disposition that Opus Dei has towards anything related to Jews -
practicing or not.
The Editors in
.html format
Access
to the
Main Index
Prologue
Original Book
Printed at Orion Editores
Santafé de Bogotá, D.C. Colombia
It was completed in October 1994
Workshops by ORION EDITORS who only served as a printer.
Original publication free of copyrights and / or copyright.
OPUS
JUDEI
by Alfonso Carlos de Borbón
PROLOGUE
To unravel the enigma of best-characterized simulation of these times
and
solve the maze in a surprising way, it has been necessary to unravel a
tangled skein of a confusing warp. Appearances can be deceiving. Things
are not what they seem. Ambiguity and confusion are the symptom of the
present day.
Leo XIII, referring to Freemasonry, said in the encyclical "Humanum
Genus" that to unmask it was to overcome it. This is a search
for the light
in the real meaning of Opus Dei, diving into its roots, interrelating
its most characteristic thoughts and penetrating into the phreatic and
subterranean waters that irrigate the structure of this organism that
is embedded in the marrow of the Catholic Church. This search is
the heart of
an exciting book that reveals to us the background, the interlacing,
the rebound of the organization that today enjoys a Prelature in the
Holy See and that is on the verge of elevating to holiness its
controversial and caricatured founder.
History is generally told sometimes by its superficial aspect and other
times by the anecdotal aspect of any event. Events are described as if
they occurred spontaneously, without cause or origin, which leads to a
merely epidermal view of pure reality. In order to know the phenomena
in depth and to give them a meaning and an explanation, it is necessary
to separate the leaf litter, whose mulch can cover the light, to make
visible the other side of the mirror, the opaque, invisible part that
is undoubtedly the one that moves the threads of the puppet theatre.
When one begins the descent to the most remote and unexplored chasms,
where darkness blinds perception, one may find the surprise of what one
could call the implausibility. The Opus unmasked is the story of a plot
where reality and fiction seem to merge and come together as if they
were a perfect alloy. In such circumstances, two paths are possible.
Either silence and hide the conclusions in the deepest and most
telluric depths, or expose
them, reveal them and divulge them for
general knowledge. Faced with this dichotomy, the author has opted for
the second in order to clear up the great unknown of the convoluted
equation that Opus Dei poses.
It is not a scandalous or provocative book. It is controversial. One
can agree or disagree with its content. Indifference, neutrality and
equidistance are not possible.
The book does not exhaust and does not reach the ultimate goal,
although it does reach the highest level. It begins the journey, it
opens a new field of research, hitherto unseen. Throughout his history,
man has come on the face of the earth uniting and segregating, merging
or dissolving elements, ideas, thought. The author has set up a column
- which could be the fifth - the Opus Dei, with another pillar, the
Judaism, as a foundation and a colophon.
The reading of this book is obligatory if one does not want to sin
incautiously, since ignorance will never exempt us from the harmful and
irreparable consequences. It is not a cry of alarm, but a conscious
voice of warning for men who seek the truth in order to be fully free.
Next
Section
Complete
Index
OPUS
JUDEI
INDEX - CHAPTER I
CHAPTER
I
SECTS
AND OPUS DEI
1. The
Suspicion is Confirmed
2. What is a Sect?
3. The Hidden Secret and The
Revealed
Mystery
4. The Charismatic Leader
5. Community of The Chosen:
Followers
and Initiates
6. Ambition for Wealth and
Power -
Unbridled Greed
7. Recruitment and Proselytism
of
Members
8. Mistreatment and Coercion
9. Human Waste, Psychological
Destruction
10. Sects and Religion: the
Fraudsters
of God
11. An Outrageous Usurpation
12. Totalitarianism and
Fanaticism
13. Sex and Contingency
14. Judas in Action
15. Abandoning the Work of
God:
Harassment of Fugitives and Social Death
Complete Index
CHAPTER
I
SECTS AND OPUS DEI
1. The Suspicion is Confirmed
None of them consider themselves as such (1).
Nevertheless, we are in a position to make a clear and categorical
statement regarding Opus Dei. It is one of the most powerful and
mysterious sects in the history of the 20th century. (2)
Raimundo Panikkar himself, one of the pioneers in the development of
the initial nucleus, a member of the founders, who attended the
prologue of Opus Dei, says that “what
began as a small group, more or
less charismatic, which slowly, as a result of circumstances on the one
hand and what was latent in the spirit of the founder, became what is
sociologically called a sect.” (3)
We live immersed in a process of social crisis that has created a
market of credulities. Cults proliferate, expand, penetrate, install
themselves, affect and culminate their unavowable purposes infiltrating
like smoke the social tissues, destroying and annihilating many for the
lucrative benefit of a few.
The news was front-page news. The headlines offered no space for
hesitation. The body that disseminated the information was a nationwide
media. The headlines of the newspaper read: “Members of Opus Dei
treated with deprogramming techniques in Barcelona clinic” (4).
The content of this surprising news confirmed that an undetermined
number of young aspirants and active members of Opus Dei had been
treated in Barcelona in recent months with mental deprogramming
techniques. The clinical treatments were applied at the request of
their relatives who were trying to correct, in this way, emotional
disorders.
The news added that the assistance techniques offered by Asociación Pro Juventud
("Association for Youth") and the technical team of the Center
for
Recovery, Orientation and Assistance to the Sectarian (CROAS) are known
generically as deprogramming and consist basically of a process of
information and criticism of the beliefs and behavior of the
organization to which the affected person belongs.
The first clinical treatments with deprogramming techniques for members
and followers of Opus Dei were carried out in November 1987.
About 20 families of Opus Dei members, from
various parts
of Spain, had approached Asociación
Pro Juventud
asking for
information and collaboration to “recover
their children” or to treat
them clinically.
Those in charge of Asociación
Pro Juventud - the news concluded - believe that the
dogmatic attitudes of some of the members and followers of Opus Dei are
similar to those held by members of harmful sects. The secrecy and
proselytism or apostolate of Opus Dei are, in the opinion of the
members of Asociación Pro
Juventud, some of the most negative and criticized
characteristics of the Prelature.
The note ended by indicating that “in
the first international congress
on the harmful effects of sects, held last November in Sant Cugat del
Vallés (Barcelona), some allegedly harmful and negative aspects
of Opus
Dei were discussed and debated.” (5)
The feeling that we are dealing with a pernicious sect is gaining
ground in Spanish public opinion. In a survey carried out among a large
number of young people, the statistical results of which were made
known by the first channel of Spanish Television on July 23, 1990,
during the broadcast of the second edition of the Daily News ("Telediario"), the
majority of those interviewed cited three well-known sects in Spain,
most of them saying
that Opus Dei was a “destructive
sect”.
(6) Two years before
this event, the writer Vázquez
Montalbán, in an article entitled "El Opus que no cesa", also said
“that an informative television
program in which some of the internal
contradictions of Opus Dei were expressed, for example the need for
some of its members to "deprogram" as if they were members of sects not
homologated
by established Christianity, was enough
to cause the corral of the Catholic hierarchy to be disturbed once
again”. (7)
Now we can explain better
that recommendation which, as early as 1983
and with the statement “Beware of
Opus Dei”, referred to the initiative
and caution taken by some American high schools that organized trips
for their students to Spanish universities and that, before leaving for
Spain, gave them some rules and instructions about what they should eat
or the products they should abstain from, the places of tourist or
cultural interest they should visit, the environments they should avoid
at the risk of being robbed or attacked. And among the recommendations
they gave to the young people who came to Spain to follow the courses
for foreigners, they
warned them also to be careful with an
organization called Opus Dei. (8)
The news deserved a
place in the press and was a symptom of the possible intoxication of
the sect, which tries to recruit its followers mainly among the
university community.
Yvon le Vaillant, in his book document entitled "La Santa Mafia",
published in Mexico in 1985, tells us that in Italy a famous doctor,
known in the international psychoanalytical media, when she learned
that the son of one of her patients had been admitted to Opus Dei,
revealed to her that she had several patients who had managed to leave
Opus Dei and that these were neurotic, adding that “this is a crime.
They are under a spell.” (9)
The picture that said
book describes about these people is that “when
you look at them from the front, you are surprised to realize that they
are not really them, that they are not themselves, that they seem to
live next to them, as if deprived of their own personality. It is that
they are empty of body and soul, tied hand and foot to an absorbing
organization: 'The Work'”. (10)
It is the archetypal
picture presented by people who are caught in the nets of such a
sectarian spider's web. The magazine Spielgel
speaks of a "mousetrap".
In a wide-ranging report published under the title "El Opus Dei, el
verdadero poder en España" ("Opus Dei, the real power in
Spain"),
in the magazine Tiempo,
perhaps the one with the largest circulation
today, which is not at all sensationalist and covers a large area of
general information, it was stated that “more and more parents are not
resigned to the legal impotence to get their children out of what they
consider to be brainwashing. In Valencia” - the report continued
-
“there
is a psychiatrist who has specialized in deprogramming young people who
have been captured by Opus Dei.” (11)
It is precisely
proselytism, the daily activity for most of the numerary members of
Opus Dei, that is their first commandment, according to John Roche,
professor of History of Science at the University of Oxford and a
member of the Work for 14 years, “Today
they are beginning to capture
children between the ages of 8 and 9... a file is being prepared in
which little by little data is being collected: age, studies, hobbies,
social environment, family, attitude towards religion and towards Opus
Dei,
contacts with people in the Work...”. (12)
Among the conclusions of the report was that the power of Opus Dei in
Spain is so hidden that 38% of Spaniards are convinced that the
Institute, founded by Monsignor Escrivá de Balaguer, is “a sect,
a pressure group, an economic mafia or a political group”. (13) The
director of the weekly magazine, José Oneto, himself wrote in an
editorial in connection with the report that was published, that “Opus
Dei today continues to be immersed in mystery in our country, and we
wanted to clear up some of that mystery, some of that hidden power. The
survey, carried out by OTR and Emopublica with 1200 interviews from all
over Spain, is significant in itself: quite a few Spaniards think that
Opus Dei is an "economic mafia" or a "pressure group". Moreover, many
Spaniards (35%) are convinced that the fundamental aims of "the Work"
are
to influence politics as a pressure group or to achieve certain
economic ends.” (14)
With
difficulties, with much
effort and work, with arduous investigations, light was being seen at
the end of the dark and gloomy tunnel.
This book, prepared after several years of exhaustive dedication to the
collection and comparison of irrefutable data and contrasting sources,
may be the trigger for the implementation of the "providential death"
for those who write it, so the warning goes ahead with a dart taken
from the very bowels of The Way, the maximum 340 that reads: “Do not be
afraid of the truth, even if the truth brings you death”.
REFERENCES
1. Julián García Hernando. "El fenómeno de las
sectas". Cuadernos de realidades sociales, Nos. 35/36, p 27
(Madrid: Instituto de
Sociología Aplicada, January 1990)
2. "El Opus por dentro" p
33, in Area crítica
No. 2 (July
1983)
3. Alberto Moncada, "Historia oral
del Opus Dei", p 131 (Barcelona:
Plaza & Janés, 1987)
4. "El País"
Newspaper, p 4 (July 11, 1988)
5. Ibid. "El País"
Newspaper, p 4 (July 11, 1988)
6. "El País"
Newspaper, p 50 (July 25, 1990)
7. Manuel Vázquez Montalbán. "El Opus que no
cesa". Interviu
(January 14, 1988).
8. "Diario 16" Newspaper
(October 3, 1983)
9. Yvon Le Vaillant "La Santa Mafia:
El expediente secreto
del Opus Dei", pp 69-70 (Mexico: Edimex, 1985)
10. Ibid, p 213.
11. Article "El Opus Dei, El
verdadero poder en España" Tiempo magazine (April 11, 1988)
12. Ibid, p 15.
13. Ibid, p 10.
14. José Oneto, Tiempo
magazine (11 April 1988)
Index
of Chapter I
Prologue
Next
Section
Complete
Index
CHAPTER
I
SECTS AND OPUS DEI
2. What is a Sect?
Julián García Hernando, in an article published in the
journal of the Institute of Applied Sociology, points to two aspects
when searching for the etymological root of the word "sect" which can be
derived from the Latin "sequi" - which means
"following". In this sense, sect would be
the movement of those who follow a religious leader and who accept his
message. Or it could have its radical entrenchment in the term "secare"
or "secedere" - to cut, to separate. In this case it would mean a group
that has separated itself from a church or another sect, with a
manifest tendency to close in on itself. (15)
From a sociological point of view and in a broad concept of sect one
could call it a conventional group of people who participate in the
same religious experiences. (16)
A sect, in a global sense, is nothing
more than a group of people united by the fact of following a certain
doctrine and/or leader. (17)
In any context, a sect is a group of
people united by a particular doctrine, the word sect being incomplete,
that is why they are called "destructive cults or sects", "young sects"
or "totalitarian pseudo-religious movements" (18).
A sect would be the “voluntary
grouping of converts, limited only to
adults, to the exclusion of sinners, that is, reserved only for those
who commit themselves to the law of God after having had a conversion
experience” if we stick to the definition given by
Benoit-Lavaud. In
it,
therefore, the faithful adhere to the revelations made to a founder.
The sect differs from the Church (in the non-theological sense) in that
it recognizes another new revelation, different from that witnessed in
Sacred Scripture and which it claims to be necessary to understand.
Furthermore, the sect limits salvation to its own members.
According to Father Cavalier, the elements that characterize modern
sects are the
following:
A
factor of security and certainty. The
members of the sect are aware that they belong to a group that holds
the truth and salvation.
Affective factor: The group considers
itself self-sufficient. It has no
contacts with other groups except to convert them and integrate them
into its own group. There is no room for ecumenical dialogue, only for
proselytism. Charity can only be exercised within the group, which is
very lively and very hot, becoming a real "ghetto".
A factor of doctrinal, disciplinary
and moral rigorism. Total primacy
is given to principles, to doctrine and its interpretation over the
rights of individuals. What prevails is the "sect" that identifies
itself with the will of God. (19)
The plenary session of the Congress of Deputies, which decided to
investigate the groups considered as sects in Spain, recorded an
approximation to the characteristics allowing for the definition of the
negative or "antisocial" nature of these groups. According to the
socialist deputy Carlos Navarrete, the following characteristics could
be considered: (20)
- Doctrinal, religious or
socio-religious, demagogic cohesion as a
framework for these organizations.
- The presence of a charismatic leader who is considered an incarnation
of the divinity or a nuncio of it.
- The existence of a theocratic, vertical and totalitarian structure.
- The establishment of a limit to reason by virtue of the apriorism of
certain beliefs.
- To be constituted in closed communities or with a great dependence on
the group.
- The suppression of individual and intimate freedoms, of
communications, etc.
- The recourse to certain neurophysiological manifestations of
meditation, spiritual rebirth, "accesit", etc.
- The total rejection of societies and secular institutions.
- The proselytism and the collection of money and the economic
dispossession of its members.
To the previous characteristics the journalist specialized in the
subject of the sects, Pepe Rodríguez, in his recently published
book on
the matter with the title "El poder
de las sectas", corrects and
increases those that he had already pointed out in his previous works
"Las sectas hoy y aquí"
and "Esclavos de un Mesías".
He adds,
among others:
- Demanding total adherence to the
group and forcing (under
psychological pressure) the breaking of all social ties prior to
entering the cult: parents, partner, friends, work, studies, etc.
- Controlling
the information that reaches their followers, manipulating it
at their convenience.
- Use sophisticated psychological or neurophysiological techniques
(masked under "meditation") that serve to annul the will and reasoning
of the followers, causing them, in many cases, serious psychic
alterations.
- Advocating a total rejection of society and its institutions. Outside
the group everyone is an enemy (polarization between good/sect and
evil/society). Society is rubbish and the people who live in it are
only interested to the extent that they can serve the group.
- To have as primary activities the proselytism - to obtain new adepts
- by hidden
and illegitimate ways
and the collection of
money - surveys by the streets, courses, clearly criminal activities.
In the case of multinational sects, the money collected is largely sent
to the headquarters of each group.
- Obtaining, under psychological coercion, the handing over of the
personal assets of new followers to the sect, or large sums of money in
the form of courses or audits. Members who work outside the group have
to give all or a large part of their salary to the sect. And those who
work in companies belonging to the group do not receive salaries (the
salaries of these companies of the sect are only a legal cover as they
are never paid out - or they return the money later for their
members/labor). (21)
There are two aspects that Pepe Rodríguez insists on and places
special emphasis on when referring to the characteristics of sects. On
the one hand, the isolation from the outside world, in order to better
depersonalize the neophyte, manipulating the environment, cutting
emotional ties, carefully controlling social activities and relations,
cancelling and suppressing information from outside the sect itself by
means of strict guidelines, advice and censorship in terms of
information and communication, creating a stereotyped and conventional
language typical of the sect, giving the words a different meaning from
the vulgar or "profane" usage, creating some peculiar signs of
identity, imbuing in the follower a feeling of hostility and rejection
towards the foreign and suppressing the properties and means of
survival of the initiated, under the pretext of their own "spiritual
evolution", which makes them have a submissive and vexatious dependence
on the sect.
The second aspect that Pepe Rodriguez emphasizes is that which refers
to the suppression and annulment of personality, the destruction of
individuality by means of studied methods and techniques that, when
applied to
perfection, will create on the adept the paradox that “man -
taken
as an isolated individual - believes himself to be a fragile and weak
entity. For this reason, he seeks shelter within the group and a mass.
There he feels strong and powerful when, in reality - and this is the
cruel paradox - he has moved to a stage where he is totally vulnerable
and manipulable. While the isolated individual acts under rational
guidelines, the mass acts under emotional and irrational imperatives.”
(22) It is a
path of no return because “when one
enters the sectarian
community one never again has intimacy”. (23)
When the question “Why aren't you in
Opus Dei” was put to the Madrid
politician and lawyer Manuel Cantanero del Castillo, his answer was
brief and concise, but enlightening “Because
I am not willing to be
sectarianised” (24),
in other words, not to be sold.
Some years ago, in February 1984, journalist Luis Reyes wrote a piece
of information in the weekly "Tiempo"
that, despite its seriousness, went
unnoticed. He wrote: “Opus Dei in
Germany is included among the
pernicious sects, also known there by the police as 'El Camino'.”
As an eloquent testimony, we will reproduce the open letter that a
father wrote to his son, a member of Opus Dei, as a cry that comes from
his innermost being and it is as
heartbreaking as ever: “Son Peter: I
would like you one day to come to the light of truth, to discover the
underworld of the 'sect' in which you are now trapped, like an impotent
fly entangled in the fine meshes of a spider's web. That gigantic
spider is the Marquis of Peralta, the mesh of his Work, the cavernous
hole where he takes his prey to devour them, is the Church of the
Antichrist. You will give me immense joy the day you manage to escape
from the dense nets in which you are now powerfully trapped. Meanwhile,
I
continue to pray for you. A hug from your suffering and waiting
father...” (25)
These are the tears of a parent who fights against a
destructive sect which, as such, brings about the destruction
(destructuring) of the previous personality of the follower and
severely damages him, destroying his emotional ties.
REFERENCES
15. García Hernando, p 28.
16. Ibid, p 28.
17. Pepe Rodríguez, "El
poder de las sectas", p 31 (Barcelona:
Editorial B Group 2, 1989).
18. Pepe Rodríguez, "Sectas y
lavado de cerebro", in "Esclavos
de un Mesías", p 25 (Barcelona: Elfos, 1984).
19. García Hernando, p 29
20. Newspaper "El Independiente",
p 32 (June 3, 1988).
21. Pepe Rodríguez, "El
poder de la sectas" ("The Power of Cults"), p 33; "Las sectas hoy y aquí"
("Cults Today and
Here"), pp 59-60; "Esclavos
de un Mesías" ("Slaves of a Messiah"), p 26.
22. Pepe Rodríguez, "Esclavos
de un Mesías" ("Slaves of a Messiah"), op. cit.
23. Ibid, p 78.
24. Eve Jardiel Poncela in "¿Por
qué no es usted del Opus Dei?" ("Why Aren't You in Opus
Dei"), p 58.
25 Nicolás Cobo Martínez, "Faro
inconfundible" ("Unmistakable Lighthouse"), No. 31, p. 6
(February 1989).
Index
of Chapter I
Previous
Section
Next
Section
Complete
Index
CHAPTER
I
SECTS AND OPUS DEI
3. The Hidden Secret and The Revealed
Mystery
The 1990 Nobel Prize winner for literature, Camilo José Cela,
declared that “I am not in Opus Dei
because I don't like secret
societies”. (26)
Secrecy within Opus Dei is like an obsession, like a
nightmare, like a syndrome. Its followers practice hermeticism. As
Santiago Aroca wrote: “Another of
the Work's myths is secrecy. Opus Dei
officially denies being a hidden organization”. However, Article
193
sanctions: “These Constitutions, the
published instructions and those
that may be published in the future, as well as the other documents,
MUST NOT BE DISCLOSED”; furthermore, without the permission of
the
"Father", “those documents that were
written in Latin must not even be
translated into the vulgar languages”. Incidentally, article 232
states: “We will not communicate the
business and reasons for our
vocation to strangers;
if done, it will be very cautiously and very rarely”. To finish
off, Article 191 proclaims the value of discretion and indicates that
members of the Work “must keep
prudent silence regarding the names of
other members and that they will not reveal to anyone the fact that
they belong
to Opus Dei”. (27)
One of the people who knows best the inner workings of Opus Dei is
Alberto Moncada, having belonged to the group for many years, where he
carried out important functions and tasks. He has written several books
in which he states that a “mania is
secrecy and whispering, simply
unacceptable in a modern society”, (28) defining Opus Dei as “an
intricate skein” and making his own the words of R. S. when he
stated
that “for the Work to be understood,
Opus Dei must be done away with”.
(29) In Opus
Dei, according to the conditions that the leaders usually
set for those who leave, they are not to communicate to anyone their
experiences in "the Work", (30)
but “all hidden power, all
simulation,
is repugnant to the profound demands of Christian sincerity”. (31)
For Yvon le Vaillant the most surprising aspect - and one most
frequently pointed out by observers - is the "secret" character of Opus
Dei, its nature and its behavior as a "secret society". There are
precise instructions to this effect. The Jesuit priest Jean Beyer
points out that “the secret concerns
the members, the houses and the
vows of the Institute”. (32)
There are many maxims in the bedside book of the members of Opus Dei
- Camino - that insist on and
reiterate this suffocating need in the
Work. There are whole chapters devoted to such topics as "discretion"
or "tactics" where the slogans of secrecy follow one another more or
less explicitly. Thus we can read:
“970:
It is true that I have called
your discreet apostolate a 'silent and effective mission.' And I won't
go back on what I said.”
“639: Remain silent, and you will
never regret it: speak, and you often
will.”
“654: Bitterness has sharpened your
tongue. Be quiet!”
“835: You long to shine like a star,
to shed your light from high in
the heavens? Better to burn like a hidden torch, setting your fire to
all that you touch. That's your apostolate: that's why you are on
earth.”
“840: May your dedication pass
unnoticed as, for thirty years, did that
of Jesus.”
The Constitutions of Opus Dei, drawn up in 1947, also insist, with a
heavy heart, on the aspect of secrecy. Among its articles, we highlight
the following:
Article 6: “Opus Dei professes
collective humility, and thus it is not permitted to edit newspapers or
other publications of this type under the name of the Work, except
internally for use by the members; its members never wear a distinctive
sign; they speak with caution with outsiders...”
Article 189: “In order for the
Institute to reach its proper end more
effectively, it wishes to live as hidden, ...”
Article 190. “... even membership in
the Institute admits no external
manifestations. The number of members is kept hidden from
outsiders; and indeed our people do not discuss these things with
outsiders.”
Article 191: “... The lack of this
discretion can constitute a grave
obstacle to exercising apostolic work or create some difficulty in the
environment of one’s natural family or in the exercise of their office
or profession. Thus the Numerary and Supernumerary members should
know they are to live a prudent silence regarding the names of other
members; and that they are never to reveal to anyone that they
themselves belong to Opus Dei, not even to spread the Institute,
without express permission from their local director. This discretion
especially binds those who are newly accepted in the Institute and also
to those who, for whatever reason, have left the Institute. [...]”
Article 193: “These Constitutions,
published instructions and those
which in the future may be published, and the other things pertaining
to the government of the Institute are never to be made public. Indeed,
without the permission of the Father, those documents which are written
in the Latin language may not be translated into vernacular languages.”
Article 232: “The business and
essence of our vocation are not
discussed with outsiders, except with extreme caution, and only rarely.
[...]”
It often happens that two members of a house, from the same residence
of the Work, pretend not to know each other when they meet in public;
that members of
the same family do not know that one of them belongs to
Opus Dei; that
people discover to their surprise that a friend, a co-worker
they have known for years, has carefully hidden his membership
from
them. It is not unusual for the affair to happen even to bishops
themselves, who have been surprised to learn that such and such a
priest belonged to Opus Dei. (33)
With regard to the proverbial discretion and secrecy surrounding Opus
Dei, another Jesuit, Father Heyen says: “Let us here point out the
apostolic deviation that secular institutes must avoid, especially
those that must observe a certain secrecy. This is the danger, under
the pretext of apostolate, of imitating the communists and of
"infiltrating" the milieu or taking over the levers of command and
important posts. In such a course of action, one will see, and rightly
so, a flagrant disloyalty to other Christians. Above all, it will be
seen as a serious alteration in the nature of the specific apostolate
of these Institutes: such infiltration would not mean using the light
and love of Our Lord Jesus Christ; the means of secrecy would mean
corruption.” (34)
And scandals have been a constant in the Work.
However, in secret.
Lieutenant General Fernando Rodrigo Cifuentes made the following
statements when referring to Opus Dei: “As a military man, I consider
the high commitments that the military man has contracted with the
nation to be totally in conflict with any other commitments that are
undoubtedly contracted by accepting the regulations of a secret
association, since its work of recruitment and action is secret.”
(35)
Colonel Antonio Sánchez Cámara said: “Many, many members
of Opus
Dei, if asked directly, deny their membership. Opus Dei is something
closed, and I like open spaces.” (36)
The writer Evaristo Acevedo, in a relaxed tone, commented that Opus Dei
surrounds its activities with great secrecy and caution, almost with
the qualification of official secret, “to
the point that I don't know -
he said - whether
my wife, brothers, uncles, cousins and dear friends belong
to the Work. The mystery and 'suspense' surrounding the Opusians and
the activities they carry out prevent me from judging exactly whether
their purposes, tasks carried out and to be carried out, are beneficial
or not for the community”. (37)
It should not be forgotten that with
the sectarian spirit of Opus Dei, who are of them and who
are not of them is
something that is silenced and that only on rare occasions, and at
their own convenience, can its members confess their belonging
to the Work.
With the practice of secrecy, Opus Dei has been called by different
names that reinforce its condition: "Holy
Mafia", "Catholic Freemasonry";
this latter
name being attributed to
Henri Fesquet, the most famous religious chronicler of the newspaper Le
Monde, who on June 7, 1956, wrote in his column with the
headline “With
Opus Dei, a return to equivocation, a kind of Catholic Freemasonry”,
where he spoke of a somewhat particular type of missionaries who
carefully conceal the
name of their
organization and the real motives
for their
activity.
One could argue that their corporate works - that is, those they
recognize as their own - exist and are sometimes known. This is the
only publicity Opus makes for its activities, but it is significant
that they never appear under their real name. None of them belong to
Opus Dei. In the corresponding registers the name of this modest
association never appears, but rather: trusts, real estate, private
persons or any form of commercial or cultural companies, which makes it
difficult for the public authorities to act on the corporate works of
this secular institute. Therefore, these trusts and real estate
companies entrust the spiritual direction of these centers to Opus Dei.
(38)
José Cepeda Adán, university professor of contemporary
Spanish history, made the following logical reflection: “I do not
understand, nor will I ever understand, the mystery and the secret that
surrounds Opus Dei in its activities. Why? If the path is straight and
high, with the light it will gain clarity and it will be freed from the
dangers of the selfish and dark earth”. (39) In the same vein, the
writer and journalist Antonio D'Olano said that “it is more difficult
for people of our time who do not belong to the so-called Work of God
to understand it than the theory of relativity... 'Opuslence'... I
am
terrified of darkness. Everything they bring us is viscous, alarming.
In the darkness men do not make contact, even if they are groping, nor
can they look each other in the eye. If we are in favor of something
confessable, why hide it?” (40)
Their inclination for secrecy and reserve in the sect has led them to
adopt words of passage and touches of recognition, in the image and
likeness of Freemasonry. To some it has seemed significant that among
the members of this Work, which among us has been described as "white
masonry", numerous symbols, passwords and signs are used. If, to give
an example, one finds oneself at a meeting and a person who has just
arrived says when presented "Pax", one should not interpret that this
person has gone mad. It means that he is from Opus Dei and that he is
giving out his "password" so that if there is another person in the
group who belongs to the Work, he can identify himself by saying: "In
aeternum". (41)
Secret rites. Esoteric.
Surely the adoption of such attitudes comes to them when they see the
considerable results that such practices have produced for Freemasonry.
Opus Dei copied the technique of secrecy, as a means and system of
penetration and control, with the enormous advantage of having the
official assistance of priests.
The Mexican writer Manuel Magaña, in his book "Revelaciones sobre la Santa Mafia"
("Revelations about
the Holy Mafia"), reveals the existence of "secret meetings" of
the
members of Opus Dei more often than one might suppose, with a view to
controlling the press, the cinema, the radio, the TV, so that their
plans for political-religious infiltration, of international scope, are
favoured with a public image that hides their true purposes. (42)
Perhaps, in a humorous tone and with an intuition of the existence of
such secret meetings, the humorist Manuel Summer, speaking about Opus
Dei, said that “when he was a little
boy he was taught at home that
"little secrets in meetings are a lack of education"”, adding “I love
freedom and I do not want to be part of any flock”. (43)
A researcher and specialist in topics related to Opus Dei, the
journalist Santiago Aroca, went a step further in explaining the
existence of these secret meetings by writing that “the cryptic
internal language of the members, in their senior members and leaders,
are called by numbers and not by their names in the government meetings
at the summit”. (44)
The world is in need of more light and
stenographers, when faced with secret societies of the Opus type, which
are clans or cartels subject to the law of silence.
The consideration of a secret society has been a constant. Daniel
Artigues, in his book published in France in 1971 under the title "El
Opus Dei en España" He pointed out
the ("Opus Dei in Spain"),
already wrote on the first page that it was
an almost secret society that aspired, in the first place, to capture
the elite, while at the same time pursuing its own ends, not
well known and more of
political than religious nature.notable
reputation that Opus Dei had and its taste
for
secrecy, concluding that “this
desire for discretion, as the members of
Opus Dei say, or
this cult of secrecy, as its adversaries claim, is one of
the essential characteristics of the Work” (45)
Hence, do not hesitate to call it a "pressure group".
We will never be able to know exactly which or how many
are the official
accomplishments of Opus Dei, what are the dark spots or points of
penetration under virtuous pretexts. According to Yvon Le Vaillant it
is impossible, for example, to know the exact number of residences or
student houses. Nor does the name of Opus Dei appear in any telephone
book, and God knows that, down here, the telephone is a common, albeit
natural, instrument. Opus Dei does not appear in the open, nor does it
advertise in its own name, but it retains control of the decision, and
so a double conclusion is reached:
1) Opus Dei reserves, without it being
apparent,
the possibility of selecting
its clientele, its members, its interlocutors.
2) It retains the possibility of operating these houses and residences
as traps. (46)
In any case, it is an illusion to seek clarification from those
responsible for the
Work. Jesus Ynfante, author of the book "La
prodigiosa aventura del Opus Dei" ("The
Prodigious Adventure of Opus Dei"), finds in the Work of Escrivá
a
"terrible still" (47) whose membership is
conceived in a multiple and
complicated way, from broad external circles to intimate, secret
groups... operating according to enigmatic methods. Hence, those under
18 years of age are instructed not to say anything to their parents, to
keep the secret until the parents have not the legal
capacity to remove
them from Opus Dei. (48)
Such is the secret that prevails, that an authority within the Work
could write: “I doubt very much that
one in a thousand of the members
knows the Constitutions of Opus Dei.” (50)
Antonio Pérez (51),
one of Escrivá's closest friends and
for some time his private secretary, says: “The 'Father'
always had a great
concern for secrecy. This led him to apply to these issues the same
strategy as to internal affairs, that is, only a few people at the top
knew about them and negotiated with those directly responsible, keeping
the rest of the partners out of the information. This was done mainly
through the control of documentation and the greater or lesser
accessibility of the notes and notices from Rome. There was even a
secret code for correspondence, in which each numeral or combination of
numeral with vowels had a meaning.” “The book [the secret code]
was kept in a book called
"San Girolano"” recalls Maria del Carmen Tapia.
On December 4, 1991, the newspaper "El
Mundo" published an interview with
the theologian Hans Küng, who was in Madrid to present his work "Project for a Global Ethic". To
the question of whether the Work had as
much power in the Church as was said, he answered without hesitation:
“A lot, and now
the Pope supports the secret
society of Opus Dei in a profound way... Opus Dei is worse than a sect:
it is a secret and clandestine company.”
REFERENCES
26. Jardiel Poncela, op cit, p 64.
27. Santiago Aroca, "Tiempo"
Magazine (11 August 1986).
28. Alberto Moncada, "El Opus Dei:
Una interpretación", p 21
(Madrid: 1974).
29. Ibid, p. 38.
30. Ibid, p. 143.
31. Le Vaillant, p 242.
32. Ibid, p 242.
33. Ibid, p 248.
34. Oscar H. Wast, "Jesuítas,
Opus Dei y Cursillos de
Cristiandad", pp 62-63 (Mexico: 1971).
35. Jardiel Poncela, p 173.
36. Ibid., pp 188-189.
37 Ibid., p. 38.
38. Fernando García Romanillos, "La cara oculta del Opus" ("The
Hidden Face of Opus"), "Historia"
Magazine, No. 6 (September, 1975), p 57.
39. Jardiel Poncela, p. 67.
40. Ibid, pp 74-75.
41. Luis Carandell, "Vida y milagros
de monseñor Escrivá
de Balaguer, fundador del Opus Dei" (Barcelona: Editorial Laia,
1975),
p. 160.
42. Manuel C. Magaña, "Revelaciones
sobre la Santa Mafia"
(Mexico:
Self-published, 1974), p. 228.
43. Jardiel Poncela, p 200.
44. Santiago Aroca, "Tiempo"
Magazine ( July 7, 1986).
45. Daniel Artigues, "El Opus Dei en
España" (Paris: Ruedo
Ibérico,
1971), p. 74.
46. Le Vaillant, op cit, pp 94-95.
47. Jesús Ynfante, "La
prodigiosa aventura del Opus Dei"
("Genesis and
Development of the Holy Mafia") (Ruedo Ibérico, 1970), p. 114.
48. "El Opus Dei, El verdadero poder
en España", "Tiempo"
Magazine
(April 11, 1988), p. 16.
49. Moncada, "El Opus Dei: Una
interpretación", p 95.
50. Ibid, p 28.
51. Moncada, "Historia oral del Opus
Dei", pp. 12-13.
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CHAPTER
I
SECTS AND OPUS DEI
4. The Charismatic Leader
Sectarians are usually the slaves of a messiah, following the
terminology of Pepe Rodríguez who even went so far as to give
such a
title to one of his books on sects. According to this author, in sects
there are two doctrinal bodies that are intimately linked, but
perfectly distinguishable. One is that of the doctrine of personal myth
and the other is that of revealed doctrine. The doctrine of personal
myth consists of an overestimation of all the human qualities of the
leader, to the point of worshipping him with values and abilities
proper to the divinity.
In the sects - they continue illustrating - hierarchical rank is
equated with spiritual maturity, something logical if we see that the
base of the pyramid is occupied by the neophytes and the summit is
monopolized by the leader. Therefore, a personal matters about the
Master
will have all the more value and strength the higher the hierarchical
rank of the sender. This mechanism originates another fundamental fact:
only the leader (apex of the pyramid) has the right to the “written
doctrine of
the personal myth and to be worshipped through it”.
In the doctrine of the personal myth, not only is the leader's
biography deified, but also a past and intellectual formation are
invented in accordance with it. The objective is to place the leader in
such a high position (in physical, moral, and spiritual qualities) that
no follower can ever dream of reaching it. The consequence of this,
once the leader's position is accepted as "perfect", is the cessation
of all criticism and the total submission of the disciple to the will
of the "perfect master". (52)
In this synoptic summary of the theory of
the charismatic leader expounded by the writer Pepe Rodríguez,
the
stereotyped typology that is repeated in all sects with small variants
is countered.
Another detail by
which this theory is even more nuanced is
that “the leaders of the sects come
out of the social nothing
and go on
to create and mold a mass that will have no other object than to follow
them or obey them blindly. They all pretend to have been 'enlightened'
by the 'divinity'.” (53)
In all the cases, an ostensible megalomania of the charismatic leader
can be appreciated, being his authority over the flock omnimous and
absolute.
It is curious to note how “on a
symbolic level it has been demonstrated
that the components of a group see in this the mother and in the leader
the FATHER” (54)
and this is precisely the name and the nomenclature
that the followers reserve for Escrivá de Balaguer.
The cult of the Founder has reached an unprecedented extreme within
"the
Work of God". As Alberto Moncada tells us in his "Historia oral del Opus Dei" ("Oral
History of Opus
Dei"), the Opus
followers
recognize themselves as members of a family in
which the "Father" is the main character. The history of these first
fifty years of Opus Dei is nothing more than an extended biography of
Monsignor Escrivá, of his psychological evolution, of his
relationships
with locals and strangers, and of the unconditional obedience of his
people.
This obedience, this devotion to the "Father", became a reason for his
children to live and
a key to their religious experiences, and ends up
obscuring any other way of understanding the vocation of Opus Dei. The
cult of the "Father"'s personality, in which analysts see the greatest
difficulty for a modification of the opusdeist path,
was engendered
in the spirit of that man whose faith in his destiny made him say: “I
have known seven popes, hundreds of cardinals, thousands of bishops.
But there is only one founder of Opus Dei.” (55)
The "Father" Escrivá always surrounded himself with his most
loyal
associates and his appearances to the majority of the members took
place in a collective atmosphere and, if possible, with young boys and
addicted people. (56)
The paroxysm of the reverential pose, in relation
to the founder of the
sect, is told by Luis Carandell (57)
when he writes that the members of
Opus Dei kneel before the founder (Christians generally kneel only
before the Blessed Sacrament). Every morning, in the Roman residence, a
maiden with a cap enters the presidential chamber while the mosignor
[Escrivá] is
eating breakfast and, kneeling down, places a silver tray with the
correspondence on the table. All of his children kneel down with
fennels to kiss his hand. And here is another fact that confirms once
again the deep trait of his character. Monsignor "tolerates" these
manifestations of his sons' veneration of him, but he wishes to
institutionalize their custom of kneeling before him so that no shadow
of vanity, pride or conceit can be thought of in their acceptance. “A
former member who held positions of great responsibility in the Work in
his time told me”, Carandell continued, “that in a General Congress of
Opus Dei, which he attended shortly before leaving the Institute, the
only point that was discussed at length, and on which agreement was
reached, was the obligation for members to kneel before the President
General, whoever he was. This was done "so that "Father" Escriva's
successor would not feel humiliated" by recalling that the members
knelt before the Founder.”
The "Father" Escrivá, the charismatic leader, is within the
group
situated on an inaccessible pedestal, having mithicized
himself in life.
In order to discover the sectarians, Carandell himself gives us a clue
by indicating that (58)
the decisive test for knowing whether a person
is from Opus Dei is to speak contemptuously of the "Father". They jump
right in. They claim that he is their "father" and that anyone would
jump if they spoke badly of their father.
Pilar Salarrullana, a former senator and deputy, has written an
interesting book on Sects as a living testimony to the messiahs of
terror in Spain, where she points out that the leader is an essential
characteristic of the sects, since he is “a messianic, charismatic
character with great personal charm and a great power of attraction and
suggestion, what psychologists call an "expansive paranoid", who
becomes the owner of bodies and minds and, of course, of the wallet of
his followers. He calls himself” - continues Pilar
Salarrullana - “"guru", "teacher",
"prophet", "reverend", "swami", "pastor", "president", "commander" or
"FATHER". In Opus Dei they have adopted this last denomination.”
According to
Salarrullana, the "Father" is the one who knows everything,
controls everything and foresees everything. His word, his writings,
and his commands cannot be doubted; he can never be disobeyed.
Escrivá himself referred to the members of Opus Dei as his
"sons" and "daughters," so they had to kneel before him when they were
in his presence.
To such extremes they
arrive on the mythical paroxysm of the figure of the leader
that, as long as a
positive face of the "Father" is presented, it didn't matter
to lie or to alter the facts - as a numerary
clarifies in a broad report
published in the women's magazine Marie Claire, an article entitled "La
historia amarga de una numeraria del Opus" ("The Bitter Story of
an Opus Dei Numerary"). (59)
Another characteristic of these characters is that they tend to place
the writings of the founder of the sect on the same level of importance
as Scripture - the example is found in the little book, "The Way",
written by the "Father" - the Word of God must be interpreted according
to the exegetical whims and the teachings of the leader of the sect.
Therefore, membership in the Work is absolute submission, and the
"Father"'s right encompasses everything. The children of Escrivá
are like donkeys on a Ferris wheel:
one turn, another turn, more turns,
tied to the stick that makes the wheel move. They are tied to the
"Father"; they cannot and do not know how to do or think anything
outside
of the magnetic force of the "Father". We could say that
they live on
drugs. (60)
Escrivá de Balaguer is a powerful drug for those who
allow themselves to be trapped in his powerful spider's web. So high is
the degree of intoxication that they suffer and to which they are
subjected, that in thought, in word, in deed, it is not Christ who is
there, it is the "Father".
Nothing is more graphic and representative than the image of the donkey
on a Ferris wheel, always walking, circling, so as not to go anywhere.
"Father" Escrivá urges his "sons" to be, in the spiritual sense,
like the donkeys on the waterwheel. And among the members of the Work,
it became fashionable to have a ceramic, straw or wooden figurine in
their homes, representing a donkey with a paddle. (61) The presence of
the donkey in the reception area of a house or in the
anteroom of an
office, could be an indication that the expert in opusdeism should
take into account to determine whether the tenant belonged to the Work.
Covadonga Carcedo, a former aggregate member
from Asturias, publicly
denounced Opus Dei, saying: “Opus
Dei is a mafia that controls
everything. I, who became an apostate thanks to Opus Dei, want to show
my fellow citizens the hypocrisy of these people, all of them spiritual
daughters of José María Escrivá de Balaguer, a
marquis they aspire to
take to the altars.” (62)
When talking about sects, here and now, the journalist Pepe
Rodríguez
also asks himself whether
it would be interesting to study why there are so
many Spanish leaders in certain sects with a manifest or latent
homosexuality.
REFERENCES
52. Rodríguez, "Esclavos de
un Mesías" ("Slaves of a Messiah"), pp 44-46.
53. Idid, p 28.
54. Ibid, p 78.
55. Moncada, "Historia oral del Opus
Dei", pp. 12-13.
56. Moncada, "El Opus Dei: Una
interpretación", p. 125.
57. Carandell, p 98.
58. Ibid, p. 23.
59. "Marie Claire" magazine
(December 1987).
60. Nicolás Cobo Martínez, "Faro inconfundible",
No. 23 (June 1988).
61. Carandell, p 125.
62. Covadonga Carcedo. "Interviú"
magazine (04 June 1988).
Index
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CHAPTER
I
SECTS AND OPUS DEI
5. Community of The Chosen: Followers
and Initiates
One of the best studies that have appeared in Spain on the subject of
sects is that of Steven Hassan, which under the title "Las
técnicas de control mental de
las sectas y cómo combatirlas" ("The techniques of
mind control of sects and how to combat them"), tells us about
the “heavenly deception” in
which “God forgives the deception of
the
'chosen' if this leads to new 'spiritual children'”, and where
it is
reiterated that they should consider the "Father" as the representative
of God on Earth.
Sectarians are inoculated with the idea that just because they are part
of the group or clan, they belong to a different caste of the chosen, a
community of the privileged, a nucleus of the called, a circle of the
predestined.
Sects, with a religious component that is motivational,
lead the addict
to the need for a personal experience of God and, consequently, they
call themselves chosen, and are even inculcated with the idea that they
are "saints" in relation to others, (63) creating an artificial
and
empty superiority.
Another idea that is conveyed to members of sects is the exclusive and
excluding character of their own behaviour. This exclusive condition
translates into the false idea of being part of the sect, automatically
leading to the rejection of those who do not belong to it; henceforth,
only the sect is important
and "the rest" does not count.
The most obvious mirage is that sects usually present themselves as the
"way of salvation", appearing to have the most diverse itineraries but
all of them coinciding in a common denominator in relation to the world
outside the sect itself, which is generally made to coincide with evil.
This feeling of superiority is achieved by making people believe that
all the members of the sect will survive thanks to a particular divine
protection (64).
This feeling of superiority generates the sensation of
being "chosen", a factor that
not only unites the group, but also
changes its morality: the "sinners" have not been "chosen", therefore
it is fair that they be eliminated.
There is no pity or forgiveness for
the "sinner".
Another phenomenon that occurs when the whole society is made to appear
hostile is that not only is the follower isolated, but he or she is
presented with the germ of fear that, conveniently manipulated, will be
transformed into aggression when the leader orders it. (65)
In Opus Dei, the feeling that God, the Absolute, comes to you through
the Organization is even stronger. This idea that your path to full
happiness passes through the Work justifies all the submissions that
you impose or are imposed on you. (66) The longing to be happy
and not
to end, to last forever, the longing that
made Miguel de Unamuno tremble when
he felt the agony of his Christianity, is capable of
achieving all the
renunciations, if you are convinced that they are the price of its
realization.
In the opinion of the writer Evaristo Acevedo, “Opus seems to imply
that only those Hispanics who belong to its organization "are with
God".
This has a monopoly and exclusive character that does not fit with my
religious criteria” (67).
María Angustias Moreno, a longtime member of Opus Dei, gives us
an enlightening and illustrative testimony in this regard, “What does
the Work say about itself? That it is simple, that it is authentic;
that its members are equal to other men and women, ordinary people in
the midst of the world. However, as soon as they arrive, they insist
exhaustively that being of the Work is something wonderful, the best in
the world, the greatest. Something that, as a logical consequence,
makes others look at it as if from a pedestal: one enters the
illumination of the great mysteries, one is chosen among thousands to
form part of a perfect body; the others, what a pity! are still down
there, wrapped in the darkness of error, exposed to all the dangers. By
the fact of being part of the Work, one will always be right, the sure
doctrine will be given to those poor people who are mistaken, deformed,
ignorant and naive; because as soon as one arrives, one is already
endorsed, supported and guaranteed by the directors, especially
selected people (that is how they should conceive themselves) who
possess, because they are united to the "Father", the gift of the
unspeakable. Because the "Father" never makes mistakes, and in the Work
everything passes through the "Father": "you must pass everything
through
my head and my heart," Escrivá repeatedly said to the
directors”. (68)
You cannot even be a good Christian, for Opus Dei, if you have any
physical ailment or illness. No one is admitted who has not passed the
thorough medical examination to which they are subjected. The Club of
God is restricted to healthy people, as one of the numeraries of
Opus
Dei tells us in her bitter story. She was a bit shocked when, a couple
of days before "beeping" - entering the Work - she was told that she
had to have a medical examination. “What
did my state of health have to
do with being in the Work? Wasn't it important to have a vocation? Or
was it that if they discovered my kidney stones, my vocation became a
decision in the hands of the doctor? This young woman has arrhythmias,
forget everything you have told them, she cannot be of the Work? Funny,
isn't it? The reason for this procedure is not to burden a person,
apparently young and healthy, who soon after joining the Work is
discovered to have some kind of more or less serious illness, because
they would have to take care of her, and the Work does not want
prematurely ill people, even if two days before the recognition they
were sure
that she had a rock-like vocation. They didn't find
anything for me. However, they advised me not to say anything about the
doctor at home. It was necessary to be discreet.” (69)
In the little book "The Way",
written by the "charismatic leader",
there
are also opposite images: (70)
two types
of man. Firstly, the shining image of the superman, fierce, arrogant,
willful, unshakable in the ideology of his leaders and with an
iron-clad contempt for the rest; God's gunman, effective and
depersonalizing, disciplined to the point of absurdity, intolerant,
inquisitive, in search of his absolute.
On the other hand, the tender image of the humble servant, a little
vulnerable, modest, tiny among the tiny, with a low gaze, his eyes
fleeing, persecuted, vexed by general hostility, masochistic at times,
hypocritical at others, a little sprightly, lukewarm in everything, a
little daring, but above all, never reckless, goes in search of a good
bed to die for love. The two images overlap and mix to form
the prototype of the "Man of Opus Dei" as he is found in life.
The members of Opus Dei have their
capacity for
discernment selectively
nullified by being presented with, and made to believe
blindly, that any attack on the Work of God is "slander" (71) when it
comes from other members of the Catholic Church.
REFERENCES
63. "Cuadernos de realidades
sociales" ("Notebooks of social
realities"), Nos. 35-36, p 39.
64. Rodríguez, op cit, p 110.
65. Ibid, p 113.
66. Moncada, "Opus Dei: Una
interpretación", p. 116.
67. Jardiel Poncela, op cit, p 41.
68. María Angustias Moreno, "El
Opus Dei, Anexo a una historia"
("Opus Dei, Annex to a History)," 5th
edition (Madrid: Ediciones Libertarías Prodhufi, March 1992), p.
61.
69. "La historia amarga de una
numeraria del Opus" ("The Bitter Story
of an Opus Dei Numerary"), "Marie
Claire" Magazine
(December 1987).
70. Le Vaillant, p. 28.
71. Ynfante, op cit, p 363.
Index
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CHAPTER
I
SECTS AND OPUS DEI
6. Ambition for Wealth and Power -
Unbridled Greed
The members of Opus Dei are a synthesis of Merchants of God and Temple
Sellers. Pere Pique used to say that a clan capable of earning
so many
millions a year and of taking over, from the
shadows, top-leading companies,
when Jesus Christ shone and preached poverty in broad daylight,
gives us
something to think about and talk about. On top of that, founded by the
man who would become Marquis and raised to a prelature by the
controversial Polish Pope. (72)
It is now urgent to give light to the
shadow.
As the Instituto
de Sociología Aplicada (Institute of Applied
Sociology) indicates, through its
specialized publication, sects do not usually devote much time to
charitable works outside their own circle, since all their material
resources are used for their own ends. What these sects mainly seek is
"cheap labour in the service of their own business".
The instructions given to members of Opus Dei concern how to use their
time and money for the benefit of the association. (73) In Opus Dei, if
a man gave the organization his entire income during his lifetime and
it can be proved that he spent less than he earned, is he entitled to
any restitution or even compensation? The leaders of the Work maintain
that he does not. (74)
The economic regime to which the members and associates of
Opus Dei are
subjected
- especially the numeraries, who usually live together in flats
or, to
use the Work's terminology, in "families" generally made up of eight to
ten members - is
to hand over their salaries and earnings
to the secretary at the end of the month, and when any of them needs to
have a suit made or to buy some shoes, they consult the director for
authorization to make this extraordinary expense. (75) Although the
director does not have the power to decide what that suit should look
like, there is no doubt that his advice carries weight in this respect.
According to former members, there was a time when in each city there
was a person who was responsible for "orienting" the members when they
needed to renew their clothes and direct them to certain establishments
more or less connected with the Work.
The version, with small nuances, is also assumed by Alberto Moncada who
confirms the delivery at the cash desk of the house of the totality of
their income and that later they had to request and ask for what was
necessary, in agreement with their superiors and always within a scheme
of scarcity imposed on them. They could not have individual bank
accounts, nor private goods. At the end of the month, they must give
the director, as part of their sharing of confidences, an
account of the
expenses they had incurred.
From the moment you enter the Work - a numerary A. L. M. N.
informs us - they keep a general account of income and
expenses. Normally the income is higher than the expenses, so there is
a surplus. But if you leave, never try to get your money back. You
might start to believe that the Work is spiritual. All the things you
have in your name must be put in the name of the Work, because you have
to live "poverty" and God has asked us for everything - these are the
arguments used. Your properties and belongings are put in the name of
faithful numeraries. (76)
When you leave, forget all that
you have given.
This abuse of trust is justified in the sense that when you enter the
Work, it is in good spirit - they insinuate - to sign what they put
before you without first taking a look at it, because the Work, which
is God's, which has a holy founder - they tell you - and which is a
mother for her children, how can they sell you something and
deliver a different thing? You
sign whatever they throw at you. (77)
If in reality, as they deceptively say,
you are a member of a purely secular
association, why do they manage your income? If you enjoyed that
"so much exalted"
freedom, the money you earn would be in your bankbook,
at your free disposal. But this is not the case: you will never know
how much money you have, nor will you be able to dispose of it. You
will never get a receipt for the money you have given. (78)
The magazine Interviú
published, for the first time in April
1988, an exceptional probative document, a proof of fulminant eviction,
the photocopy of the will of an Opus Dei member, María del
Carmen Rodríguez Pinto, in favour of Opus Dei. The will was
granted before the notary of Oviedo, José Antonio Caicoya, and
in its second clause it designated Colegio Mayor "Los Arces", of
Valladolid, as the universal heir of all its goods, rights and actions,
on the condition that, when the succession is left, the spiritual care
of this college would be entrusted to and carried out by Opus Dei. The
wills, as well as the blank receipts for the
sales of properties, always held by
the directors of
the Work, were jealously guarded secrets.
Covadonga Carcedo, a former member of Opus Dei who was active for
several years and who, as mentioned above, decided to apostatize the
Catholic Church after many years of doubt and disillusionment with the
work of the sect, declared to the public: “Once the pressure, the
difficulties and even the death threats have been overcome, I am
leaving. I want to stop belonging to an economic-financial sect, to a
mafia made up of rich demagogues who exploit a few naive poor people
and, from now on, I intend to live according to principles of honesty
and forget about this world of hypocrisy forever.”
Cults are moved by criteria of pure economic profitability. (79) When a
follower - because he or she is sick - only represents a maintenance
expense and brings no benefit, he or she is given a pat on the back and
sent off to his or her family, to the charity or to the street. And
this applies to all destructive sects. There is no one like them to
convince of the need to amass fortunes for "their" god or ideas.
The legal corruptions that these organizations use are very varied. The
formula of "voluntary donation" is applied to the exploitation of their
followers. Generally, the charismatic leader or "father" lives in
opulence, mansions and palaces, surrounded by luxury and comfort, but,
paradoxically, they do not legally possess anything, since the goods
and properties they enjoy are simulated in the name of legal entities
or trustees of their complete trust, although the encrypted keys of the
current accounts are usually reserved. The "parents" and charismatic
leaders avoid in this way any kind of civil or criminal liability.
Between the leaders and the followers there is a relationship
god-slaves. And in that very favorable circumstance they not only
take control of the mind of their unconditional ones by storing their
soul, but also, and this is the most important thing, of their
performance and capacity for work - exploitation - of their current
account and personal goods.
In the Constitutions of Opus Dei, its strategy is camouflaged but
implicit. Thus,
the Article 9 states that “members
of Opus
Dei act either individually or through associations which may be
cultural or artistic, or financial, etc., and which are called
auxiliaries. These societies are likewise, in their activity, subject
to the obedience of the hierarchical authority of the Institute” or the
blatant article 202 which states that “the means of apostolate peculiar
to the Institution are public offices, especially those involving the
exercise of a direction.”
Armando Segura Naya, as a graduate in Philosophy and Literature, made
the following logical reflection: (80) “Opus in an
inconceivable
association. In the first place, it is inconceivable that ordinary
faithful or simply people of high or low political or economic standing
should not have ownership, administration and full responsibility for
their property, nor be able to guarantee absolutely professional
secrecy, not even free residence. Of course, the level of unbelief
increases with the social level of the subject... no numerary nor
oblate
member administers his/her own goods, nor
does he/she
have the
title of
ownership over them, which is attributed to the "Father". It is
inconceivable to
try to cover the inconceivable with
"supernatural vision". As is well known, what should not be, what is
not naturally right, is not supernaturally right either.”
The justification Opus Dei gives to its unwary people is that private
possession is selfish, it is an obstacle that prevents them from
reaching happiness. Therefore it is absolutely essential that its
followers donate all their properties to the sect that will keep them
safe, and with this altruistic gesture it shows that it is imbued with
the spirit of the Work, a work
which
equivocally and
pompously, they say, is "of God" - what
we do not know is which god they are referring to; whether it is the
God of the Christians or the golden calf, the god Mammon.
As is well known, they look for the best elements, not to make them
preachers, priests or missionaries of the infidels, but bank directors,
heads of publications or ministers, in the obsession of handling
exclusively, if necessary, the levers of power.
Specialists in the phenomenon of sects have coined the term
"Multinationals of the Spirit, S.A." to groups of the type of Opus Dei,
because, on the spiritual pillars, they set up multi-million dollar
financial businesses, (81)
emphasizing that “Opus Dei has
hardly
anything to its name. It is not necessary for them, since control of
assets, productive or otherwise, is effected through devotional rather
than contractual ties. If one possesses the will of a person, he will
also control all his acts and possessions, but avoiding, with such a
ruse, possible fiscal responsibilities in particular and juridical
responsibilities in general”.
In the recent book published in Spain under the title "El
Poder de las Sectas" ("The Power of
Cults") (82),
which takes a look at all these organizations that are
established and act with impunity in the Iberian Peninsula [i.e. Spain
and Portugal],
when it
deals with Opus Dei, it says: “Opus
Dei is no secret to anyone. It has
always exercised its power and influence from behind its discreet
faithful, over those who have great influence in both their private and
professional lives. Although the era of the technocrats, when the men
of the Work directly held part of Franco's power, is now over, Opus
Dei's undercover political activity is still as powerful, if not more
so, than in the past.”
“Its faithful control a good part of
the Spanish financial structure;
they are in hundreds of key positions in the administration; they have
politicians who are like-minded - who should be read as being servile
to
the Work of God - in many parties, especially in formations such as
Partido Popular and Unió Democrática de Catalunya;
they control, to a large extent, the Vatican apparatus and the Spanish
Episcopal Conference, which is another no less important way of
intervening in political processes, etc. In other countries, notably in
Latin America, its influence is somewhat more modest than in Spain.”
“If the faithful of the Work were
simply 'good Christians', as they
like to define themselves, their mention in a book on sects would not
be justified.
But the influence that the leadership of Opus Dei exerts
on its flock goes far beyond the ideological and licit framework that
is common to all religious and political ideas. What is common within
the Work (which does not have to prevent possible exceptions) is the
control of the psyche of its followers, under the excuse of
administering their souls. That is to say, ignoring the poetic edges,
to go on to control their mundane actions of today in function of a
hypothetical later on in the morning.”
“Opus Dei, with its undeniable sense
of practicality and intelligence,
dedicates itself to accumulate
temporal power, through its believers,
here and now, perhaps because, with its intuition for the unearthly
affairs,
it senses that, in the heavenly paradise, if it
exists, there will be no room for ambitions of domination, whether
material or spiritual. The kingdom of the Work of God is certainly of
this world.”(83)
From the pages of a national weekly magazine, (84) Fernando Jiménez
Loitegui, from Almería, “could
not understand how the Spanish
authorities did not investigate the behaviour of these Opus Dei bankers
who control banks and savings banks and have an influence on society
that is beyond any
control”.
The puerile and cynical response of an authoritative voice in Opus Dei,
Salvador Bernal, author of a praiseworthy book on the life of the
founder of Opus Dei entitled "Monseñor
Escrivá de Balaguer", published
by the official publisher of the sect, Rialp, in 1976, justified the
control of the followers' assets in this way: “Children have nothing of
their own, everything belongs to their parents... and your 'Father'
always knows very well how he governs his patrimony.”
REFERENCES
72. Pique, R. P., "Tiempo"
magazine (28 July 1986).
73. Moncada, "El Opus Dei: Una
interpretación", p. 94.
74. Ibid, p. 119.
75. Carandell, p 59.
76. "Marie Claire" magazine
(December 1987).
77. Ibid
78. Ibid
79. Rodríguez, "Esclavos de
un Mesías" ("Slaves of a Messiah"),
p 92.
80. Jardiel Poncela, p 191.
81. Rodriguez, "El poder de las
sectas" ("The Power of Cults"), op cit,
p 137.
82. Ibid, p 225.
83. Moncada, "Historia oral del Opus
Dei", op cit.
84. "Tiempo" magazine (August
11, 1986).
85. Salvador Bernal, "Monseñor
Escrivá de Balaguer"
(Barcelona: Rialp, 1976), p. 208.
Index
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CHAPTER
I
SECTS AND OPUS DEI
7. Recruitment and Proselytism of
Members
Recruitment is one of the first duties imposed on any sect. In order to
achieve this primary objective - that from an
artistic and plastic point
of view could be represented in Goya's painting "Saturn devouring his
children" - these
organizations use any means to reach their goal, being
deception and lies the weapons they use to try to place their
merchandise, there always being a dissociation between the propaganda
that is externalized and the reality that is lived inside.
Experts in the field explain that lies applied to recruitment acquire
all possible variants, from lies explicitly verbalized, to lies by
"omission", through the concealment of identity and purposes of the
sect. (86)
As for the recruitment from
one of these destructive sects no one can feel
immune to danger, no one can be sure of not falling into temptation, no
one can boast of being allergic to the captive networks of these
groups. Since
the need to believe in something transcendental is
inherent to the human being, the sociability of man has psychological
components that, at a given time and if it is our low or critical hour,
we can any be easy prey of this type of group.
Any person has moments of crisis, of loss, of rupture, and it is
precisely these moments, the situations of depression due to any
problem or circumstance of relationship, affection or situation of any
nature, when it is the most propitious and suitable moment to be
approached by the followers. It is sought and watched, in
young people,
the times of exams, when the stress is greater, which can cause certain
imbalances in the personality, or when one is withdrawn from the family
or affective environment and in any circumstance close to loneliness.
Almost always the same picture is repeated, the same scene set in
motion by the sects to encourage proselytism, which will begin with a
trivial, motivating, pleasant conversation, which will conclude with an
invitation (87)
to attend a free conference on such and such a topic,
an invitation to a meeting where we will meet a group of friends, to go
to lunch or dinner where we can talk more relaxed, to spend a splendid
weekend in a "beautiful country house", to make a spiritual retreat or
to carry out any other always gratifying activity.
If you accept the generous and solicitous invitation, you will find
yourself immersed in a prepared, artificial, illusory and fantastic
atmosphere, where you will be presented with a world of happiness and
illusion, where you will see smiling and happy people, in a relaxed
atmosphere of great comradeship, who will be concerned and interested
in the new "friend" who
is accessing, and who will be given a warm
welcome.
resistance, in a friendly way. The
newcomer will find himself entertained and understood. His concerns and
his hopes will be revealed, and some of those present will say that
they understand him perfectly, because that is how he was in the past
until he found the way to overcome it. Everything that the unwary
person says will be registered and written down, to open the file of
the potential member and it will be made manifest to him
They will be interested in his (or her)
problems, his
hobbies, his
anxieties, his
fears, his
threats and his, by some leader
in the future making use of those incipient manifested concerns, that
he
could avoid the fears and achieve his expectations thanks to the
discovery of a new spiritual dimension.
The cam of new followers is always in a personal way, by direct
contact, by human relationship with some member or follower of the sect.
A valuable report on the psychology used in the process of conversion
to certain harmful sects, carried out by Dr. John G. Clark in a team
with other specialists from Massachusetts General Hospital, extensively
describes the methodology used to recruit young people.
- Young people who, whatever their
natural ties, undergo the
psychological transformations characteristic of the passage to
maturity. Members of sects responsible for winning over proselytes
frequently visit
libraries, university venues, etc.
- Persuasion: the future devotee is invited to attend a course of
advice aimed at eliminating their problems. During these initial
contacts and at the first meetings within the sect, recruiters do their
best to make the religious community extremely attractive to the
newcomer. They make him feel deeply moved, expressing their great
interest in his welfare, treating him even with affection and paying
calculated
attention to his ideas, hobbies and hopes.
- Conversion: the trusted members, previously trained for this task, do
not leave the aspirant alone for a moment, accompanying him even to the
door of the washroom.
- Indoctrination: one of the consequences of this re-education is to
polarize the mental activity of the devotee, inducing him to believe
that the sect represents all that is good and profitable for him and
that the other associations are pernicious, even perverse, so that they
must be avoided at any cost or manipulated to put them at the service
of the new member.
- While indoctrination continues, spiritual leaders and directors lose
no opportunity to conjure up the specter of supernatural punishment
that punishes disobedience. Redemption, holiness, and salvation are
reserved for convinced believers and practitioners. (88) Thus, little
by little, he or she has become another man or woman different from
he/she
once was.
As to why people today join a sect, there can be various answers,
depending on whether it is because of the inter-relational need of
human beings to share a community life, the need for transcendence, the
need to remedy the evils that afflict us, the shared affinity of a
certain belief, the inherent need for mysticism and religion, the need
to find a remedy for our frustrations or mutual help and assistance for
our needs, the aspiration to a better social position, etc.
Michael Walsh's book "The Secret
World of Opus Dei" explains in detail
the phenomenon of proselytism within the Work. (89) “When a person
is
not zealous to win over others it is because his heart does not beat.
He is dead. And we can apply to him those words of Scripture "Iam
foetet, quatriduanus est enim" (John 11:39), "He
is already decaying -
literally stinking - because he has been dead for four days". Those
souls, even if they were in the Work, would be dead, decomposed, iam
foetet. And I”
- says the "Father" (Escrivá de Balaguer) - “am not
going anywhere with dead bodies. I bury the corpses.”
Looking for followers is a primary obligation, something that must be
exposed every week in the circles: to what extent has an individual
fulfilled his task of "fishing" - the word used by Opus Dei
- for new
members. “This
is the moment for
the task of counting. How many vocations have you
brought? Our personal apostolate is directed in the first place to
prepare our
friends in the work of St. Raphael.” -- St. Raphael's
apostolate is the term Opus Dei uses for the search for young members
(“I am not saying” - concludes
the "Father" - “that we cannot find
vocations among older people, but that... is something difficult”)
who
could later, if suitable, be recruited to be full and celibate members
(St. Michael's apostolate), or formed as parents (St. Gabriel's
apostolate). -- “How willingly you
laughed when I advised you to place
your young years under the protection of St. Raphael so that he could
guide you, as he did with young Tobias, to a holy marriage with a girl
who is good, beautiful and rich.” (Escrivá)
Those who have friends among the members of Opus Dei may be annoyed to
know that their friendship is considered a means of attracting new
followers. Once won, professionals replace them to follow the
organization's procedures.
The removal of children from their families goes hand in hand with the
creation of an increasingly dependent relationship with Opus Dei. (90)
The following testimony from a priest from Catalonia
tells us about his own
experience. (91)
«They told us "come with us, come to our house, to our
place. We have talks and prayers with other boys who have the same
problems as you. You will be able to progress in the spiritual order."
Some friends behind me have been chasing me, locking me up for several
months. And I did not know that they belonged to Opus Dei. Suddenly, I
realized it. And it was very difficult to escape their pressure, their
perseverance, you understand.»
“I entered Opus Dei because of all
this, like others. And it wasn't
until later that I realized that this was a trap, a snare. You have to
be inside to realize that. I made the path that needs to be made. I
went with them. I attended their talks, etc. Immediately I was
appointed a spiritual director, a layman, who made your life plan, that
is, what you had to do from getting up to going to bed, what you had to
do and what you did not have to do. We had to give an account of our
actions regularly every week, to our leaders. Nothing had to be taken
care of. When you had an interior problem, you had to present it to
your spiritual director, who would give you the explanation and the
solution. He was your conscience. This was comfortable. This
contributed greatly to the success of Opus Dei. I left when I realized
that this was a progressive imprisonment.”
Public opinion is generally unaware of the methods with which Opus Dei
acts on Spanish youth. (92)
Its systems of proselytism are similar to
those employed by the Orientalist sects that proliferate in the West,
and conflicts are increasing with parents whose minor children have
been recruited by the Work.
Sects, like Opus Dei, are in the business of teaching as a very
convenient
activity to attract
new followers, using teaching and classrooms as
laboratories where the process of selecting and receiving future
members begins. Opus Dei is the subject of many well-founded
accusations of sectarian manipulation of students who come to its
educational centers.
The infiltration of Opus Dei into the high schools offers innumerable
examples. The best individuals
are constantly the subject of various
invitations. This expeditious way of acting has some success among the
middle
classes. The most valuable individuals are
sought to support
Opus Dei and all its paraphernalia.
Scenes like the following one occur more and more frequently. “Opus has
kidnapped our Conchi.” The police of the
town of San Vicente
(Alicante) could not believe their ears when a couple of well-known
local merchants came to the police station,
in
January 1988, with such an unusual accusation.
The accusations of these parents, most of whom were good Catholics,
against Opus Dei, were mainly for having kidnapped their minor
children, brainwashed them and annulled their will, confronting them
with their own families, whom they had kept ignorant, while exploiting
them economically.
It is significant what happened to Mr. Mosquera, (93) a podiatrist
from Barcelona who went to the police headquarters in Via Layetana to
denounce the case of his daughter María Pilar. The young woman
had gone
to Vienna to study music while working as an au pair in the house of an
Opus Dei family, and had been subjected to real harassment by people of
the Work who, according to her, persecuted her and even raided her home
and boycotted her exams as a form of pressure. “I was attended to by a
very kind sergeant of the national police” - explains Mosquera
- “and
what would not be my surprise when, after explaining my story to him,
he said: What are you going to tell me? I have a 19-year-old daughter
who almost went crazy for Opus Dei.”
In Oviedo, the Director of the Montealegre Club, one of the more than
100 that Opus Dei has in Spain, received a notary request from the
parents of a 17-year-old girl who frequented the club, who demanded
that she (the
Director) abstain from having any relationship with their
daughter. (94)
This whole set-up, which was sinuously called apostolic action, but
which should properly be called exclusively "proselytism"(95) in Opus
Dei, is called "holy coercion".
“We don't care about statistics”
- Escrivá said. But the number
of people who ask for admission to the Work each year does matter. Even
quotas are set for each house or city, and members are strongly urged
not to fail to achieve these figures.
On the subject of recruiting young people, Juan de Cozar Martín
from
Línea de la Concepción, in the province of Cadiz, reveals
(96) how this
religious sect, by means of some very well studied
techniques (brainwashing, periodic sharing of confidences, coercion of
conscience)
deforms young people in such a way that they lose primarily their
affection for their family, disconnecting them from their parents and
siblings. It depersonalizes them and turns them into machines
programmed solely for their convenience, squeezing them like a lemon.
Eva Jardiel Poncela, the daughter of the famous Spanish novelist, tells
us about her personal experience, (97) “my first experience
with Opus
Dei, honestly, made me sick. That is the truth. I couldn't believe it.
It seemed impossible, and I thought about how many people like me who
would go through a bad time in their lives would become members of Opus
Dei just out of cowardice, and I thanked God for not having been born a
coward.”
The main means of formation in Opus Dei are courses and retreats, which
usually take place in specially prepared houses, located far from major
urban centers. There are houses for numerary members, diocesan clergy,
and girls, in which the social category and status of those attending
is discriminatory. (98)
Thus, in a course for numerary girls, there
will never be any service
girls - except for cleaning the house - just
as in the case of a businessman's retreat, there will never be a
simple
worker. Depending on the duration and the psychological moment, there
are courses and retreats, short circles, etc.
Such is the manipulation to which the students are subjected that
sometimes news comes out in the press in which official bodies are
forced to investigate irregularities in Opus Dei's schools, because of
complaints from the students' families. (99) The Department of
Education of the Autonomous Government of Catalonia is investigating
alleged irregularities in "Centro de Estudios El
Vallés" ("El Vallés Study Centre"), a
boarding school for girls located in the town of San Cugat del
Vallés, near Barcelona, and owned by Opus Dei. These
investigations were initiated following a complaint by the family of
the student Gema Saiz Broch.
According to the student's mother, María Broch, “Opus Dei uses
its
schools to recruit minors.” (100)
“My daughter's future is to be a
servant of the houses of Opus Dei, which are as beautiful and clean as
gold, thanks to this branch of numerary assistants who work for free.
If my daughter had not brainwashed, she
would not have
taken vows as a servant at the age of 16.”
The centre did not have a permit to give home lessons and the
inspection has proposed to reprimand the
boarding school and among the
measures that could be taken are the cancellation of the economic
concert, a warning to close the centre or the withdrawal of the
academic operation license. Father Luis Hernández, who is the
mayor of
Santa Coloma de Gramenet, has sent a letter to the President of the
Episcopal Conference, Angel Suquía, (101) in which he accuses
Opus Dei
of “committing grave violations
against the freedom of persons in its
effort to attract followers”, stating that “the formation that is given
in the centers dependent on the Prelature - Opus Dei - is not
professional,
but is aimed especially at turning them into blind followers of Opus
Dei.”
The selection is made from among schoolchildren, high school graduates,
and students. These may have been "chosen" as early as the age of
thirteen (102)
and from that moment on are the object of close scrutiny
by the Work's recruiting agents, who spread their ever-tighter nets
around them. They are invited to circles, meetings, excursions... A
spiritual director is then assigned to the candidate. Then, around the
age of fifteen, if he is mature, if he fits into the mold well, he
will write a letter to the "Father",
“asking to become a member of Opus
Dei”. This attachment to the "Father" is a central phenomenon.
Eighteen-year-old Susana Crespi Boixador managed to get out, as she
confesses, “of that hell”.
Her father, Jaime Crespi, said: “Children
do
not belong to us forever. But if my daughter throws herself into the
river to drown, I'll throw myself into saving her. And this is what
happened in Opus Dei. She entered into a spiral of following those who
annulled her will”. Now, from the true freedom of Susana Crespi,
who,
when she thinks of the girls who are still in the grip of Opus Dei, is
saddened, she wants to send her friends a message full of love and
sincerity, because she categorically states (103) that “Opus Dei is
worse than a sect. You are recruited as a child without you realizing
it, and with the passage of time you become an automaton without the
ability to discern between good and bad. They instill in you what they
claim to be
the good.”
At the university level (104)
the University of Navarra, owned by Opus
Dei, has become an immense seedbed of "apostles" of Opus Dei, being the
largest recruitment base for the Work in the world.
After proselytism and recruitment, come the VOWS, which at first are
taken for one year and renewed for five - the so-called "Oblation"; the
next step is the juridical incorporation into the Work, which is called
"Fidelity" - the culmination of the process of depersonalization.
REFERENCES
86. Rodríguez, "Esclavos de
un Mesías" ("Slaves of a
Messiah"), p 54.
87. Rodríguez, "Las sectas
hoy y aquí" ("Cults Today and
Here"), p 22.
88. "Cuadernos de realidades
sociales", No. 35/36, pp 34-37.
89. Michael Walsh, "The Secret World
of Opus Dei" (Barcelona: Plaza
& Janés, 1990), pp. 172-173.
90. Ibid, p. 175.
91 Le Vaillant, pp. 209-210
92 "Tiempo" magazine (April
11, 1988), p. 11.
93. Ibid, p. 13.
94. María Angustias Moreno, "El
Opus Dei, anexo a una historia",
op cit, p.
218.
95. Ibid, p. 69.
96. "Tiempo" magazine (August
4, 1986).
97. Jardiel
Poncela, p. 13.
98. Ynfante, "La prodigiosa aventura
del Opus Dei" ("The Prodigious
Adventure of Opus Dei"), p. 120.
99. "El País"
newspaper (December 6, 1989), p. 28.
100. Ibid (December 8, 1989), p. 28.
101. Ibid (January 6, 1990), p. 23.
102. Vaillant, pp 64-65.
103. "Interviú"
magazine.
104. Ynfante, "La prodigiosa
aventrua del Opus Dei" ("The Prodigious
Adventure of Opus Dei"), p 80.
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CHAPTER
I
SECTS AND OPUS DEI
8. Mistreatment
and Coercion
“My daughter is working as a servant
for
free”, says the mother (105).
They
make her work from ten in the morning to a quarter to eleven at night,
without stopping, so that she doesn't think. I have told the ladies
that the time of the black slaves is over, but their answer is that
what she does is for God. But my daughter is not scrubbing floors for
free for God, who does not need it, but for the Work.
Covadonga Carcedo also tells of her experience of the humiliations she
suffered when she became part of Opus Dei
(106): “I used
to get up at six
in the morning, kiss the floor, exclaiming 'serviam', and take a cold
shower. After work, I applied two hours a day wearing a cilice
and gave
my
entire salary to the Work. In Opus Dei, as in all sects, they have a
great capacity to brainwash you, but the truth is that they are a real
cohort of scribes and Pharisees. They preach that there are no luxuries
there, and yet the rich numeraries have to be assisted by uniformed
maids
during spiritual retreats. Now many people are
leaving, especially the young ones, who did not know that once they
were admitted they became real slaves.”
The daily rules that a member living in an Opus Dei house has to
observe are very strict. (107)
A person who was a numerary member of
Opus Dei for more than ten years assured me that during the first seven
years of his membership in Opus Dei, he lived in constant tension and
was unable to comply with all the rules laid down. Moreover, he
believed that none of those who lived with him or had met him in the
ranks of Opus Dei had succeeded in doing so.
Another important observation is that all these sets of norms are an
integral part of the "spirit of the
Work". When they get up they kiss
the ground and make the offering of all the things of the day to God,
but the fruit of this offering is gathered by the sect leaders. They
shower with cold water and are kept busy all
day long so that they
fall asleep and have no time to think about the misery they have made
their existence.
The coercive dynamic is an essential characteristic of any sectarian
structure and it should not be surprising to find it in groups as
apparently honorable as Opus Dei itself. (108)
A well-known architect, Miguel Fisac - who was one of the first twelve
members of Opus Dei - who was
a member of the Work for
years, says:
“During
the time I was in the Work I
was coerced to unacceptable
extremes. So much so that when I finally managed to get Alvaro del
Portillo (the great guru and successor of Escrivá de Balaguer)
to let me out, he asked me to forgive those coercions and justified
them by saying that since I had shown great generosity, they had
interpreted it as a vocation.”
This so-called excess of zeal or "holy
coercion" in the terminology of
the Work, so typical of exploitative sectarianism that identifies
vocation (religious, humanitarian, etc.) with irrational submission and
slavery, cannot be justified either by earthly arguments or by divine
allegations.
To pretend to cover up miserable coercion, of whatever kind and in
whatever group, with the excuse of a "disinterested dedication to the
ideal" is as little acceptable as to pretend to justify the activity of
the guild of thieves under the mantle of a humanitarian campaign
against selfish and sinful materialism.
Torture is not only physical, but also, and in this case more subtle,
psychological. As proof of this, we have the testimony of María
del Pilar Domínguez Martínez, from Tuy (Pontevedra),
(109) whose
testimony informs us that as soon as she joined Opus Dei,
she was hunted down by a numerary and taken to a doctor of the Work to
find out if she was not physically handicapped. Later, the
mortifications deformed her body and the "sharing of confidences", the
talks,
acquired their true character of interrogation, for which she expressed
her discontent. When she realized that she wanted to leave Opus Dei,
her superior decided to take her to a psychiatrist of the Work.
In 1965 Miss Tapia was called to the headquarters in Rome, where she
was placed under virtual house arrest for eight months. She was not
allowed to communicate with the outside world, either by telephone or
letter. She was informed that anyone who asked for her would be told
that she was sick or absent. Within three months her hair turned white.
She asked if she could return to her family in Spain and was refused
permission. Tapia had been director of the women's section in
Venezuela. Opus Dei took away her passport and all her personal
documents. When she left, finally after the nightmare, she was forced
to go to confession. (110)
A priest of Opus Dei warned her that no
matter what penance she did for her various "crimes," there was little
chance that she would be saved. In his account in the National Catholic
Reporter, he describes the rude and insulting treatment she received
from the hands of the Founder. He concludes: “My astonishment is
infinite when I now hear that Monsignor Escrivá is in the
process of
beatification.”
The coercion also comes from the documents that they make their
followers sign, which prevent them from taking critical attitudes for
fear of reprisals.
The numeraries sleep on a board without a mattress and are of a certain
height which, when covered by the quilt, gives the appearance of a
normal bed, in case someone who is not from the Work passes by. (111)
The "Father" says that women need to put their bodies on the pavement,
that one should not give them certain comforts because it is a source
of temptation.
Numeraries wear the cilice for two hours every day except Sundays and
holidays. Discipline is another mortification of the body type to which
they are subjected: it is a whip of cords that ends in several points.
It is used on Saturdays and only on Saturdays. They have to go into the
bathroom, get rid of their underwear and on their knees, whip their
buttocks for the whole time they take to pray a Salve. If they do not
do so, they must confess to it, even if it is not a sin or a serious
fault.
As for men, Alberto Moncada (112)
tells us, young people are used to
handling the disciplines, once or twice a week, and the cilice,
which they wear for two hours a day, tight to their thighs, during the
hours of study. Once a week they have to sleep on the floor, on the
famous day of the watch that each one has appointed to redouble the
observance of his brothers.
The cilice
is a mortification tool that,
according to what is made clear
to the followers of Opus Dei, is completely necessary, although in the
opinion of a former member of the Work (113) “it is an outdated
object
that produces unnecessary suffering”. The use of the cilice
(spiked
belt) as a practice is a norm in the sect. On one occasion a minor was
injured and cut on her thigh, (114)
and when asked by her mother she
lied. The mother later found out that her 15-year-old daughter's wound
had been caused by the cilice. They call
these lies "secrets of the
Work".
To understand the voluntary acceptance of ill-treatment by
pseudo-religious sects, one must refer to the depersonalizing process
they have undergone and the guilt complex they have created. They are
made aware that accepting the physical pain produced by self-injury is
a path of spiritual evolution for the atonement of sins and the
redemption of guilt. It is an irrational fervor the abiding in
the
contempt and mistreatment they receive from the Work. The tighter the
cilice, the more
it hurts and the more it marks, the more the suffering
is silenced, the better the adept is considered. If the walls of the
toilet are stained with blood after the application of the weekly
discipline, this will be a merit to be taken into account and will
certainly indicate unequivocally, that the imprint and the aftermath of
the sect is indelibly imprinted.
REFERENCES
105. Magazine "Tiempo" (11
April 1988).
106. Magazine "Interviú"
(06 April 1988).
107. Ynfante, "La prodigiosa
aventura del Opus Dei", p. 117.
108. Rodríguez, "El poder de
las sectas" ("The Power of Cults"),
p. 70.
109. Magazine "Tiempo"
(August 4, 1986).
110. Walsh, p. 181.
111. "Marie Claire" magazine
(December 1987).
112. Moncada, "Historia oral del
Opus Dei", p. 141.
113. Magazine "Interviú"
(April 6, 1989).
114. Ibid.
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CHAPTER
I
SECTS AND OPUS DEI
9. Human Waste, Psychological
Destruction
Saralegui tells us: (115)
“It is because of this sense of
authority that
young members are separated from their families, forbidden to tell
their parents the true situation of their relations with the
Institution, their reading, their time, their social relations are
tightly controlled; they are denied attendance at shows, an internal
work is added to the professional one so that a critical, profound and
serene reflection is difficult for them. This spectacle of
psychological pressure on immature hearts and heads I have never been
able to approve of. There are other features of the Work that, like
everything human, have their face and their cross; this one for me has
been just a cross for many years.”
Why, if the Work is God's as they say, if its aims are good,
why so
much harm to so many?
In the Work some obtain many good things, at the cost of much damage,
based on much lack of love, with many people destroyed in their most
intimate existence.
Opus Dei is a phenomenon of the manifestation of
abnormalities of the physiological development.
The accounts follow quite similar patterns, in the accusations made
regularly. “I saw his behaviour
change”, said a mother of her own
daughter who had gone to Lakefield, the Opus Dei school in Hampstead,
London. She was a wonderful daughter and now she has become secretive
and introverted. (116)
Restrictions on girls seem to be based on the fear that, if they were
exposed to family events, bonds of affection would be quickly restored.
Attendance at baptisms or weddings is considered particularly
dangerous. At least two former members of Opus Dei in England have
explained that their decision to leave was prompted by Opus Dei's
refusal to allow them to be bridesmaids at their sisters' weddings.
Home visits are very rare, and are strictly regulated: a couple of
nights a year is all that is allowed. On one occasion a father, a truck
driver, met his daughter in London; she suddenly decided to go home
with him for a visit. An Opus Dei superior called the house and accused
the father of having kidnapped his own daughter.
The young people's relations with their families are practically
non-existent. The Work encourages a clear division between the
spiritual family and the natural family. Even Christmas is spent by the
numeraries with whom they make them believe that they are their
families: Opus Dei.
If there are deprogramming centers for members of Opus Dei, it is
because there must have been a program in place beforehand. That is
obvious. Brainwashing, as is the case here, can only be treated by
adequate clinical treatment, which gives back reasoning and free will
to the person subjected to the dictates of the organization. Through
religious manipulation, the psyche of the individual is broken,
altering his natural feelings and convictions, dragging him towards an
abyss of irrationality and fanaticism.
This is the effect known as "atypical dissociative disorder" (117) as
it is called by the American Psychiatric Association or "cult
conversion syndrome" as Dr. Clark calls it.
It is a denigrating and immoral fact that, by means of perfectly
studied techniques that violate the fragility of the human mind, people
are reduced by means of fears and coercion of a religious and spiritual
nature to states of servility and slavery before the unconsciousness of
the affected person.
Among the ways and means to annul the wills and to achieve the
pre-established ends are those of providing the subject with
insufficient nourishment. Weak organisms are more fragile than healthy
and robust bodies. It is quite normal for sects to establish special
diets which, in the long run, lead to malnutrition or to prohibit for
religious reasons a series of foods which may be basic to the diet.
Rest must be insufficient. It is necessary that the follower sleeps
little and badly, that he or she does not relax with a deep and
reparative sleep, that he or she does not regenerate. It is recommended
to be vigilant
at night, to be on guard, to be vigilant. Even
sleep is
interrupted at untimely hours with the excuse of doing certain prayers,
which, according to the leaders, do the spirit good,
when, in fact, the
effect of the lack of sleep is to undermine the resistance of
man. The bed should be uncomfortable, hard. We must offer this new
sacrifice to God.
An exhaustive and disproportionate, tiring, occupational activity must
be programmed for the individual. He must always be active, even if it
is in useless things, carrying out tasks of all kinds, from recruitment
to proselytizing, the development of professional work, religious
practices, the acts of self mortification, studies
and gatherings.
It
is necessary to imprint a frenetic and non-stop rhythm,
where there is no time to think. We have to create a sense of anguish
that we cannot do or finish the tasks and duties that we have to
undertake during the day, in order to feel vexed and guilty, useless,
not very holy, since sanctity is achieved when the impossible is
reached, when the unattainable is surpassed. With a stressful and
exhausting activity, with little time for rest and frugal and light
food, the organism deteriorates and the person degrades.
The information received must come from the Sect itself. It is
necessary to short-circuit the communication of the adept with the
outside world, to control all his movements, his hobbies, his feelings,
and his ideas, and to be accompanied, preferably.
One must attack the senses by blocking them. It is the sensory
attack
which prevents committing the permanent and
perennial sin. One
has to whip the senses by mitigating them, which will provoke
psychomotor atrophy and serious organic alterations. In order to
repress the senses, the sword of Damocles of punishment and penance
will always be sharp, for non-existent, figurative, artificial,
paranoid sins, but effective in producing a feeling of misery and inner
guilt in the human person, which will provoke vital anguish, polarizing
and dissociating the personality. It is the sect who sets the
guidelines of the pure and the impure, the recommendable and the
abominable, the just and the unjust, and the clan presses for the
fulfillment of the order and the exemplary punishment of deviations,
with humiliations and the contempt of companions and inner isolation.
Nervous exhaustion and terror. Here are two keys that are undermining
the rational capacity and empowering to unheard of extremes the
emotional one.
The effects of regression and childishness are achieved, which is
translated into the own and exiguous language used inside the sect with
ambiguous and complicit meanings. Childish words used by adolescents
and veterans.
With all this properly dosified, "group drug-dependence"
is achieved, the
sectarian affection without any restrictions. And what is worse, the
total and absolute destruction of the follower who has been reduced to
being a tool, an effective instrument for obedience and blind faith in
the designs imposed by the "Father" by obeying any of his whims as
unquestionable truths, as dogmas, coming to sink into the belief
that one is of his own free will in the sect and that the fanatics are
the others, the rest of humanity. Internal cohesion is consolidated by
huddling around the "Father" and considering any criticism from the
outside as serious slander. They have also
forbidden to make any kind of
criticism of the "Father" or the behaviour of the leaders of the sect.
They are slaves of our time, on the threshold of the 21st century.
Programmed and directed robots.
To this, it
must be added the suppression of the properties of the follower
that leave them insolvent and that to survive they have no choice but
to establish a steely dependence.
Once individuality has been suppressed, the depersonalizing objective
has been achieved.
Sometimes the important thing is not what you believe, but how you
believe it. (118)
They're like flies caught in a plate of honey. (119) To chain
oneself to Opus Dei is to lose all intellectual, volitional and
spiritual faculties in order to become an automaton, a puppet, at the
service of the Work and the "Father". Opus Dei is the comedy of
hypocrisy. Miguel Fisac acknowledges (120) that the only thing
Opus Dei
gave him was to suffer “authentic
spiritual martyrdom until he left”
and that “it was after he left Opus
Dei that he did more work and was
more interested in it”.
To succeed in deprogramming the followers is a slow task of
re-education. Snapping is necessary to begin a phase of recovery and
readjustment of the subject so that he or she can get back in touch
with reality and remove the hallucinations that have been imbued in the
Work.
REFERENCES
115. Moncada, "Historia oral del
Opus Dei", p. 123.
116. Walsh, p. 176.
117. Rodríguez, "Esclavos de
un mesías" ("Slaves of a
Messiah"),
p. 139.
118. Rodríguez, "El poder de
las sectas" ("The Power of Cults")
p. 30.
119. Nicolás Cobo, "Faro
inconfundible" ("Unmistakable
Lighthouse") (June 1988)
120. Miguel Fisac in "¿Por
qué no es usted del Opus Dei?"
("Why Aren't You in Opus Dei"), op cit, p 215.
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SECTS AND OPUS DEI
10. Sects and Religion: the Fraudsters
of God
The problem of the sects has afflicted the Church since its beginnings.
(121) Saint Paul
had already encountered a similar problem in one of
the communities he had founded, that of Corinth. Four or five years
after he had brought it into the faith through his preaching, he noted
with deep sorrow the existence of sectarian tendencies, which he
reproached and
whipped up.
We must not forget that religiosity is something consubstantial with
the human being and one of his signs of identity that separates and
differentiates him from the fauna. Hence the danger of speculation with
the sacred, with beliefs, with faith.
Religiosity can never become a currency for defrauding man, even though
"religion" may have been conceived, as in the case of Opus Dei, as “the
kind of business that any businessman dreams of: selling goods with no
cost of production, of an imperishable character, always adaptable to
new markets and through a structure that uses the free labor of its
believers and their particular sins as sources of capitalization.
That's what paradise on earth is!” (122)
We cannot forget that raising money is the great religious objective,
it is the spiritual goal, it is the mystical end of this type of sect.
They cover their "marketing" by making the follower believe that money
corrupts, that it is something dirty, that they must get rid of it in
order to destine it to the service of God and his work, that is, for
the sect. The same money that is a source of perdition for others, is a
source of sanctification for the Work, making the accumulation of money
a sacramental activity; therefore the member has to earn money to give
it to the sect.
They exploit the supernatural, the transcendent, the religious, the
sacred sentiment, selling bulls of sanctity precisely for profane,
daily, professional work, where they can earn means of subsistence and
amass fortunes but not for those who get them, but for the Work.
Appeals are made to the heavenly dignity, to the most sensitive fibers
of the human being, the sect is divinized
to the point of daring to
give it a name, even the supreme denomination, nothing more and nothing
less than "Work of God".
REFERENCES
121. Hernando, "Cuadernos de
realidades sociales" ("Notebooks of social
realities"), No. 35/36, p 20.
122. Rodríguez, "Las sectas
hoy y aquí" ("Cults Today and
Here"), p 34.
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I
SECTS AND OPUS DEI
11. An Outrageous Usurpation
The name "Opus Dei" implies in its second noun, "Dei", as being
produced or
worked by God himself. This is how the Founder and his members
interpret it.
As Moses met God to hear his will, so Escrivá heard within
himself on
October 2, 1928, God's desire that he should found "Opus Dei". Its
basic
concepts, its organization, its interior life, its aims, all of this,
down to the smallest detail, corresponds, according to him, to God's
will: therefore, it is
divine. This is not a merely human matter or a matter of
rational thought, but something unique and supernatural.
Moses heard the voice of God, who communicated to him his commandments,
clearly outlined. Escrivá received something else, that is, a
kind of
general power. Everything that passes through his mind in execution of
his assignment will have divine guarantee; it is unmistakably desired
by God himself.
In this manner he assured his work since
any hostile act towards it means a
confrontation with God. Never
in the history of the Church, not one
Pope, not one saint, not even one heretic, has made such a claim.
As a
parenthesis: it seems natural that in these almost divine
circumstances Escrivá would demand that one remain on one's
knees in
his presence.
In our world it was God-Man who said of himself: “I am the Way, the
Truth and the Life” (John 14:6). Now we are
presented
with a Jew
who says, de facto, the same thing about his
person, copying and
impudently usurping the venerable figure of Christ, since already he
has become the way, the truth and the life, by a pretended
commission. He
says it and they believe it.
Can we imagine a worse blasphemy?
Is that not, moreover, a sign of the fierce and persistent struggle of
Judaism against the Church of Christ?
And it is precisely the young people who are targeted by
them because they are
aware that youth has a desire for religion, altruism, a desire for
spirituality. This is an asset gained on fertile ground.
This theological laboratory, full of religious fervor, arises from the
need for transcendence that Opus Dei transforms, alchemically finding
its philosopher's stone, into a desire for meditation, generating
"complicated and even morbid" relationships with its
followers. (123)
The popular imagination had circulated the joke that by comparing
members of Opus Dei with flying saucers, he said: “Do you know what
they call those in Opus Dei?” - “No” - "Well, the URO: Unidentified
Religious Objects.” (124)
Dr. Alfonso Alvarez Villar, professor at the University of Madrid and
head of the department of the Institute of Public Opinion, an expert in
psychiatry and a psychologist, offers the following explanation about
Opus Dei: (125)
“On
an unconscious level, at some point
in our lives
the desire has arisen to 'tuck ourselves in' to a powerful organization
that would make things easier for us, encourage us to promote ourselves
culturally and professionally, and even defend us against that Spanish
envy that makes
a struggle of all against all. But then
doubts arose and, above all, we asked ourselves if, after this
protection, we were not going to give up a part of our freedom. I have
spoken many times about the cryptoreligions. Opus Dei is undoubtedly a
'cryptoreligious'
organization.”
“Moreover, its very name links it to
these
cryptic sects, since, as we know, "Opus
Dei means Work
of God"; that is,
the members of this organization consider themselves representatives of
God on Earth, as the Brothers of Perfection felt in Languedoc before,
during, and after the persecutions of Simon de Montfort. Opus Dei,
then, concentrates in itself all the forces of an everlasting dimension
of man that I have defined with the term "enlightenism".
Only here this
enlightenism
has drifted into one of the two forms that I distinguish:
that of underground propagation. And here we should point out why a
merely religious association becomes a powerful pressure group on the
political, social, economic, and other levels. But this is not purely a
matter of internal dialectics: cryptic enlightenment tends to realize
what I also call "the myth of paradise. Its model can be, for example,
the "New Jerusalem of the Apocalypse". The journalist Mario
Rodríguez
Aragón goes so far as to write that "in Torreciudad they are
trying to
establish a cryptoculture in concurrence with the Vatican".”
It is symptomatic to see how these sects flourish in Christian
environments and that under no circumstances are they dedicated to the
conversion of unbelievers, of infidels. They are like a vine around the
tree. (126)
They proliferate only in Christian environments and the
more deeply rooted the Christian feeling in a given people or society,
the more prone these sects are to act, even though in reality they are
the antithesis of the Christian spirit.
One cannot serve two masters at the same time and one cannot claim that
the ideals of Opus Dei are compatible with the Gospels. Lucia Jones
wrote that “as a Catholic I detest
Opus Dei for the simple reason that
it seems to me to be a prostitution of Christianity and a focus of
scandals.”
The member of the "Real Academia de la Lengua Española" ("Royal
Academy of the Spanish Language"), the writer
Juan Antonio de Zunzunegui, observes that “Opus Dei, to the simple
souls of our consumer society, not only promises the salvation of their
souls, but what is most attractive and immediate, the salvation of the
body in the form of vey worldly and delightful advantages,
positions, and tasty profits. What
a delight! Opus Dei's
insatiability for money is enough to make you tremble.” (128)
Bryan Wilson in his work on "The
Sociology of Sects" published in B.
Wilson's essay on Religion in Sociological Perspective, published in
1982 by the University of Oxford, analyzes a type of sect that presents
the following characteristics. They tend: 1) to be exclusive; 2) to
maintain a monopoly on complete religious truth; 3) to be secular,
although they may develop a group of professional organizers; 4) to
deny "special religious virtues" to all but perhaps their own founders
and leaders; 5) to be "voluntary" - it is the individual who chooses to
be a member; 6) to be concerned with maintaining standards, sanctioning
the unfit and the unruly; and 7) to demand total loyalty.
In most of the above categories Opus Dei fits very easily. (129) It is
exclusive on
several levels, in its selective recruitment and in
the secrecy surrounding it. It would be uncertain to say that it claims
a monopoly on religious truth but
its members are completely
convinced that the interpretation of the Catholic faith to which they
adhere is the only Orthodox version, as confirmed by Escrivá's
exhortation to his faithful after Vatican II. That it is a lay
organization is one of its proudest boasts although technically it
is a prelature and is undoubtedly dominated by the Clergy. It is also
one of its characteristics to depend almost entirely on the writings of
its founder. It therefore fits neatly into the characteristic as
stated by Dr. Wilson. The recruitment procedures, the internal
discipline of Opus Dei, and the total commitment required of its
members are in line with points 5) and 7).
For members of Opus Dei, their "salvation" is guaranteed by the
"Father"/"Founder" when he promises his followers: "When the years go
by,
you will not believe what you have experienced. How many good and great
and wonderful things you will see! I can assure you that you will be
faithful, although sometimes you will have to suffer. Besides, I
PROMISE YOU HEAVEN. (130)
According to the teachings of Opus Dei, in the Church,
there can be
mistakes; in the "Father", no. (131)
REFERENCES
123. Moncada, "Oral History of Opus
Dei", p. 10.
124. Carandell, p 49.
125. Alfonso Álvarez in ""¿Por qué no es
usted del Opus Dei?"
("Why Aren't You in Opus Dei"), pp 42-45.
126. "Cuadernos de realidades
sociales", No. 35/36, p 32.
127 Lucia Jones, "Tiempo"
magazine (25 August 1986).
128. Juan Antonio de Sunzunegui, in "¿Por
qué no es
usted del Opus Dei?"
("Why Aren't You in Opus Dei"), p.
215.
129. Walsh, p. 194.
130. Ibid, p. 198.
131 Moreno, "Opus Dei, anexo a una
historia", p. 122.
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SECTS AND OPUS DEI
12. Totalitarianism and Fanaticism
The maxims and slogans elaborated by the "Father" himself are
categorical and do not give room for controversy. That is what one
reads in The Way:
941: “Obedience,
the sure way. Unreserved obedience to whoever is in charge, the way of
sanctity. Obedience in your apostolate, the only way: for, in a work of
God, the spirit must be TO OBEY OR TO LEAVE.”
484: “Your duty is to be an
instrument.”
622: “How well you understood
obedience when you wrote to me: "To obey
is always to be a martyr without dying".”
619: “Initiative. You must have it
in
your apostolate, within the terms of your instructions.... Never forget
that you are only an agent.”
For their part, the Constitutions of the Work abound in obedience; we
will cite some of their articles as examples:
Article
31.3 - Whenever there are two members of the Institute, lest they be
deprived of the merit of obedience, a certain subordination is always
observed, in which one is subject to the other according to the order
of precedence.
Article 148. Incorporation into the
Institute, demands a private social and recognized vow of obedience. In
virtue of this vow, all the Numerary and Oblate members profess a full
and complete obedience to the President General and to their Superiors.
The neophyte of Opus Dei is told this verbatim. "You renounce being you
in order to be Opus Dei". (132)
There is no such complete abdication of
the individual for the benefit of a bureaucratic apparatus as that
which is carried out in Opus Dei. Escrivá wrote in one of his
letters
to his children: “Whoever puts his
hand to the plow must not turn his
head back. In the Work, intransigence is practiced at all costs, in an
organically totalitarian attitude”.
There is a song or hymn that is often sung in the centers and
institutions of Opus Dei. It is entitled "Go, Donkey". (133) There is
also another little letter that says: It does not leave my memory /
what I have been told to arrive / You will be a donkey on a Ferris
wheel / Donkey you will always be...
Antonio Senillosa himself, a former deputy who occupied a general
directorship in the Ministry of AAEE, states that (134) he is not in
favour of "blindly obeying the
superior" according to the maxim 941,
adding that "The Way seems to me to
be a book of delirium and
terrifying intellectual poverty".
In the Work, "if
you cannot praise, shut up" (135)
is repeated with perseverance and
insistence.
Blind obedience is combined with control of the members, which includes
control of expenses, readings and the schedule of activities, (136)
regardless of whether the member is given directives through
confession, the secrecy of which is violated in order to keep the
superior informed about the political-religious plans of the Work.
Every week Opus Dei publishes a list of literary novelties classified
and qualified according to their strict observance. (137) A circle next
to the title of a work means that it can be read with care by the
members. Two circles mean that it can only be read by the directors of
the Work and by highly qualified people. Three circles is the
condemnation to oblivion: no one can read it.
General information magazines are forbidden. As the Founder said, "one
must take care of one's eyesight, one's magazine and one's interview".
An ex-member of the Work (138)
tells us that she once went to the
librarian to get a book to read. She remembers that she was given
The Little Prince by the librarian even though she was 23 years old and
had already read
it two hundred times. Any book which, according to Escrivá's
unquestionable
criteria, contains danger, cannot be read.
Another example: M.R.S., (139)
who spent 14 years of her life in Opus
Dei, testifies. She was pressured to exercise her profession as the
Work wished. After studying philosophy and literature, she worked as an
art and decorating teacher, was the director of Delsa, the company that
coordinates the Opus Dei bookstores, and then for six years was the
director of the Neblí art gallery. Due to her prestige, 15 days
after leaving Opus, she was already directing the Sala Durán in
Madrid. M.R.S. believes that “in
Opus you are not allowed to advance as
a person, not even to think. Your directors are obsessed by the dangers
that a normal working life entails for a woman. If I got home later
than 9:30 p.m., there would be an argument. I couldn't have coffee with
a client and, to talk to him, I had to have the door open.
Professionally, I couldn't read anything without permission.”
The spirit of the Work consists of an irrational obedience and an
absolute fidelity to the "Father" and his satraps. You are imbued with
the fact that the most important obedience is the obedience that Christ
taught us on the Mount of Olives; it is the submission of the
intelligence by accepting God's will, without understanding it. (140)
And what about freedom? A
father wants his children to be very free,
but to do exactly, promptly, only what he wants. This is the secret of
freedom.
The word of order in Opus Dei could be summed up in the demand to “Keep
the rules. Be savagely sincere with your superiors and there
will be no
problem”, which was launched by the "Father" and which is part
of the
spiritual
childhood to which the members of Opus Dei owe themselves.
By the time the "hooked" realize it, they are no longer masters of
their own breathing and very soon they begin to understand what is the
exact scope of the vow of obedience - a vow which consists in saying
yes to
everything that is proposed to them and to everything that is suggested
to them, because “at
home when something is demanded with more force it is doe by saying,
please”. In this manner, they eliminate from their vocabulary
the term
"orders" converting them into "suggestions" that must be fulfilled to
the letter.
The vow of obedience means accepting without conditions the will of
God, expressed through the superiors of the Work. What is
terrifying is
to think that these constitutions are obeyed by beings who hold
positions of public political and financial responsibility. The
dependence of these gentlemen on their superiors is such that
it even reaches the professional level. (141) The vow of obedience
in
an institution as hierarchical as Opus Dei means an absolute
surrender of one's will and capacity for decision.
But what is even more incredible is that by invoking the precepts of
religion, by making the very name of God a premise, by relying on the
commandments of divine law, it is possible for the strong to dominate
the weak and even to be grateful to the tyrant because, thanks to the
slavery to which he is subjected on this earth, he promises him
holiness and the kingdom of heaven in the afterlife.
Naturally, criticism and disagreement with what the "Father" interprets
in The Way is considered pure
"gossip"
because “obedience should be mute”.
Criticism of sectarian "dogma" is considered sacrilege. As an antidote,
the ability to forgive - as freely acquired as the ability to blame -
is only a mechanism designed to magnify the power of authority and to
reinforce the corresponding capacity to punish. (142) Forgiveness is
the reward for submission, just as punishment is the "reward" due to
those who do not follow the group's guidelines.
Loyalty to the person of the "Father" must be unquestioned. "Rendering
judgment" (143)
means achieving the maximum availability to obedience,
which imposes the obligatory intellectual censorship, which, within
Opus
Dei, even has an office whose missions include the preparation of a
thick index of books and authors that are forbidden to those of the
Work, for which the "Father's" permission is required. (144)
Generally, the man in the street, the profane, is unaware of the degree
to which a person is committed to Opus Dei, since the vows are not
pronounced publicly, as is the case in the large and traditional
religious Orders, even though the sect's vote is comparable. (145)
Can
its members have two different personalities depending on the level at
which their action takes place? The oath taken by the "numerary" and
"supernumerary" members has a disturbing content: “With my immediate or
supreme superior, according to the gravity of the case... I will always
consult about professional, social and all other problems, even if this
does not constitute a direct matter of the vow of obedience, but
without transferring the responsibilities to the superior himself”.
The
members of the Prelature and the Prelature itself establish stable
bonds with each other, remaining always and in everything morally under
the direction of their superiors, who demand strict discipline from
their followers.
REFERENCES
132. Ynfante, "The Prodigious Adventure of Opus Dei," p. 390.
133. Carandell, p 122.
134. Antonio de Senillosa, in "Why Aren't You in Opus Dei," p. 194.
135. Moreno, "Opus Dei, an Annex to a History," p 44.
136. Magaña, p. 29.
137. Santiago Aroca, "Tiempo"
magazine (June 30, 1986).
138. "Marie Claire" magazine
(December 1987).
139. "El País" newspaper (May 1, 1988).
140. Vicente Gracia, "In the name of the father" (Barcelona: Editorial
Bruguera, 1980), p 40.
141. Dr. Luis de Castro Feito, in "Why Aren't You in Opus Dei", p. 6.
142. Rodríguez, "Slaves of a Messiah", p 99.
143. Moncada, "Oral History of Opus Dei," p 100.
144. Ibid, p. 117.
145. Wast, Jesuits, "Opus Dei and Cursillos in Christianity", p 62.
146. Artigues, p 99.
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SECTS AND OPUS DEI
13. Sex and Contingency
The sexual issue in the Work, as in the other organizations of
celibates, becomes one more mechanism of authoritarian manipulation, a
formula of self-contempt, (147)
a source of countless sets conscious
contradictions, which keep many people hooked for a long time in a
self-destructive dialectic.
As the psychiatrist Alvarez Vilar diagnoses, the same emphasis on
chastity that Opus Dei advocates is an index of its expansive zeal.
When the libido is chained, its kinetic energy passes to other
functions of the psyche.
The consequence of what is preached is usually
neurosis. Sexual repression engenders in the subject a permanent state
of guilt between temptation and prohibition, between the power of
desire and the abominations of the Work, between instinct and the
notion of sin that gags at him. All this is done to mold obedient and
submissive people.
All psychoanalytical theories, very much in vogue today, recognize that
sexual repression and inhibition, which in the language of the Work is
called “sacrificing the egoism of
the flesh”, is at the base of its
authoritarian and despotic attitude. (148) Sexuality and the
natural
capacity to love have thus been - a psychologist would say -
dangerously sublimated.
In Opus Dei, discrimination is exercised on the basis of sex, with
women suffering the worst consequences, since the aggregate numeraries
and assistants are undervalued in relation to their male counterparts
and very often destined to serve them.
A.G.C., (149) a
numerary in Opus Dei for 15 years, relates her
experience: “I entered the Work at
the age of 17, but at no time was I
told, "This is what Opus Dei is all about". The only thing they sell
you
is the idea of sanctification in the world. The rest you discover
later...”
The women who run the men's houses are forbidden to deal with them. The
houses are together, but separated by two doors with two keys which are
kept by the director of the men and the director of the women. The
men's director usually calls the women's manager first thing in the
morning to say, “There are so many of us eating today”. For two hours,
in the morning, the men cannot enter their rooms to avoid coinciding
with the women who are cleaning. Nor can they talk to the maids who
serve them at the table.
The difference between the lives of the men and women of Opus Dei is
stark. While the former enjoy professional freedom, as far as possible,
the latter are completely tied to their director. They cannot spend a
night at their parents' house, unless they have special permission.
This permission is only granted when the parents live in a town where
Opus Dei has no home.
The women have to sleep on a board to “put
their body on the path” as
noted above. Likewise, they cannot travel alone at night and the more
observant ones must ask permission to go to the hairdresser's or to buy
clothes.
On the street they “guard their
sight” to avoid temptation with their
eyes, and that is why men usually carry their hand in their pockets,
because in their pockets they carry a crucifix which will be squeezed
with their fingers when temptation comes. (150)
Dr. Mynareck accuses these sectarian groups and reproaches them for
repressing sexuality by giving themselves a rule of proportion between
the destructive level of the group and the nuts they tighten to repress
sexuality, this proportion being in direct order. The greatest
repressors are usually the most repressed, having sexual problems and
defects and with a certain morbid burden of their sexual pathological
state. The contingency of repression and blame creates sickly beings
between schizophrenia and the complex of the unrepentant sinner.
REFERENCES
147. Moncada, "Historia oral del
Opus Dei", p. 158.
148. Ynfante, "La prodigiosa
aventura del Opus Dei" ("The Prodigious Adventure of Opus Dei"),
p. 13.
149. "El País"
Newspaper (May 1, 1988).
150. Ynfante, "La prodigiosa
aventura del Opus Dei" ("The Prodigious Adventure of Opus Dei"),
p. 118.
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SECTS AND OPUS DEI
14. Judas in Action
Judas the Iscariot has gone down in history not because of his possible
virtues as an apostle of Jesus Christ, but because of the secret
denunciation he made of his Master that led
to the arrest of the Messiah. In such a compact and hermetic circle as
Opus Dei is, everyone wants to be an informer, a public and private
accuser, a snitch, a confidant of their own closest brothers and
sisters. There are various reasons for this, including the fact that
informing on the truth in Opus Dei is a practice and a "virtue" so
that the followers always live in an atmosphere of mutual
and reciprocal distrust, fear, insecurity and isolation, all of which
are extremely important for keeping the sect member in chains, in a
permanent manner.
Opus Dei pays careful attention to what it calls constant and
persistent spiritual direction, which binds and marks each and every
one of its members. This is complemented, on a weekly basis, by
what it calls "sharing of
confidences",
which helps to configure a rigid
hierarchical-spiritual order. (151)
On the other hand, the denunciation of the brother by the brother, the
embarrassment and shame of being singled out by one's nearest neighbor,
is a rule and an obligation laid down in the statutes and regulations
of the Work itself. It is a common and habitual practice, fomented,
encouraged and praised by those in charge of the organization.
"The weekly sharing of confidences"
is a
compulsory talk between the member and his
director (152)
in which the member must open up fully and express
without scruples or reservations his inner dispositions, while at the
same time giving an account of all his actions. It is an act of
solidarity and docility. With the passage of time, many members are
suffocated by this practice, which is parallel to confession. All of
it is strengthened by the tactical prohibition to go to confession
"outside the house" and even
with another priest of the Work who is not
the one designated for each house or center.
This "sharing of confidences"
is
practiced equally between the priests and the lay
people who
live together in the house. A lay person will be in a position to
listen to the personal confidences whispered to him by a priest; a lay
person can
be the depository of the intimacies of a lay person or of a religious,
or vice versa. A note issued by the Fifth General Council of Opus Dei
from Rome considered that the role of the priest was not necessary for
the "sharing of confidences",
and, since then, the director or another
member of
the
local council, and sometimes a select member of the house, are in
charge of hearing the "confidences
shared". (153)
Naturally, the
"sharing of confidences"
does not exempt one from participating in the Sacrament of
Reconciliation in which the
participation of the priest is obligatory.
For Opus Dei, the "sharing of
confidences",
besides making known the faults of
the member missed in the Sacrament of Reconciliation, also serves as a
psychological
outlet (154)
that shapes the character of the individual and serves to
increase "the spirit of the Work".
The Sacrament of Reconciliation, on
the other hand,
serves for the forgiveness of sins and the settlement of the offense.
Former members of the Work have revealed that the numerary priest
performs the functions of a spy and an overseer (155) “by improperly
using the Sacrament of Reconciliation to reveal secrets of the faithful
that are of interest to the Work”... Numerary members of Opus Dei know
that their confessors reveal what they say in the confessional if
superiors consider it convenient.
"The sharing of confidences"
and the Sacrament of Reconciliation with
the leaders of
Opus Dei must be
"savagely sincere" (156)
because, the leaders of the Work argue, to
achieve sanctity one has to talk about worries at work, in one's
family, about one's internal affairs, and about what happens in the
world of politics or the intelligentsia.
It is an admitted fact within Opus Dei that the spiritual guide and
confidant, in a meeting with the leaders, analyze the dispositions and
problems of each of the numeraries and supernumeraries under their
jurisdiction.
Opus Dei's priests are instructed to be discreet so that they only
tell the director of the member or the highest ranking hierarchy within
the Work what they should know for the "good of souls".
Many members have broken with Opus Dei by suffering great
disappointment, once they learned of the violations of secrecy of what
they revealed in sharing of confidences.
We cannot resist not transcribing an exceptional testimony, a genuine
sharing of confidences, loud and clear, made by a person who was
immersed in Opus
Dei for years: (157)
“I
learned something almost when I was
determined to leave the Work, and it contributed very especially to my
realization that this was not my place. To have gone through that would
have meant losing all my dignity as a person. I learned that both the
talks you had with your director and those you had with the priest of
the Work (you always have to go to the Sacrament of Reconciliation with
priests of the Work
under threat of expulsion) were exchanged. This means that the two tell
each other the things that the numeraries have told them to see if they
coincide and to follow a joint strategy. In addition to such
manipulation of a person's most intimate secrets, the director sends a
report of the member's activities to the delegation every week. Based
on what
you've revealed, the director types up the report - to be read by
someone who
probably doesn't know you at all - the sharing of confidences
you've made...
I
discovered that when I went to the director's room to get something.
She wasn't there and as the paper, half-written, was sticking out of
the machine I wasn't able to overcome the temptation to read what was
there.”
“It
seemed to me”, she continues, “the
most crude, ignoble and
anti-Christian thing I had ever seen. What right do you have to
manipulate the intimacies of each person when, in order to live well
the spirit of the Work, you have no other choice but to do so, because
that is what is commanded by the "Father"? The slightest ethical
conduct,
whether you are a Christian or not, obliges you to respect the secret
of a "confidence".”
“How
can one call something the Work of God when it falls so low? Only
God
knows what reports they have on me in the archives in Rome. After
having passed my sharing of confidences through so many dirty hands
that they
didn't even know me since the center goes to the Delegation, from
the Delegation to the regional council and from the regional council to
the central council, which is in Rome. At this moment, whatever could
unite me to the Work was definitely broken.”
“To hide something personal from the
directors” - according to
Escrivá de Balaguer - “was to
have a pact with the devil", and in
the Work that "something" includes everything from the most divine to
the most human. (158)
Another former numerary confirms that the members of the Work have
the serious duty of being savagely sincere with their directors: they
must tell them their most intimate desires, their anxieties, their
defects, the most fleeting notions, the most hidden thoughts. It is the
duty of duties, whatever the cost. But this duty does not presuppose,
nor
does it need, a counterpart. One must be very sincere, one must say
everything, one must open one's heart wide (these are all commandments
of the "Father") but one must do so in the face of directors who are
full
of reservations, who do not have to explain or reason about anything
that does not seem convenient or of interest to the subject who is
opening his conscience to them.
Walled in by the secrecy that - they
say - their position imposes on them, they can say that they do not
know the data with which they have been working five minutes before;
they can remain silent when faced with a direct question; they can
promise a silence that they know beforehand they will not keep.
"The weekly sharing of confidences"
is a
kind of spiritual balance sheet, while at
the same time providing detailed information on various activities.
Where does the boundary between religious life and apostolic activity
on the one hand and professional and public life on the other pass in
such colloquia? Here is a question that must remain unanswered. Among
the practices of the Work, the "weekly
meeting" does not cease to be
one of the most disturbing.
But if sharing of confidences can be disturbing, no less so is public
denouncement,
the evidence in which they must also, weekly, leave each other, like
Judas, but in this case the reward is not thirty denarii of silver, but
holiness and heaven in eternity. Public accusation and repression is an
unavoidable and inexcusable duty, as laid down in the very
Constitutions of Opus Dei which, in article 270, stipulates that “The
numerary members and the Oblates will meet every week for the brief
circle where defects are corrected, where the means of apostolate are
proposed and where everything that can guide our spirit and our
specific action is dealt with in a familiar way”. Every member
must
submit or be called to order.
We read also in the Constitutions of the Work, in article 195, that “The members have the obligation to inform
their superiors when the
activities of other members threaten to harm the effectiveness of the
Institute”. The concern for the effectiveness of the Institute
as such
is great and the respect for individuals insignificant, who are pushed
to the point of denunciation (159)
and denunciation among companions
for the greater good of the Institute.
If by chance someone fails, he or she will be subject to fraternal
correction. They must conform to the rules or be expelled. The spirit
of
mistrust is total. Your best friend can be your most sadistic enemy;
you must be, in turn, ruthless towards those you show your sympathies
to.
In Opus Dei, fraternal correction is a genuine form of formation. (160)
If a member of the Work learns of a fault committed by another
of his "brothers", he should immediately go to a member of the house's
executive council to explain the case and have the council decide
whether or not it is appropriate to correct him. If the member's
decision is affirmative, the member of the Work will make the fraternal
correction to the other member, the one who committed the fault. The
spirit of the Work forms wasps' nests with the sting always ready to
inject the poison into our fellow men.
It has been published (161)
that in the weekly collective talks the
sympathetic members were urged to "compete" in telling their sins
publicly, although in most cases they were simple, such as not having
said the regulation prayer at the time or having fallen in the face
of a temptation. Most accused themselves of the sin of pride or lack of
humility, which was the most appreciated.
Guilt has its profitability in the sharing of confidences and the
correction or
fraternal sharing. Guilt is usually a source of internal tension with a
contained emotional charge, which needs to be relieved in order to be
balanced. This is why the pernicious sects establish the ritual where
the follower is asked to confess all his inner self, to empty himself.
(162) The
technique used differs according to the characteristics of
the group, and may consist of a friendly talk in which the most
intimate experiences are recounted.
The techniques of sharing of
confidences and of
fraternal correction are acts of
self-surrender that involve the moral punishment of public humiliation,
which generates a perpetual interior emptiness from the feeling of
being at fault, as someone who has no other right than that of obeying.
A characteristic fact (163)
is that after having confessed and purged
the sin, the follower becomes a fanatic accuser and punisher of his own
companions, forgetting that shortly before he also took his place in
the sadomasochistic bench in the name of God.
But betrayal can lead to greater heights. It is symptomatic that the
then Nuncio of His Holiness, Monsignor Riberi, stated (164) that he
felt rigorously watched and that he could not do or say anything
without Opus Dei knowing about it. The fact that all the service
personnel were from Opus Dei led to the joke of calling the nuncio's
house the "Opustolic Nunciature". It is symptomatic that Opus Dei has
many centers spread all over the country for the formation of the
household, which are schools for domestic service that constitute an
excellent business of placement agency for its service followers, and
in the houses of the ruling classes, which are the ones that can afford
the luxury of admitting maids and servants, without realizing that they
are being placed under surveillance.
It would be very interesting if at least part of the monumental archive
that is so jealously guarded in the Roman house of Bruno Buozzi were
opened to science and public knowledge. There, with the Constitutions
and the successive editions of the Instructions for Government, are the
collection of notes and notices that exemplify, year after year, a
style of governing and the ideas that Escrivá had about what was
happening or should happen in the Church, in politics, in public and
private morality and above all “in the houses and lives of his
subjects”. (165)
The networks of the intelligence and information services could not be
more sophisticated, more rude or more miserable.
REFERENCES
151. Wast, Jesuits, "Opus Dei y
Cursillos de Cristiandad", p. 62.
152. Moncada, "Historia oral del
Opus Dei", p. 149.
153. Ynfante, "La prodigiosa
aventura del Opus Dei" ("The Prodigious Adventure of Opus Dei"),
pp. 120-121.
154. Ibid, p. 121.
155. Magaña, op cit, p 236.
156. Ibid., p. 236.
157. "Marie Claire" magazine
(December 1987).
158. Moreno, "El Opus Dei, anexo a
una historia", p. 147.
159. Le Vaillant, op cit, p. 233.
160. Ynfante, "La prodigiosa
aventura del Opus Dei" ("The Prodigious Adventure of Opus Dei"),
p. 120.
161. "El Opus por dentro"
("The Inside of Opus Dei") in Area
Crítica, No. 2, (July, 1983) p
34.
162. Rodriguez, "Esclavos de un
Mesías" ("Slaves of a Messiah"), p. 100-101.
163. Moreno, pp 84-85.
164. Carandell, p 163.
165. Moncada, "Historia oral del
Opus Dei", op cit.
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CHAPTER
I
SECTS AND OPUS DEI
15. Abandoning the Work of God:
Harassment of Fugitives and Social
Death
The biblical curse, according to the "Father", will be heavy on
any of his members who cease to belong to the sect. Escrivá
said: “He who leaves the Work
abandons the boat and goes into darkness”.
(166)
The dissidents of Opus Dei are persecuted, slandered, and an effort is
made to of isolate them so that they cannot tell what they have seen,
and, if they do tell it in spite of everything, so that no one will
listen to them. (167)
The media, which are largely run by or dependent
on banks that can be reached by the Work or are afraid of Opus Dei,
have paid almost no attention to these testimonies.
The Work, says Alberto Moncada, makes use of the best resources to keep
the rebel ones in check. It is also the time to open the box of
thunders and
suggest that not persevering in the sect can lead to eternal damnation,
(168)
threatening the dissident's accomplices or the neutrals ones with the
idea that the dissident has committed a grave
sin.
The departure from the Work is a curious phenomenon because, suddenly,
you feel how little you matter to some people who have witnessed years
of your best efforts. You are a file for the archives. It's over. And
the fewer signs of life you give, the better. Because you are a burning
reminder of their failures.
However, divine wrath has a genuine outlet in the persecution to which,
in many sects, they subject their former members. There are already
many published denunciations, backed by the credibility and/or evidence
of their authors, which place Opus Dei, its men, at the center of
persecution campaigns against its former members of certain social
weight.
(169) In this
way, through the many resources that the obedient men of
Opus Dei control in society, the lives and professional careers of some
of the defectors from the Work have been ruined by their excessive
loquacity. Anyone investigating the surroundings of Opus Dei always
encounters a clearly verbalized constant: fear of speaking.
María Angustias Moreno has written that leaving the Work is not
easy. If you are, and stop being, you become part of the group of those
who are absolutely marginalized. You become despicable. Overnight, all
relationships and interest in the person who is leaving are over. The
same people who said they loved him so much that they were willing to
give their lives for him, who took advantage of his best possibilities,
ignore him, forget him completely. They no longer care about what they
may need, they don't care how he will rebuild his life. He has stopped
counting for everything, they don't want to know anything anymore, they
would rather not cross paths with him in the street anymore. It is a
tangible demonstration of how little an individual really matters to
them!
The same people who, some time ago, would have been very interested in
you because you belonged to the Work, later ignore you and
avoid you because you no longer are. "Those
who leave are as if
they had died". (171)
For those in Opus Dei, leaving the Work is an unmitigated desertion, a
betrayal. A consent and pact with the diabolic temptation. From this it
is logical to deduce that whoever leaves goes to the abyss and is
hopelessly lost. His efforts are no longer of any use. I believe -
Maria Anguishes continues - that somehow they understand that those who
leave have an obligation to condemn themselves.
It is enough to leave Opus Dei to lose one's holiness.
Another numerary was being pressured, and the advice she was given to
get rid of the idea of leaving was the following: “Anyone who leaves
the Work betrays and sells Jesus”, “No one who has left the Work has
been happy”, “Hell awaits you”.
(172)
People find it hard to leave. A Colombian Jesuit even reported
suicides. (173)
So did John Roche, who claims to know directly of a
suicide in Opus Dei in Kenya and who has heard of two more women in
London, one of whom threw herself from the fourth floor of an Opus Dei
house.
“When you leave you become a
non-person, and no member is allowed to
help you”, says Maria del Carmen Tapia.“When a person leaves Opus Dei
they are on the street, financially, spiritually and psychologicall.”
(174)
Susana Crepi's father hugs his daughter and kisses her on the forehead.
“Calm down, you're free now”, he muses. “I am, Dad, but they're not”,
replies the young woman, referring to those who still remain in the
darkness of Opus Dei, in the blindness of the sect. The priest adds:
“Fortunately we have recovered Susana, but we feel the need to explain
to people what Opus Dei is all about and why it is so difficult to
leave the organization. My daughter was persecuted for months to get
her back. And the reality is that in Opus Dei there are three
categories of members: the masters, the waiters, and the dogs.”
During their time in Opus Dei, they are exposed to fear and guilt and
to the spiritual survival of their own members outside, in the open, in
the world. Its purpose is to ensure that members are not tempted to
leave the closed space of the organization, the enclosed area of the
sect. That is why they make the existence of their members dependent on
the group, leaving them destitute, to avoid the temptation of returning
to normality.
Nor should we dismiss the fear that many followers may have of the sect
itself, when it comes to considering abandonment.
In the Work it is assured that everyone who leaves is because he has
stopped living practices of piety - which they call "rules of the
plan of life" - or because he has been preoccupied by personal,
selfish
problems. Other causes they also adduce are insincerity, lust or pride.
With these arguments they calm and temper those who, remaining within,
might fall into the weakness of leaving.
When Covi Carcedo G. Roces left the Work, he was told that “he would
disappear”, that “they would
water the streets of Oviedo with his
blood”, but he says that “they
do everything cowardly, not with the
courage that is born of honesty and truth, but with the cowardice that
is born of profit”. On his departure he filed a complaint
against Opus
Dei for fraud. (176)
They try to fill you with fear, explains MRS. “They repeat that
you will be condemned, that they are the truth, and that the others are
traitors.” (177)
“These are the classic arguments of
moral blackmail.”
(178)
Usually those who leave are traumatized by the experience
Some examples are provided by Alberto Moncada.....
Miguel Fiscac, the
well-known architect who entered Opus Dei at its earlier stages, left
it
because of the moral conflicts he himself has related, when he married
Ana María Badell and today he does not want to know anything
about the Work of God, nor about its partners.
Antonio Pérez, a rising star in Opus Dei, had to suffer one of
the
most tenacious persecutions when he left the Work as part of a
painful journey of self-enlightenment...
Maria del Carmen Tapia went
from being the director of Opus Dei to being a prisoner in the same
institution, in an abrupt change of heart.
Raimundo Panikkar was the
other star, the intellectual, of that first group of postwar opusdeists
who dramatically moved away from the institution.
Francisco José
de Saralegui, an old Christian, had an important role in the economic
activity of the Work until his departure... (179)
Jesús Ynfante
tells us that Antonio Pérez Hernández de los Granales was
number one in the race to become a lawyer for the Council of
State, a companion of Amadeo Fuenmayor and a very brilliant man for
those who knew him; he had been ordained a priest and entered the
Priestly Society of the Holy Cross in 1948. He was also the rector of
the house on San Justo Street in Madrid. One day he left everything and
disappeared with what he was wearing, that is, his suit and shoes.
Located in Mexico, they try to convince him to return with negative
results. Then
Opus Dei forced him to change his name and he promised not to return to
Spain for the rest of his life. (180)
In general, when an adept leaves a sect, such as Opus Dei, he or she
presents the following psychological picture: 1) Depression; 2) Feeling
of loneliness; 3) Negative self-evaluation; 4) Guilt complex; 5) Low
level of autonomy in adapting to daily behavior; 6) Reduction in mental
acuity; 7) Tendency to fall into altered states of consciousness; 8)
End of the chosen complex; 9) Aversion towards the sect because of the
traumatic experience; 10) Fear of the sect.
In order to rehabilitate some members and get them back to the notion
of reality and frein many cases it is necessary to deprogram them
to regenerate and make them forget the bitter nightmare.
REFERENCES
166. "Área Crítica",
op cit.
167. Ibid.
168. Moncada, "El Opus Dei: Una
interpretación", p. 116.
169. Rodriguez, "El poder de las
sectas" ("The Power of Cults"), p. 75.
170. Moreno, "El Opus Dei, anexo a
una historia", pp 84-85.
171. Ibid, p 87.
172. "A. L. M. N.," Opus Dei member.
173. Walsh, p 183.
174. Ibid. p 183.
175. "Interviú" magazine.
176. Covi Carcedo G. Roces, "Tiempo" magazine (July 21, 1986).
177. Newspaper "El País"
(May 1, 1988).
178. Carandell, op cit, p 30.
179. Moncada, "Historia oral del
Opus Dei", p. 11.
180. Ynfante, "La prodigiosa
aventura del Opus Dei", p. 353.
Index
of Chapter I
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OPUS JUDEI
INDEX - CHAPTER II
CHAPTER II
THE
HIDDEN LIFE OF ESCRIVÁ DE BALAGUER
1. The
merciless lie
2. The family environment
3. Seminary and
adolescence
4. A seer with much
sight? Divine revelation?
In Spanish (English translation
pending):
5. Nefarious
tendencies
6. Escriva
and women
7. Escriva
and the
seven deadly sins
8. Man
without a name.
Delusions of grandeur
9. Freemasonry
10. Death
and resurrection
11. Holy
and sign
12. The
scandal of a beatification
NOTE.
If a reader wishes to read in English any of the not yet translated
sections, he/she may use this
very accurate on-line translator.
Complete Index
CHAPTER
II
THE HIDDEN LIFE OF JOSE MARIA
ESCRIVÁ DE
BALAGUER
1. The Merciless Lie
The biographies about the "Father" grossly fail
in their
account of the worldly and outrageously outlandish
behavior of the charismatic
leader of Opus Dei:
the falsehood and the lie as a rule,
the concealment of essential information and
the many references of his life which reflect
his true personality. We have been presented with
a portrait of Escrivá that is quite far from reality; it
presents a heavily
retouched, sweetened, false and misleading image.
It is impressive, of course, the capacity of this man for all
kinds of deceptions.
Deceptions that, undoubtedly, have made him appear "great". That
he is the "Father" is the masterpiece of his deceptions. (1).
The machinery of
propaganda and publicity that Opus Dei
has at its service, with ample means at its disposal, is responsible
for
disseminating and publicizing many of the manipulated shades of
Escrivá's
profile, highlighting with passion - and with
extreme
overtones - a
curriculum vitae custom-made
for the unwary and
the naive. Some allegedly prestigious details are highlighted and
underscored,
enlarged to
unimaginable extremes, while "important
details from his
biography, information of great significance for
the prosecution of the Work he founded, is concealed". (2) Exhaustive
mention is made, with great pomposity,
of aspects that would
be positive signs for
the credit of any human being, knowing well that
they are lying shamelessly
and without mercy.
In the flattering
biographies circulating
about the "Father's" character, his
academic preparation is highlighted, attributing to him a series of
studies and titles without any justification. For example,
among
the most widespread lies are those that attribute to him that "he was
superior of the Francisco de Paula Seminary in Zaragoza", a lie.
That
he was "Professor of Canon Law and
Roman Law in Zaragoza and Madrid", a
lie. That he "reached the degree of
Graduate in
Sacred Theology from
the Pontifical University of Zaragoza", a lie. That he "taught General
Ethics and Morals (Deontology) at the School of Journalism in Madrid",
a lie. In
particular, it
is curious and shocking that he claims to
be a
Doctor of Law from
the University of Madrid without
ever having set foot in a university
in his entire life (3)
- thanks to the doctoral thesis
that was apparently
written entirely by Father
Bugar, the confessor of
General
Franco.
But the lies and
the
farce about Escrivá are not limited to the studies that he never
pursued. They
also try to secure a lineage for him, going so far as to
write that "he was of ancient and
clean lineage on both branches of the family tree", a lie, a
hoax and a
tale.
"At the age of 15 he had already
learned of his 'divine' choice
to
found Opus Dei", is an invention. That "our Lady had appeared to him
with
a rose in her hand asking him to found Opus Dei", is a lie. That
"Opus
Dei
was founded in 1928 by divine commission", is a lie. That "he carried
out
intense pastoral work in rural parishes", is a lie, or that "from 1927
he
began intense pastoral work among the poor and sick in the extreme
suburbs and hospitals of Madrid", is just another lie and a hoax
in
order to create a persona that never existed. These lies have been
fabricated and repeated with insistence to give them the mark of
absolute truth, based on the fact that a lie
repeated a thousand times will be
considered as an
unquestionable truth.
The reason for
the misrepresentations and the false biographical data is,
therefore, uncovered
when they try to prove that Escrivá did everything:
seminary superior, village parish priest, lawyer, etc. (4). All the
efforts of these pseudo-historians of
Opus Dei are
focused on offering - for the
internal consumption of the "Work of
God" and for
some other unwary people
- a clerical, scholarly and secular prefabricated
figure of the founder of Opus Dei, all the while Escrivá
himself being
the first firmly interested in maintaining the lie of his own
life.
While, on
the one hand, uncertain facts, stories and hoaxes about the
life of the "Father" have been propagated, there are others, the
authentic, genuine and true facts that have
been kept in the strictest
secret. There are
very important issues that have been jealously guarded in
secrecy, preventing them to be known, such as Escrivá de
Balaguer's Jewish
ancestry, the crypto-Jewish roots of his doctrine, his own short
intellectual development up to his conception of Opus Dei, his hidden
inspirations,
Escrivá's apparent homosexuality, his connections with certain
ramifications of subversion and, of course, the real and
ultimate goal
of the foundation whose fuse he was lighting.
Who was the inventor of the biographical
novel that has
been provided through Opus Dei in order to confuse us? It is
Escrivá himself
who,
aware of the sectarian tactics, has drawn an image
about himself which is not even the shadow of the
harsh reality. His
self-invention, suggested to his conspired supporters and spread by
them, has resulted in the misleading mythification of a vulgar and, in
many ways, despicable
figure.
There is a duplicity and a dilemma in Escrivá's
personality.
The authentic and the false; the real and the mythical; the fabricated
and the flesh-and-blood; the friendly face and the bitter face; the
opposites; the one who they want to sell us with self-praise and
publicity and the one who was in reality; the superficial and the
hidden; the public one and the one behind the scenes.
The creation of the myth, the "divinization" of his figure is one of
the techniques used in all sects to turn it into a cult of worship, an
inaccessible point, an
exalted
reference for the hooked and followers of the
charismatic leader.
With adequate brainwashing, their thinking and
their feeling will
be obsessively focused on the figure of the leader, who
manipulates them for the purpose of exploitation.
In the biography of the "Father", fiction is mixed with reality,
intentionally confusing facts with fiction and, above all, claiming on
many occasions exactly the opposite of what is objectively a
fact.
The deception is often achieved by the manipulation of semantics,
emptying the words of their original meaning and filling them
with other content, as was the case with Escrivá, who used
Christian terminology in the conception of his work to introduce,
surreptitiously, a selfish and Judaeo-Talmudic sense into our society.
His biography is so artificial that he even hides and denies his real
name: Escriba. The real name of his birth which appears in his birth
certificate in
the Civil Registry, the surname of his father which etymologically
means the "doctor and interpreter of
the Law among the Hebrews" (5) - has been replaced by
another -
Escrivá de Balaguer - which was not and is
not, his real name.
Opus Dei can only
be explained through the understanding of the figure of the
"Father". This
means that, in order to understand the spiritual structure of Opus Dei,
it is necessary to
understand the spiritual structure of its founder.
José Ortega, professor of Criminal Law, was right when he
responded to a journalistic interview on June 26, 1975: "I read
a biography of Don Josemaría Escrivá. Then, I thought
about the man, and I came to the conclusion that Don Josemaría
is not biographable".
(6)
The obtuse personality of the "Father" is inaccessible to normal
understanding, which is why he is not understood in his exact dimension
as a counterfeiter. The analysis of his personality
requires a background of anthropological, historical and
characterological studies and knowledge that entails a
remarkable intellectual effort.
The authentic biography of the "Father" is one of the taboo questions
that are hidden and that is out of circulation.
The literature available to us
on this subject either silences or conceals the great facts that are
unquestionable:
That the essence of Opus Dei is one person (the Work
is the "Father") and
that his
personality is the cornerstone on which the whole
edifice of the Work stands.
This is why we have imposed upon ourselves,
following the directive of Pope Leo XIII in his encyclical "Humanum
Genum" (1884), to demystify false myths and unmask deceptions,
which
may
be an appropriate motto to introduce us to the intimate and hidden life
of this simulated and enigmatic character, who is the
promoter of Opus Dei.
Florentino Pérez Embid, an official
biographer of
Escrivá de Balaguer, repeats with suspicious insistence that
"the development of the Work in all
its aspects is the very biography
of its founder", and
also "the history of Opus Dei is the
very biography
of its founder". (7)
At that
point, the most important keys required for
objectively researching into the reality of Escrivá
and
his Work were and are still unknown. (8)
Yvon Le Vaillant writes that "one
often wonders whether the leaders of
the Work, beginning with the founder, have decided once and for all to
mock the world" (9).
And it is the curling of this pharisaic smile
that we will try to unravel.
REFERENCES
1. Moreno, "Opus Dei, anexo a una
historia" ("Opus Dei, Addendum to a
History"), p. 139.
2. Carandell, p 165.
3. María Angustias Moreno, "La
otra cara del Opus Dei" ("The
other face of Opus Dei") (Barcelona:
Planeta, 1970), p 34.
4. Ynfante, "La prodigiosa aventura
del Opus Dei" ("The Prodigious
Adventure of Opus Dei"), p 7.
5. Encyclopedic Dictionary CODEX, p 504.
6. Bernal, p 9.
7. Ynfante, pp 9-10.
8. Moreno, "La otra cara del Opus
Dei" ("The other face of Opus Dei"),
p 25.
9. Le Vaillant, p 9.
Index
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CHAPTER
II
THE HIDDEN LIFE OF
ESCRIVÁ DE
BALAGUER
2. The Family Environment
José María Escriba Albás, is the second of six
brothers. He was born on 9 January 1902 in Barbastro (Huesca). His
father, José Escriba Corzán, was a merchant in Barbastro.
(10) He was born
on October 15, 1867 in Fonz, although his family had come from Peralta
de la Sal. As a businessman, he was already one of the three partners
of "Sucesores de Cirilo Latorre"
in 1894, a society that, due to
disagreements and disputes for economic reasons in the distribution of
money among the partners, was dissolved in May 1902. The society
- adopting the new commercial
label of "Juncosa y Escriba"
- continued with two of
the three original partners, Juan Juncosa and José Escriba, in
the business of fabrics, garments and cloths. It must be noted that the
trade of cloths and fabrics
has always been one of the favorite trades of the Spanish Jews since
the Middle Ages on the Iberian Peninsula.
José María was born at the time of the crisis in the
"Sucesores de Cirilo Latorre"
partnership, at a time when his father,
in
combination with Juan Juncosa, was trying to take over most of the
business, eliminating one of the partners in order to obtain greater
profits. His mother was the next to the last of thirteen siblings.
José María's birthplace was his parents' home in the
Plaza del Mercado, so called because it was where the stalls for
sales and trading were located. He was baptized on January 13
and given the names José María Julián Mariano. (11)
It was in the Plaza del Mercado, at the door of his house, where he
played "civilians and thieves" with the other children
of the neighborhood (12).
José María liked to hide and not be
caught by the "civilians". This is what is said in the children's game:
A perfect "thief" who knows how to simulate, hide and guard himself
from the view and the action of those who in the game presented
order and authority, that is, the "civilians".
He was not a strong child. (13)
When he was only two years old he became seriously ill and feared for
his life. He was considered terminally ill by the doctors. (14) Three of his sisters
died within a period of three years, between 1910 and
1913. José María believed that he would be next because
of his weak and sickly condition. He voluntarily withdrew from the
company of boys his own age and went into a deep depression.
On one occasion, while José María was in the town
of Fonz, near Barbastro, where his father was a native, and he had
gone to spend a few days in the house of the local priest, his father's
brother (15),
"he had some attacks, the seriousness
of which was diagnosed by the
doctor consulted. He was further examined by doctors from Fonz,
Barbastro and
Huesca. He suffered from 'alferecías', which is what is now
known as epilepsy". Escriba would continue to suffer from these
convulsive attacks,
which, of course, have been discreetly hidden and silenced.
He studied at the school of the Piarist Fathers in Barbastro, making
his first communion in 1912. According to the testimony of Aurelio
Español, a pharmacist from Jaca who also attended his high
school, there were only a few students.
A witness of that time was Mr. José Mur, a schoolmate of
José María in Barbastro, who said that "his schoolmate
was a normal child, not especially pious nor especially studious".
(16)
Among some of his hobbies, that already reveal to us the inclinations
of
the future founder, we find the one cited by his official biographer
Salvador Barnal in a book published by Opus Dei's publishing house,
Rialp, in 1976 (17)
- "José
María some nights, after closing his mother's shop, stayed on to
help calculate the money they had made that day; he enjoyed counting
coins very much" - an archetypal Jewish trait.
On the other hand "he liked stories
a lot". (18)
Escrivá would also comment, for example, that "in those days
visits to
his house were commonplace. Families and some of the mother's friends
visited them. He had to greet them, because he was the child of the
house, and
when his father's friends wanted to kiss him, he defended himself,
especially from a distant relative of his grandmother, with a real
mustache that pricked". (19)
Escriba received from his elders a severe and Semitic, rancid
education.
"His mother had always made her
children aware of the importance of
making
things last, to avoid unnecessary expenses; of thinking very well, with
common sense, about any purchase, without stretching out the arm more
than the sleeve"; of taking advantage of things apparently less
useful:
"with the threads that are pulled,
the devil makes a rope"
taught Doña Dolores to her daughter Carmen when she was learning
to sew in Barbastro..." (20)
His
father did not have a very good reputation in the village and by
the end of 1913, his business was on the verge of bankruptcy,
presumably a fraudulent bankruptcy. Those were the "financial troubles"
of which Daniel
Artigues (21)
speaks that provoked the nightly departure of his family, the flight
from the
village which left unpaid large sums
of money to the neighbors, suppliers and providers.
As Francisco Umbral wrote in his national
newspaper: (22)
"Spain is not a country
of climbers. The last one was Escrivá. The Escrivás, a
family
of merchants who fled during the night from Barbastro to avoid
creditors". He did not show his face, he did not face up to his
debts,
he did not ask for a moratorium to, with honest and dignified work, pay
his many debts. Mr. Escriba
preferred to leave through the small door, at night, to consummate the
fraud of the creditors.
Continuing
the story of the events given to us by Luis Carandell (23), the family's happiness
was abruptly interrupted in 1915 as a result of the bankruptcy.
References to said bankruptcy are easily found anywhere but no mention
is made about defaulting the creditors of the hitherto flourishing
business of selling fabrics.
There are various versions of the causes of this bankruptcy, which was
to cause a profound shock to family life. One of José
María Escrivá's friends at the seminary in Zaragoza said
that Escrivá himself had told him that his father had had a
dispute with some nuns. In Barbastro it is also said that one of the
partners in the business, Mr. Mur, decided at one point to separate
from the other partners, Juncosa and Escriba, to whom he sold them his
share. Including in the contract was a clause of no concurrence, to
eliminate Mr. Mur as a future and possible competitor in the region.
However, it seems that he violated that clause through a front man,
which
led to the initiation of a trial urged by Escrivá and Juncosa
from which, apparently, they came out badly, leading the company name
to ruin.
The dramatic tone of the bankruptcy was set by the fact that the
partners. and their families. were forced to leave the city, with
Juncosa going to
Huesca and Escriba to Logroño, where they could not be located
so easily.
"Some people from Barbastro with whom
I spoke", Carandell tell us,
"told me that Monsignor was 'bitter'
about his home town and this was
the reason why he did not go there more often. In fact, Don
Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer has not visited Barbastro,
at least officially". (24)
His father's ruin in the textile business, with the
aftermath of hardships and privations that the Escriba family had
to endure in the following years, left in José María's
mind a deep trauma that would manifest itself, unmistakably, throughout
his life, even to the point of affirming that "without the ruin of the
Juncosa y Escriba name, the personality of the founder of Opus Dei, and
in fact Opus Dei itself, would have had a very different content".
(25)
Since 1915, when he was thirteen years of age, Jose
María lived in Logroño with his family in an attic at
number 18,
Sagasta Street, where they appear to be hiding from the pressures of
creditors, in a sordid atmosphere of economic hardship.
There, during the 1915-16 academic year, he enrolled in the
Logroño High School. His father, with the stigma of mistrust due
to his immediate past, finally managed to get a job as a shop
assistant in a grocery store in the city. (26)
In these circumstances, his entry into the seminary was
more a question
of survival than of a deep-seated vocation.
Nor can it be said that his family environment was
moralizing or
exemplary.
As a student, he was mediocre, although with a sense of
fairness, his family
environment was not the most propitious for a serene spirit. That was
the
family picture, realistic and without aura.
REFERENCES
10. Bernal, p 16.
11. Ibid, p 16.
12. Ibid, p 18.
13. Walsh, p 24.
14. Bernal, p 22.
15. Carandell, p 137.
16. Ibid, p 133.
17. Bernal, p 18.
18. Ibid, p 19.
19. Ibid, p 17.
20. Ibid, p 32.
21. Artigues, p 17.
22. "El País"
newspaper (January 20, 1986).
23. Carandell, p 116.
24. Ibid, p 117.
25. Ibid, p 118.
26. Ynfante, "La prodigiosa aventura
del Opus Dei" ("The Prodigious
Adventure of Opus Dei"), p 4.
Index
of Chapter II
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Section
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Section
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Index
CHAPTER
II
THE HIDDEN LIFE OF
ESCRIVÁ DE
BALAGUER
3. Seminary and Adolescence
There is a sincere and very direct confession by the protagonist
himself
regarding his decision to choose ecclesiastical studies which does not
offer room for controversy: "I never
thought of becoming a priest, nor
of devoting myself to God. I had not considered that situation, because
I
thought it was not for me. What is more, the thought of ever becoming a
priest bothered me, to the point that I felt anticlerical". (27) Thus, literally, in
these very terms Escrivá de Balaguer expressed it. In addition,
none of those who treated him as a child thought that he would become a
priest.
In relation to the subject of Latin, and still using the exact words
spoken
by Escrivá in an intimate and confidential conversation, he
said: "I remember that when I was in
high school, we studied Latin. I
did not like it and said: Latin is for priests and friars...
Do you see how far I was from being a priest?" (28)
Salvador Bernal, the official biographer and member of Opus Dei who
most praises and flatters the "Father" in his exegetical written work
for
publicity and propaganda purposes, has to give in and bow to the
evidence by corroborating that "we
know that Escrivá was not
interested
in an ecclesiastical career: he was not attracted to being a priest".
(29) So much so
that when,
in
Logroño, he communicated his intentions to his father, they were
not received with joy, but with sadness. His father's reaction was
one of weeping with rage because, as Escrivá tells us, when he
told his father of his intention to become a
priest, he was in tears, not of emotion but of impotence because, and,
being
these the words of his son, "he had
other possible plans". (30)
Agustín Pérez Tomás, a fellow student in
Logroño, alludes to the fact that a fellow student once told
José María that he could be a priest and he responded
very firmly: "Bah, nonsense!"
(31)
Paula Royo, a contemporary, also insists that there was never anything
in his behavior, anything external, that made her think of his priestly
vocation. (32)
What was Josemaría Escrivá's predisposition when he made
the decision to pursue ecclesiastical studies in the seminary? He gave
us the
answer: "I didn't have a single
virtue, not even a single peseta". (33) Here he speaks to us of
his lack of virtues and also, and this is the subconscious that betrays
him, he combines it with money, with material things, with money, with
pesetas (Spanish currency at the time). This is what he boasted of: "I
am very stubborn". (34)
Therefore, in
1918, at the age of 16, without Christian virtues and
without pesetas - according to his own testimony - he began his
ecclesiastical studies in the seminary of Logroño, without being
a complete seminarian within the student body. Because of his fragile
health, he started his career as an external seminarian.
His inability with Latin will weigh decisively on the life
and work of Father Escrivá. (35) He was dragged down by
it when he entered the seminary in Logroño and he would continue
to suffer from it in the seminary of Saragossa. "He was weak in Latin",
say his companions in both cities. "It
was a late vocation, he was one
of the few priests who knew how to make his tie", and they
added, "and
he had no idea of Latin".
He stayed at the seminary in Logroño from October 1918 until
September 1920 when he moved to Saragossa. This sudden change of
seminary, is a dark turning point in his life; this something that is
quite
clear. He was expelled from the seminary of Logroño and the
cause had to do with his alleged condition as a homosexual. Luis
Carandell,
when he asked himself what had happened in the seminary of
Logroño to make him decide to move to Saragossa, did not rule
out the possibility that Josemaría
Escrivá had been the protagonist of some incident and even of an
expulsion from the seminary. (36)
This decision to go to Saragossa has not been justified or explained by
anyone, not even by the protagonist himself.
The biographies say that the choice of Saragossa was due to the fact
that he was able to enter the seminary of the city of the Ebro for
studying law after the incident in the Logroño seminary was
"fixed", thanks to the good offices of his uncle, Don
Carlos Albás, who at that time was Canon Archbishop of the Seo.
His mother's brother, Don Carlos Albás, interceded at his
sister's request, since
he did not get on very well with Escrivá's father, whose
irregular
behavior he thought was responsible for the family's financial
situation and about whom he knew many unflattering things.
This contempt for his
brother-in-law was quite evident from the fact that he did not attend
the
funeral or burial when Escriba died in 1924. Don Carlos, because he was
an
upright and virtuous man and knew the inner workings of his nephew
José María, would not be present at his nephew's first
Mass, sung on 28 March 1925, either. In spite of such dislike, it was
through his
mediation that he was able to cover up Jose María's
transgression at
the Logroño Seminary and continue his studies at the San
Francisco de Paula Seminary in Saragossa. In addition, through Don
Carlos' influence he was able to obtain a place at the San Carlos
priestly
residence. We must not forget that the first Mass is, as Jesuit Michael
Walsh reminds us when speaking of the absence of Don Carlos
Albás, one of the largest family celebrations within the
Catholic community. (37)
Obviously, Don Carlos knew his nephew very well.
The written notes of a professor of José María in the
1920-21 period are preserved, defining the seminarian as "fickle and
haughty" and where it is also stated that "he had a quarrel with Don
Julio Cortés and the corresponding punishment was imposed".
(38)
It should be noted from this period that, in his seminary studies,
Escrivá did not obtain particularly brilliant results. (39) In 1924 he even failed
the subject of Spanish History. The opinions that his conduct merited
from his classmates, who remember him as a "rather unpleasant boy,
little given to conversation and who hardly participated in the common
concerns or entertainment" are not very favorable either. (40) Some of them interpret
this trait of his character as vanity, pride or arrogance, and there
are those who attribute it to a shyness which he had not overcome at
that point yet.
Others find him mediocre, closed, uninteresting. They all seem to agree
on one thing: he had a certain tendency to idolatry... to
self-idolatry. (41)
A sort of hidden vanity that would emerge throughout the fulfillment of
all his ambitions. For example, when he was congratulated on some
triumph, he had the habit of replying: "Oh! I am just a poor ordinary
priest" which necessarily provoked the complimentary denial of
the
interlocutor.
At one time, in Saragossa, he jumped from his desk and shouted
to the shocked classroom audience:
"Formidable! I am formidable!" This
contrasts
with the opinion of one of Escrivá's companions at the Seminary,
Manuel Mindán Manero, who described him as "a dark, introverted
man with a notable lack of sharpness, a man of little light". (42) Other fellow students
mention him as "a young man who was
not very involved in ordinary life,
of reserved appearance and a temperament that was simultaneously rigid
and
ardent, which sometimes overflowed into sudden and violent anger".
(43)
In the Seminary he enjoyed the protection of Cardinal Soldevilla, who
was
to be murdered in 1923, and who gave him special treatment, trusting
him
to inform him if the rest of the students in the Seminary complied with
the rules to ensure that there was "prefect
discipline" inside the classrooms. His fellow students remember
how the
Cardinal once told him: "Come
and see me when you have some
time". In
recognition of his work, and as a reward for the betrayal of his own
companions, he was given the external distinction of having a single
room in the residence and a "family
member" at his service (the "family
members" were seminarians who, because of their poverty, had
free
tuition and were responsible for cleaning certain rooms and serving the
table for everyone).
At the end of his ecclesiastical studies, he began to prepare his
thesis about the priestly ordination, in the 16th and 17th centuries,
of mixed race individuals and those in
their forties. He never finished it. (44)
His first Mass was celebrated in Pilar, in the chapel of Our Lady, on
March 28 and very few people attended - about twelve - (45) which shows how little
sympathy the new priest enjoyed at all levels.
For this reason he is part of the group of young priests who wished to
leave their diocese of origin to go and live in Madrid and, as one of
its historians insinuates, "this
period of his life is quite dark". (46) In March 1927 he was
authorized by the Ordinary to move to Madrid, (47) although it does not
seem that the young Escrivá was too concerned about the
ecclesiastical world at that time either. Escrivá, although he
was spiritually directed by a Jesuit, was notoriously suspicious of the
clergy and spoke very disparagingly of so many foundations of friars
and nuns who "were born to do
evangelical things and ended up educating
rich children". (48)
With regard to
the supposed Law studies carried out by
Josemaría Escrivá - Antonio Pérez, who at certain
times of his life was his private secretary, tells us that "Father
Escrivá was not a great jurist, as they wanted to
present him to us later. I even doubt very much that he had studied
any law. I never saw his degree, and the way things were in the Work,
if
there was a degree, it would have been placed in an impressive golden
frame.
Of course, from the conversations we had, I think that if he had
studied law he would have forgotten it completely. In any case, he was
not fond of law and even had a certain contempt for it". (49) The quotation is
conclusive.
The thesis attributed to him about the Abbess of Las Huelgas, which was
published in 1944 with his name as author, was entirely written by
Father Bugar. Once published, Escrivá had the "holy
shamelessness" of presenting it at the University in order to be
given
a doctorate in law for that work written by the one who would be the
Franco's confessor and which contained the history of the
jurisdictional
authority of the aforementioned nun. Among the clues that give away his
authorship of the text are the numerous quotations in German, a
language that Josemaría Escrivá did not know at all,
as Maria del Carmen Tapia also found out. (50)
Obtaining the
academic titles was part of the recipes Escrivá had to enhance
his achievements, as indicated in Ma. Angustias Moreno's book entitled The Other Face of Opus Dei. In it
she reproduced a letter from the lawyer Féliz Pons, a former
collaborator of Escrivá's, which quotes verbatim phrases of the
"Father" regarding the obtaining and enjoying titles:
"...in
Saragossa there was a good
friend who did not examine me, I would pass and I would get my degree",
or that
"...it was not necessary to study...",
and that
"...because when we have the
professorships, everyone will have their
careers, their doctorates, many degrees, because that attracts a lot of
people."(51)
That was said and written. We must therefore think that Escrivá,
since his charity began with himself, would apply to himself what he
preached and wanted for his own.
Julián Cortés Cavanillas met Josemaría
Escrivá in 1928 and described him as a priest from Barbastro,
who at that time "was a type of,
what today would be classified as, a
progressive and rebellious priest, especially in certain exterior and
dialectical aspects, who often dressed as a civilian". In
his
text Cortés Cavanillas reveals something not mentioned before
which was about "...José
María's hesitations that once
beset his vocation after the death in Logroño of his father Don
José, on November 27, 1924".
In Madrid, one of his first jobs was as a preceptor for the children of
a marquis. At the time when he was beginning to "sense" what Opus Dei
should be, (53)
he went daily to the house of a Madrid aristocrat. To earn more money
he worked as a chaplain in a convent of nuns. In 1932, his mother moved
to Madrid to live in a modest apartment at 4 Martínez Campos
Street, where she admitted guests (54) as the patroness of
students seeking boarding houses.
Fisac specifies two aspects of Escrivá's personality in those
years: "In my opinion, Father
Escrivá was not an intellectual"
and also, and this is more relevant, that "...there were hardly any
religious books in Escrivá's room". (55) The Eusko-Ikasle
Socialist considers him "not
brilliant, but rather an ignorant and
unpolished insignificant priest from Aragón". (56)
Until 1944 he would be the only priest of Opus Dei.
REFERENCES
27. Bernal, p 55.
28. Ibid, p 57.
29. Ibid, p 59.
30. Ibid, p 58.
31. Ibid, p 27.
32. Ibid, p 31.
33. Ibid.
34. Ibid, p 30.
35. Carandell, pp 142-143.
36. Ibid, p 147.
37. Walsh, p 25.
38. Bernal, p 63.
39. Carandell, p 151.
40. Ibid, p 26.
41. Le Vaillant, p 12.
42. Ynfante, "La prodigiosa aventura
del Opus Dei" ("The Prodigious
Adventure of Opus Dei"), p 6.
43. Artigues, p. 17.
44. Walsh, p 27.
45. Bernal, p 67.
46. Le Vaillant, p 11.
47. Dominique Le Tourneau, "The Opus
Dei", p 13.
48 Moncada, "Historia oral del Opus
Dei" ("Oral History of Opus Dei")p. 15.
49. Ibid, p. 19.
50. Ibid, p. 20.
51. Ibid.
52. Julián Cortés Cavanillas, "Mi amigo el padre
Escrivá" ("My Friend Father
Escrivá"), "ABC"
newspaper (September 14, 1986), p. 52.
53. Carandell, p. 70.
54. Ibid, p. 169.
55. Moncada, "Historia oral del Opus
Dei" ("Oral History of Opus Dei"),
pp. 90-91.
56. Ynfante, "La prodigiosa aventura
del Opus Dei" ("The Prodigious
Adventure of Opus Dei"), p 386.
Index
of Chapter II
Previous
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Index
CHAPTER
II
THE HIDDEN LIFE OF
ESCRIVÁ DE
BALAGUER
4. A Seer with Much Sight?
Divine
Revelation?
The Work's official hagiographer, Salvador Bernal, who has dived into,
and distorted, Escrivá's life without shame, has written his
biography in a
passionate, subjective and somewhat extreme way, evoking the words that
three months before the sudden death of the Work's Founder, during a
trivial scene, but which
is more the product of the subconscious than of the innocent man he
wants
to present to us.
Escrivá said: "We passed by
the building
(Luchana 33 mezzanine, DYA Academy) a
short while ago, and my heart was
pounding... How much suffering! How much contradiction! How much
quackery! How many lies!" (57)
And we underline three concepts that came
from the very lips of Escrivá: contradiction, quackery and lies.
If such were the beginnings, the origins, the roots... the Work and
Escrivá are fused into one because "The Work up to now has been
nothing other than the person of its founder. The divine inspiration of
his conception, its supernatural origin, its later development,
everything, because this is what Escrivá thought was
appropriate, the Work needed to be incarnated in his own personality,
in his
human personality. The Work, until now, has been him and him alone".
(58)
Those dark
years, that nebulous past, had to be covered with a
divine aura and a contract with the Most High, in order to impress the
believers. Escrivá had to follow the tradition of the biblical
prophets
or the founders of religions, he had to prefabricate an encounter with
God himself, from whom he would receive the order. A vision. An
apparition. That was the myth and the trigger.
To the question asked, "Where does
its huge halo come from, where does
its magnetism come from?" Alberto Moncada, who knew
Escrivá very well, says that "For
men of faith, Father Escrivá is
the one to whom, like Moses, God spoke. An internal story whispered
makes mention of apparitions, of divine messages that are
never fully explained. If parapsychology could be given the data,
perhaps we could have some idea of what really happened in those
stellar moments of his life. But neither science is yet mature nor do I
think it will be given that data." (59)
"The emotional charge with which
gullible people deal with the
supernatural makes demigods of the alleged emissaries of the divine to
the
point of making their clothes into talismans and their words into
oracles." (59)
"The only honest way for ordinary
people to contrast these
personalities is to judge their works, their fruits, their behavior
with the modest tools of the most universal ethics." (59)
There have been many interpretations, opinions, controversies about the
divine origin, the celestial message, the magic breath that served as a
trigger for the establishment of the Work through the person of its
author. For some the alpha
point was October 2, 1928 "while
making a spiritual exercise he saw
what God expected of him. He saw that our Lord was asking him to put
his whole life and all his energy at the service of what would become
Opus Dei". (60)
For a historian such as Artigles, "October
2, 1928, is
the date of the very beginning, the appointed day, which all the
publications of Opus Dei give as the starting point of the Work.
According to some of these publications, Escrivá was prompted to
found
Opus Dei by divine inspiration. On the contrary, hostile commentators
believe that the true origins of the Work, at least as we know it
today, were much later, probably in 1939, in the months following the
end of the Civil War. It should be noted that this latter opinion also
prevails among former members of Opus Dei who have separated from the
Work". (61)
Other authors point to the scene in "October
2, 1928, when he
celebrated Mass - exactly after the consecration of the Host and the
Wine - Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer heard words from
heaven about what the Work had to be". (62) The supernatural origin
of
the revelation is once again stressed.
The version of the event
recounted by Jesuit Walsh places Escrivá near Madrid, in a
retreat
house owned by the Pauline Fathers, praying, when he "...saw the Opus Dei.
At
the same time he heard the bells ringing in the nearby Church of Our
Lady of the Angels, which celebrated the patronal feast, since October
2 is the day on which Catholics commemorate the feast of the Guardian
Angels. What really happened is not entirely clear. Some members of
Opus Dei want to believe that Escrivá had a heavenly vision, but
even
he himself does not claim that much." (63)
Many and very diverse have been the apparitions admitted by the Church.
In all of them, and for their official recognition, the Church has
demanded proofs, evidences, facts and concrete data, irrefutable
testimonies. The certainty between the supernatural and superstition
lies in the serious treatment of such delicate and controversial
subjects. Escrivá took it upon himself to spread and divulge the
image of the divine vision in order to relate it to the moment of the
foundation of his "invention". The unique reality is that the Catholic
Church has not officially or unofficially recognized the apparition,
nor the enlightenment because "there
is no proof". (64)
And there's no proof because it didn't happen, plain and simple. It is
another lie concocted under the cover of faith and the
spectacular effects produced by everything that is related to the
paranormal.
We provide an exceptional testimony, that of a friend of
Escrivá's when he was young, who tells us how "it is curious
that despite the great friendship he always offered me, he does not
talk to me in the initial year of 1928 about his great founding
project. Instead, around 1929, he tells me about creating an
association or congregation that was eminently youthful and
university-based, baptizing it in principle with the name of Caballeros
Blancos (White Knights). But never at that time, in spite of our great
friendship, did he tell me that on October 2 of the previous year,
while making a spiritual retreat in the Church of the Paúls on
Calle Gracia de Paredes in Madrid, he felt called 'to be on earth,' as
his biographer Salvador Bernal explains today, 'the instrument chosen
by God to carry out a divine undertaking of Opus Dei'". (65)
"The reality is that
Escrivá always refused to speak in an
absolutely clear way about that alleged event of October 2, 1928. But
the Prelate of Opus Dei at the time of this writing, Alvaro del
Portillo, said that the
young José María, while praying at his Paul's retreat,
'saw Opus Dei,' he said, 'and heard the bells' ringing in the
not-too-distant parish of
Our Lady of the Angels, near Cuatro Caminos, which were ringing in
celebration of their patroness." (65)
"When he spoke to me for the first
time
in the abstract about the 'Work' in 1931, and when someone asked him -
according to Salvador Bernal - 'how this Work of God is going', he
answered that he did not want what he was trying to do as an apostolate
to be called anything. And yet it was this question that he decided to
take as his name: 'Work of God', "Opus Dei', 'Operatio Dei', 'Work of
God'". (65)
If the issue of divine revelation, which has never been recognized
in the Catholic Church, has been called into question, it has shown
that Opus Dei is trying to make a fable. A fable with something as
serious
as the mystical vision of God. Claiming to receive the command and the
imperative directly from our Lord Jesus Christ, without it having taken
place and without the Church having had the least indication or
conviction to recognize it.
The denomination coined by the members of Opus Dei as 'the Work,'
"sounded somewhat provisional. It has
been suggested that its founder
once thought of calling it the Society for Intellectual Cooperation
(Sociedad de
Cooperación Intelectual) or
SOCOIN" (66)
although nothing concrete came of this idea.
In Opus Dei, lies are made official. That false date of October 2 as
the fundamental date just as the false the intervention of God himself
and his
presentation in the astral to Escrivá. "There is a prehistory of
Opus
Dei about which nothing, or very little, is known until the end of the
Spanish
Civil War, but even if they - the members of
Opus Dei - know nothing about its beginnings, the exegetes and the
official workers of Opus Dei are about to create a whole
mythology, to build up and spread a golden legend around this birth and
its first mysterious uttering". (67)
Things are just as they are, and one
cannot go around deceiving the unwary.
For Moncada, the message that Escrivá confesses to having
received from on high - and which he tells the initiates in a veiled
manner - is a message of the influence of Christian doctrine in the
civil world. It was not something sporadic, casual, unexpected. "The
ardent priest of Barbastro knew very well what he was doing when, by
divine inspiration, he said,
he made a decision". (68)
Once again, Salvador Bernal, his most fanatical and feverish
biographer, betrays his unconscious when he writes, attributing the
reflection to a confidence from Escrivá himself: "What can a
creature do
that must fulfill a mission, if he has no means, no age, no science, no
virtues, no nothing? Go to his mother and father, go to those who can
do something, ask his friends for help...? That's what I did in the
spiritual life, but with discipline and carrying the compass". (69) And I would dare to say
the
square and the apron.
If the origin of the Work is manipulated with the aura of
divine revelation, and its hired spiritual killers institutionalized an
event
that never took place and was of late invention, such behavior must be
given the grave significance it deserves and that is
why one member confesses: "From the
sixties onwards, I saw no other
Gospel than The Way, and no other prophet than Josemaría
Escrivá" (70)
despite the fact that in "The Way
there is no
context! It is a doctrine, if one dares say so, a thought broken into
999 crazy pieces. A kaleidoscope ". (71)
It was not only
God that allegedly appeared. He also claims to have seen the
physiognomy of the devil, of the genuine demon, when suddenly, an
indescribable creature - a dwarf, a gnome - leaps across,
obstructs his path, gets tangled up between his legs, pushes him,
almost throws him down, injures him and finally throws this cry in his
face:
" Donkey... Donkey!". And the
young priest replies: "Donkey, yes.
But
God's donkey!"
"The priest's name is
Josemaría Escrivá. He told this
story to his
friends some time ago. According to him, the creature that pushed and
insulted him was the devil. Was this irruption in his path a sign of
God's favor or the devil's anger?" (72) The visionary had a lot
of sight.
REFERENCES
57. Bernal, p 175.
58. Moreno, "Opus Dei, anexo a una
historia" ("Opus Dei, Addendum to a
History"), 1976, p 16.
59. Moncada, "El Opus Dei: Una
interpretación" ("Opus Dei: An Interpretation"), p.
126.
60. Le Tourneau, pp 12-13.
61. Artigues, op cit.
62. Ynfante, "La prodigiosa aventura
del Opus Dei" ("The Prodigious Adventure of Opus Dei"), p. 12.
63. Walsh, p 30.
64. Magaña, p. 16.
65. Cavanillas, op cit.
66. Walsh, p 11.
67. Le Vaillant, p 14.
68. Fernando García Romanillos, "La cara oculta del Opus" ("The
Hidden Face of Opus"), History
magazine,
No. 6 (September 1975).
69. Bernal, p. 45.
70. Moncada, "Historia oral del Opus
Dei" ("Oral History of Opus Dei"), p. 126.
71. Le Vaillant, p. 18.
72. Ibid, p. 9.
Index
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Next Section (in
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(Translation pending: Sections
5 to 12 of Chapter II)
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Complete
Index
OPUS JUDEI
INDEX - CHAPTER III
CHAPTER III
CRYPTOJUDAISM AND OPUS DEI
1. The problem of
cryptojudaism in Spain
2. Secular infiltration
of cryptojudaism in the clergy
3. The Jewish roots of
Escrivá de Balaguer
4. The Kabbalistic
symbolism of Opus Dei
5. The Jewish ghettos
as a model for Opus Dei
6. Opus Dei and the
Jewish question
7. The finances of Opus
Dei and international Judaism
8. Identity between the
"spirit of the work" and the "Jewish
soul"
9. Jesuit influences in
Opus Dei
10. World government, the new
order and Opus Dei
Complete Index
CHAPTER
III
CRYPTOJUDAISM AND OPUS DEI
1. The problem of
cryptojudaism in
Spain
The subject of cryptojudaism in Spain has been consciously and
voluntarily avoided, not having the slightest idea of the existence of
the converted problem, without whose knowledge it is not possible to
understand the history of Spain, nor to explain the events that are
taking place at present (1). Hence the imperative need, if we may, the
urgency, to bring to light such an important and transcendental
question, to divulge it, to study it calmly and carefully, to refresh
the historical memory, so broken and forgotten by the Spanish people,
so that one of the great hidden enigmas of our past that most
restlessness and rancor has oozed out against the national and the
Christian can be known.
Not knowing where the enemy is is to be condemned beforehand to be
annihilated by the enemy (2) and therefore the law and the
clarification, the unmasking and the bet on the stage will be the first
stage of liberation.
The Jew Roth does not exaggerate when he writes that the "history of
the new Christians constitutes an inseparable part of that of Portugal
and Spain in the period of their greatest brilliance (3) being an
essential fragment of church history, with extensive connections to
politics, literature and economics. So much so that the same author
continues that "the classic country of cryptojudaism is Spain. The
tradition has been so long and general there that it is to be suspected
the existence of a brownish predisposition in the very atmosphere of
the country" (4).
Julio Caro Baroja (5) investigates that the examination of the
Greek voice "Kryptós" and of the Latin "secretus" the
dictionaries give us the following meanings: 1) covered or concealed;
2) hidden, dark, unintelligible; 3) dissimulated, deceitful. For this
reason, Hispanic Judaism acquires the character of something hidden
when it is outside the law and when it becomes hidden it also presents
the well-known features of mendacity and dissimulation.
The converted Jews who continued to observe the Jewish rites in secret
are called "marranos", which, according to Covarrubias, the origin of
this word is to be found in the speech of the Moors, who called the
one-year-old pig "marrano". Other authors make it derive from the verb
marrar, from the Latin aberrare, to deviate from what is right, which
is why this term was coined in Spain at the beginning of the 15th
century to designate the new Christians who deviated "from the good
path initiated with the conversion" keeping the Hebrew ritual underhand
and hidden. Others have tried to derive the word from the Arabic root
murain (6) which means hypocrite, or to die, apostate. It is also
related to another Hebrew word, muranita, which was the stick used to
punish the excommunicated, although in any case, marrano is equivalent
to pig or pig in Spanish.
Crypto-Jews are the clandestine Jews who in public appear to be
Muslims, Christians or of another religion, but who are secretly Jews.
They were the false converts. It is very difficult, if not impossible,
for a Jew, man or woman, to convert sincerely and truly to another
religion; when they do so falsely, they become spies or agents of
infiltration or control in the religion they falsely adopt (7).
According to Heine "The actions and gestures of the Jews, as well
as their customs, are things ignored by everyone. They think they know
them because they have seen their beards; but they have seen nothing
more than that and, as in the Middle Ages, the Jews remain a walking
mystery. The poet Heine was a Jew and knew what to expect. But the fact
that the problem is not known does not mean that it does not exist,
which happens to be an unknown problem is not understood.
Keep in mind that Judaism is indelible: there is no baptism of water or
blood that erases it. The apostates of Judaism are rare, although many
pretend to abandon it in order to serve it better (9). It does not
matter that one has been baptized. A baptized Jew does not thereby
cease to be a Jew, for it is permissible for him to deceive "idolaters"
by making them believe that they belong to his cult, for this is
prescribed by his blessed Yore of Ah. (10) For crypto Jews, water
baptism does not erase the baptism of blood in the Synagogue.
Thus speaks the Lord God, through the mouth of the prophet
Jeremiah (111:10) when he says that "the wicked Judah hath not returned
unto me with all his heart; he hath done it with a false heart.
Therefore, in whatever nation he lives, and though behind him there
have been twenty generations born in that land, the Jew always feels
himself to be a captive, like his ancestors on the banks of the rivers
of Babylon. (11).
The fictitious transhumance of religion begins in Spain from
1391, date in which there are tens of thousands of new Christians who
apparently enter to form part of the Church, having made estimates and
calculations of the Jewish-converted population in the fifteenth
century that oscillated between 250,000 and 300,000 people (12). And if
the problem of converts was already serious, it became even more so
after 1492 with the avalanche of new conversions that took place (13)
that no one could be convinced of their sincerity.
This flood of Jewish converts gave rise to the birth of a new class,
that of the converts, who soon and from their new status and situation
began to climb, hoarding wealth and honor. (14)
The converts continued in their immense majority to Judaize,
having as Christians only the name, keeping intact their relationship
with the Mosaic Law in their intimacy, and among those of their race
who inspired confidence in it. Around 1460 they founded a kind of sect
that had a certain importance and whose motto could be summarized as
follows: "in this world you will not see me suffer, in the other you
will not see me executed". (15) They had two faces, two faces, two
names, two personalities, only one root and only one blind obedience.
The Jews throughout the Middle Ages, because they were
collectively responsible for the sin of Deicide, were repelled by the
people who also considered them usurers, cunning, arrogant and
ungrateful-looking. (16) When, for various reasons, they asked for
baptism, it was suspected that they were doing so without any faith,
which did not prevent that, since many of the false converts were from
"rich and wealthy families, there would soon be a number of
personalities of all kinds very well situated within Christian society,
coming from among the newly converted. (17) These neophytes were
usually apostates and hypocrites.
The said crypto-Jews remained faithful to their home ritualism, keeping
a more or less limited number of beliefs and prescriptions, within the
Talmudic tradition, adjusting to a social structure that would allow
them to live with a minimum of guarantees, Even practicing inbreeding
and contracting marriage between relatives to maintain cohesion and
secrecy, so that, for Julio Caro Baroja, from the end of the fifteenth
century until the beginning of the eighteenth, the great cities of
Spain were full of these crypto Jews who gave the Jewish problem itself
a more mysterious and equivocal air.(18) In the 19th century,
Pérez Galdós picked up the tradition that a large part of
the merchant families settled around Madrid's Plaza Mayor were
descendants of Jews, and that a crypto-Jewish society subsisted in
Spain at all times, which decided "the economic destinies of young and
old alike" (19).
Baptism -a formal ceremony for many Jews- is one thing, but true
conversion itself is another. Baptized Jews were still Jews, but in a
different way. They were baptized without conversion. There was a
mixture of formal Christianity, even exaggerated on the outside, and
the clandestine practice of Jewish rites, hiding the secret faith from
their own children, only to reveal it to them later, when they were
thought capable of keeping the secret. (20) The converts stubbornly
resisted in their religious ambiguity.
For a prestigious historian (21), the crypto Jews had only one desire:
to get rich as soon as possible, emigrate their wealth and flee Spain;
their desire was to escape to the Jewish quarters of Amsterdam or
Bayonne and to live again in peace with their conscience as public
Jews, so that "that crypto Jewish machine that governed the Spanish
economy worked backwards. It was an engine no less powerful than in
other times, but its effectiveness was expressed in negative effects,
from the point of view of national interests".
The perversion of the inner crypto-Jewish group was undeniable as a
pressure group and controller of Spanish economic interests. For
Fernández Suárez (22), Spanish crypto-Jews were in
communication with external centres resolutely devoted to destroying
the Spanish empire through politics and war, and to sucking -it was
also a way of destroying it- its financial resources. In this way the
danger to the nation, which had been tried to avoid with religious
unity, became much more acute and active as an apparatus was created
that worked against the interests of the country, inside and outside,
effectively organized, and whose destructive dynamism was nourished in
the perpetuation of the conflict secularly maintained and stimulated by
the reactions that the conflict itself provoked from one side or the
other". One more resource of cryptojudaism was its mimicry to be
embedded, in its genuine and secret folds, in the traditional Spanish
society, in which the rich converts -and even more so if they were
crypto-Jews- sought the support of a noble lineage, sometimes buying
it, pure and simple.
For Sombart, the sudden multiplication of false Christians is such an
extraordinary phenomenon, so unique in the history of mankind, that one
is astonished and stupefied every time one has the opportunity to delve
deeper into the subject, because of that unheard of and singular
struggle where the most congenital dissimulation and the most tenacious
perseverance were its best resources. The crypto Jews did not depart
from Judaism except in appearance, as combatants who adopted the
camouflage of their enemies' uniforms and flew their flag with the
intention of attacking them with greater security and to annihilate
them with more vigor.
The assimilated Christian could refrain from thinking in Hebrew or from
reading Jewish books, but in the essential character of all his
passions and of all his acts he remained intimately and intrinsically
Jewish, because the Jew cannot change "even if he wishes to" and
whatever he does, as L. confirms. Lewisohn confirms.
The processes of the Holy Office against the crypto-Jews from the 15th
to the 19th century amount to 30,847 known processes and 37,862 the
total estimated number of processes according to the breakdown
found in reference (23).
For the crypto-Jews "the Christian priests were vile persecutors
of the chosen people and retained their hatred of all things
Christian", so they used the mask of the Christian religion to continue
to materialize their business by trying to go unnoticed externally and
continuing to weave an underground internal network.
The problem of cryptojudaism has not been a circumstantial issue of a
particular moment in history, nor can it be specified to the
surroundings of March 31, 1492 when the signature was stamped on the
expulsion decree or alternatively the choice of baptism to remain
residing in the kingdoms. There were Jewish converts prior to the
Decree of Expulsion because as early as 1480 "two rabbis visited
Guadalupe to ascertain whether the converts there were adequately
observing Judaism" (24) In the 17th century the problem of Judaism
still remained. (25) The Spanish convert is reflected in our literature
by adopting clothing and garments of a thousand characterizations. In
Rinconete y Cotadillo, Cervantes narrates the adventures of a Sevillian
Jew who, dressed as a clergyman, was dedicated to committing all kinds
of swindles, falsehoods and deceits, a character who "seems to have
been torn from reality"(26).
(26) Quevedo tells us about the vicissitudes and misdeeds, about the
bending and typology of the false Christians in many of his works,
since there were many Jews who were concealed and carried their
insincerity with great concealment.
In the time of Philip V, the processes against the Spanish Judaizers
reappeared and were repeated, and as an example we see how in a court
of faith held in Toledo on March 19, 1721, several Judaizers left the
land and in that same year, on May 18, in Madrid, Judaizers from those
areas appeared in a court of faith.
George Borrow, an English traveller who travelled around Spain in 1836,
in his work The bible of Spain reflects his impression when he first
saw Mendizábal thinking to himself "I have seen a glance very
similar to that amongst the Beni Israel". And he was not wrong at all.
Borrow gives us in his works a synthesis of the Spanish crypto-Judaism
that Caro Baroja establishes in the following points:
1. Crypto-Judaism has two names: one for when it
walks among the Christians, and the other, that of its lineage and its
Hebrew family.
2. Crypto-Jewish knows two languages.
3. Crypto Jews have two families, with two women.
One is the one to whom he is legally married; the other is the "friend.
But for him it is really both wives. This system of bigamy is common
among North African Jews.
4. Crypto-Jewish is ill-considered; it is suspect to
the people. But he is on good terms with influential and rich people
because his usurious business gives him economic strength. He also has
bought the lower agents of justice as bailiffs and bracelets.
5. The crypto-Jew knows those who are of the same
condition as him and is aware of the religious status of certain
lineages.
6. There are crypto-Jews in all social ranks from
humble servants to archbishops of the Catholic Church (27).
In fact, the pig was the metamorphosis of public Judaism in secret,
which made it more dangerous and difficult to detect, transmitting its
underground faith from "parents to children". (28) Pérez
Galdós in his work also gives us multiple examples of the
survival of cryptojudaism in the tunnels of the Spanish society of the
19th century, as it was sharply noted by Mercedes Formica (29) when she
detected that her critical characters revealed to us the enigmatic
"Fortunata and Jacinta" where Santa Cruz is a Jewish surname, like
Santa María, like Aguado...discovering that the care that the
mother of Santa Cruz and her faithful squire put in today's shopping
basket comes from the family's concern for buying Kasher food, that is,
food, ritually sacrificed and for Jewish slaughtermen, also
highlighting the marriage of Juanillo with the fuzzy and kind Jacinta
as a union between beings of the same race and where Jewish racism
appears. Jacinta's devotion means nothing, however Christian it may be.
The Hebrew background remains... Galdós represents in his work
the secret Hispanic Judaism.
Crypto-Judaism has lasted until our days. We find an irrefutable
testimony in the newspaper ABC of March 23rd 1969 where, under the
title of The problems of our Sephardic minorities, a letter dated
February 2nd of that same year is transcribed from Miss Judith who
writes from Madrid to the writer Mercedes Formica and "taking into
account her breadth of spirit, I begged him for a few lines in the ABC
pages that would serve to dispel my doubts and those of not a few
people who have the same problem about the position that we Spaniards
should adopt in this new era of religious freedom who, for one reason
or another, can consider ourselves crypto-Jews for reasons of family
heritage or tradition... I am from Burgos - the letter continues. I was
orphaned as a child and educated by my great-grandmother. She was from
a noble family, practicing Judaism in an innocent, lyrical, pure way,
feeling bound to her ancestors, some of whom were victimized, she
claimed, by the Inquisition. Their influence caused me to follow in
secret, naturally, their same Mosaic religion. As the crypto-Jewish
groups have been closely related for centuries, I can say that it was
natural that, as time went by, I married an Andalusian gentleman, also
a Jew, who had great influence in the closed Hebrew circles of Granada
and Malaga. On the contrary, my husband's brother, the youngest, is a
Catholic priest... since the Council, he accepted that we practice the
religion that according to our conscience was the true one... I will
not say that there are millions of us Spaniards who have been
practicing the Hebrew religion for five centuries, but we are more
numerous than people - and the State - suppose. The story in the first
person is definitive. The nucleus of crypto-Jews was very numerous
right from the start, so we are not surprised by Mrs Judith's final
conclusion.
Rabbi Abraham ben Solomon of Tourrutiel wrote in his Book of Betrayal
that in the year 5172 (1412-1413 according to the Christian calendar)
more than 200,000 Jews had been baptized on the occasion of the
preaching of Saint Vincent Ferrer, although, naturally, "one must
always be wary of mass conversions and even more so when dealing with
Jews".
Mariano Sículo says: "they began to live as Christians. But
later, as time passed, by diabolic persuasion or by the conversation
they had with the Jews who had remained in their law, or because it is
difficult to leave the things they are accustomed to - because the
nature of men, who do not know how to change, when they know their
crimes they recognize virtue and become better, then later, as
inconstant and without firmness - they hardly turn to their sinister
and accustomed customs. So, thinking the new Christians that Christ was
not the one God was to send, and the one they expected, repenting of
their conversion, they despised the Christian religion and celebrated
in secret places in their homes on the Sabbath, entering their
synagogues at night and honoring their Passover feasts (30).
The converts meant more to the people than a theoretical mock
Christianity. They assumed a tremendously practical misunderstanding
regarding the social and economic problem that suffocated them, because
the people considered these baptized Jews as "adulterers pretending to
be unbelievers and infidels, fathers of all covetousness, sowers of all
weeds and divisions, abundant in all malice and perversity, always
ungrateful to their God, contrary to his commandments, turned away from
their ways and careers, as the psalmist Moses testifies in Deuteronomy
(31) (the quotation is taken from the answer to the introduction of the
account made by the bachelor Marquitos, in the events of the City of
Toledo against the converts from the year 1449, which was the robbery
called by Pedro Sarmiento, until the year 1467, in which the clergy was
removed against them, whose manuscript is in the National Library of
Madrid, manuscript 2041, on page 18 r-v)
The Jewish writer Cecil Roth, in spite of his anti-Christian phobia,
lets the reality shine through in some paragraphs when he writes that
"the populace that was becoming more and more inflamed, could not
appreciate the theological subtleties and in the pigs he saw only the
hypocritical Jews, (32) The people thus lost patience and demanded by
force, since peaceful means failed, the removal of the converts from
public life. As Friar Alonso de la Espina said in his Sentinel against
the Jews, the only division was that of "public Jews and hidden Jews:
for the purposes of this, all Jews.
The converts form a very important population nucleus, much more than
one might think. It should not be forgotten that the Spanish
Inquisition was born, precisely against the false converts, against the
fifth column in the Church, against the infiltrators, who at the
beginning of their actions, except for rare and rare occasions, are all
"Marranos". It is necessary to note that in many acts of faith there
are important names and "distinguished" Semitic families that are
rabidly anti-Christian, with the "marranos" forming a true social cyst.
(34)
Among the customs of the Judaizers were the following:
1. Adopting Jewish wet nurses to feed infants
2. Change and adopt several names
3. Wash the newly baptized, as soon as they return
from baptism to "disinfect" them
4. Celebrate a double wedding. Inbreeding was the
norm
5. Manifest an infinite hatred for Christ
6. Denial of the Mother of God's virginity
7. Close your windows and spit on the Cross at Easter
8. Slag the crucifix
9. Commission of certain ritual crimes (Sto.
Niño de la Guardia, Sto. Dominguito del Val, etc)
10. Desecrating sacred forms
11. Insulting Christians
12. Secret practice of Hebrew rites. Do not sanctify
yourself. Pray the Semah
13. External drunkenness, far from true religiosity.
14. Disregarding the work of the farm
15. Feeling of "social group"
16. Practice circumcision.
17. Refrain from eating "forbidden meats", derived
from pork. Do not use lard for stews. Refrain from rabbit.
18. Keep the Saturday. Fasting to keep
19. Wash the dead and shave them. Shackle them with
clean clothes. Put a coin in their mouth. Place a head of earth.
20. Engage in trade, profit and financial activities.
21. To monopolize ecclesiastical positions and
dignities.
22. To accumulate wealth
23. Pretending and buying titles.
24. Playing the so-called "Jesus game.
25. Being buried in virgin soil.
26. Keeping the fast of Yom Kippur, Judith, Esther
and the moons of March 14, June 9, July 9, September 10, December 11
and February 11.
27. Change the linen and move the underwear on
Fridays.
28. Cut your nails and put them in the ground.
etc, etc...
From the political point of view, we find in the converts where a
conspiracy or an intrigue arises. As an example, let's cite the
participation of the marrano estate in the communal movement. Among
other leaders we could list Juan Padilla, married to Maria Pacheco, a
descendant of Jews, Juan Bravo, married, likewise, with the Jewish
convert Maria Lopez Coronel, granddaughter of Abraham Senior, Alfonso
de Saravia, Pedro de Acuña - brother-in-law of Padilla -
Iñigo Lopez Coronel, the financial father-in-law of Bravo...
The strength of the converts was to know how to keep silent, to conjure
themselves up in secret, to cover up their dealings with strange looks
and to continue surreptitiously professing their Jewish fanaticism,
forming part of the secret Hebrew communities of each country and
blindly obeying their leaders in Cahal in order to take possession,
without their intention being perceived, of the country where they live
and acting only for the benefit of those of their race and of what
Israel represents.
The problem of conversions has brought with it an added and no less
negligible difficulty from the point of view of the influence exerted
on Spain which has been, not the presence of a greater or lesser number
of Israelites throughout history in the Iberian Peninsula, but
precisely their conversion, for if the Jews had not converted, they
would have become less mixed up and their influence and position would
have been more detected and perhaps less, For when the Jews converted,
they had an easy way of gaining access to the high ecclesiastical
hierarchies from where they exercised their influence and reached
pre-eminent positions in the nobility, thus modifying Spanish society
from within and inoculating the "Jewish soul", the "Jewish spirit",
since the convert could not eliminate the Jew within him.
The Israelite influence, which would have been external and incidental
if the convert problem had not existed, became "existential". The
penetration was subtle and intimate, because do not forget that the Jew
who penetrated the Spanish spirit was precisely the convert and the
peculiar psychology of the convert not spontaneous, but forced in his
intimacy by external pressure, fear or convenience.
There is no doubt that the Spain prior to the convert phenomenon was
simpler in its emotional expressions, more joyful, more carefree than
the later Spain which adopted a more somber and citrine air due to the
submersion of the converts in its fibers and entrails.
The revenge of the violated and false convert was terrible: (35) "his
spirit, tormented and deformed, took possession of the Spanish soul and
has not yet abandoned its prey.
The crypto-Jew zealously guarded in the depths of his soul four
feelings: an excessive ambition, an insatiable greed, an eternal
rancor, and an unquenchable hatred, (36) which are the four feelings of
the Jewish soul: the ambition to dominate the world; the greed to
possess all riches; the rancor against non-Jewish goyim and especially
Christians; the hatred of Christ.
Erasmus considered Spain to be profoundly semiticized (37) when he
wrote that "In Spain there are hardly any Christians" or "you are full
of Jews. It is a trait that is common to you, it seems, with Italy and
Germany in general, but above all in Spain". This avalanche of converts
in Christian society makes it necessary for the Inquisition to act,
which, contrary to what is believed, had no jurisdiction whatsoever
over the Jews, since they were neither heretics nor apostates, but only
against false converts, against the crypto-Jews, in order to make them
fulfill the promises made.
The convert is the counterpoint of the hidalgo. The crypto-Jew looks
for speculation and performs well in environments and financial means.
He is a liar, vain, arrogant; he practices duplicity before the values
of nobility, fidelity, sincerity and humility.
REFERENCES
Rivanera Carlés, Federico, "Los judíos conversos, obra
inédita", p 1
2. Ibid
3. Roth, Cecil, "A History of the Marranos", Buenos Aires, 1946,
Foreword
4. Ibid, p 15.
5. Baroja, Julio Caro, "Races, Peoples and Lineages" (University of
Murcia, 1990), p 115.
6. Blázquez, Miguel Juan, "Inquisition and Cryptojudaism"
(Kaydeda, 1988), p 21.
7. Boyer, Jean, "Los peores enemigos de nuestros pueblos" (Colombia:
Editorial Libertad, 1979), p 23.
8. Wast, Hugo, "El Kahal" (Burgos: Editorial Aldecoa, 1946), p 43.
9. Wast, Hugo, "Oro", p 87.
10. Ibid, p 160.
11. Ibid, p 28.
12. Ibid, p 40.
13. Ibid, p 46.
14. Ibid, p 45.
15. Ibid, p 50.
16. Caro Baroja, Julio, "Destino del judio hispano" (Madrid, 1963), p
408.
17. Ibid
18. Ibid, p 415.
19. Ibid, p 417.
20. Fernández Suárez, Alvaro, "Los judíos en la
España moderna y contemporánea," Index (September 1966),
p 7.
21. Ibid, p 15.
22. Ibid, pp 18-19.
23. Blánquez. Miguel, p 316.
24. Rivanera Carlés, p 2.
25. Caro Baroja, p 121.
26. Ibid, p 125.
27. Ibid, pp 149-150.
28. Roth, p 13.
29. Serrano, Eugenia, "Literatura y guerra santa," Diario El
Alcázar (5 September 1972).
30. Marineo Siculo, L., "Vida y hechos de los Reyes Católicos"
(Madrid, 1943), pp 68-70.
31. National Library, "Manuscript 2041", Folio 18v-v.
32. Roth, p. 36.
33. López Martínez, Nicolás, "Los judaizantes
castellanos y la inquisición en tiempos de Isabel la
Católica" (Burgos, 1954), p 78.
34. Ibid, p 261.
35. Ibid, p 335.
36. Wast, "Gold", p 46.
37. Blánquez, Miguel, p 129.
Index
of Chapter I
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CHAPTER
III
CRYPTOJUDAISM AND OPUS DEI
2. Secular
Infiltration of
Crypto-Judaism in the Clergy
The crypto-Jews did not simply submit to the laws of the Church with
ardour. They went much further. They took dissimulation to extreme
limits, to the point that many of them did not hesitate to enter and
swell the religious orders. In the ecclesiastical establishment there
were priests and bishops from Judaism who ostensibly practiced Catholic
religious practices and followed, simultaneously and in secret, the
Mosaic law.
Under their talar habits, under their cassocks and mitres, they kept in
their hearts, with zealous care, "the flame of the paternal religion
and undermined the foundations of the powerful Catholic monarchy"
according to the opinion of the famous Jewish historian Graetz.
It should not be forgotten that the Jewish converts considered the
ecclesiastical career as a way of integration, of scale and influence
in the Christian community. In fact, (38) the Spanish church received a
copious Jewish contribution and already, in the time of Philip II, when
Cardinal Siliceo took possession of the Primate See, it was found that
"almost all the priests of the Toledo Archdiocese were of Jewish
descent and, in a single village, of fourteen clergymen, only one was
an old Christian". The same was true of the religious orders. Some of
these clerics and religious ended up at the stake, like the notorious
case of Fray García Zapata, prior of the convent of the
Hieronymites of Sisla who even celebrated the Jewish feasts inside the
convent itself.
It is evident that the Spanish Church was full throughout the 16th
century of personalities of Hebrew origin who clearly and emphatically
Judaized. Caro Baroja (39) tells us that a prelate famous for his
rigidity and hardness, Don Diego de Simancas, narrates in his biography
that in 1568 "a great synagogue was discovered in Murcia, in which at
night a guardian of Saint Francis preached the Law of Moses, a Jew by
birth whose name was Fray Luis de Valdecañas". Don Diego de
Simancas saw the converts threatening Catholic unity.
The authorities of the time discovered with astonishment and stupor a
letter signed by Usuff, considered the head of the highest hierarchy of
the Jews of Constantinople, in response to a query made by the Spanish
Rabbi Chamorro, about the plan to follow, the way of acting and
behaving of the Spanish Jews and converts, the indications about their
external manifestations, their patterns of behavior in the Iberian
Peninsula. The text of the document sent to Chamorro through a secret,
secure and confidential channel was found and revealed to the public.
The anthropologist Mr. Julio Caro Baroja (40) has synthesized in five
points the extremes contained in the letter-order and that we summarize
synoptically:
1. Converting in appearance to Christianity
2. To devote themselves more insistently to trade,
to ruin the Christians
3. To practice medicine and pharmacy as well, in
order to kill Christians with impunity, if necessary.
4. Become Catholic priests to desecrate and destroy
religion and Christian temples
5. Entering into government positions to subjugate
oppressors and obtain various forms of revenge.
The instructions were carried out. The document is contemporary. A
historical analysis reveals the identity between the instructions given
and the degree of compliance with the order received in a perfect
setting, in a total osmosis.
A great number of confessors and preachers were of the Semitic race.
The Jews used the sacrament of confession as a privileged source of
information for the benefit of themselves and their race. Preaching
served them to gain notoriety and obtain canons and prebends, income
and honors, to make themselves known and to utter anathemas.
That is why Bataillon does not go astray when he assures us (41) that
it was men of the Jewish race who paved the way for the new moral and
mystical tendencies of such deep resonance in the Spanish spirituality
of the 16th century.
The ecclesiastical converts intravenously introduced their ideology
into the clergy if we consider the privileged situation of the clergy
at that time, which made their choice and adoption of the religious
state attractive and suggestive. It has been written that (42) "the
tendency of converts to enter the clergy was only one aspect of the
general aspiration of these people to comfortable, well-paid jobs of
sufficient social status to silence the inferiority complex that
tormented them".
The Book of Alborique accuses them of "stealing the churches, buying
the bishoprics, canons and the other dignities of Holy Mother Church,
taking orders from clergy, and not believing in the holy Catholic
faith, nor in the Mass they say". (43)
Although numerically they were more abundant in the lower clergy, it
was not rare, strange, or singular to find numerous cases of Jews and
converts sheltered and protected from prelates, members of the high
clergy, who shared affinities of race and former religion. The alarm at
the presence of these high ecclesiastical magistrates reached the
Vatican itself, which issued pontifical provisions prohibiting convert
prelates from being judges in matters of faith, in order to avoid
possible partiality in the trials. (44)
The high dignitaries were also caught judaizing, making evident their
condition of false converts, as, to cite an example, the Bishop of
Calahorra, Don Pedro Aranda, who ended up being demoted on November 16,
1498 and imprisoned in the Castle of Sant-Angelo for leading a double
religious life, with a cynicism and hypocrisy worthy of scandal.
The case of the Hieronymite friars, (45) the richest and most
influential at that time in Castile, deserves special attention;
although the converts swarmed through all the orders, in none did they
reach a number and characters of scandal as among the Hieronymite
friars. It is symptomatic that they preferred to take refuge in the
richest and best seen friars, those who, it is worth saying, were in
fashion in Castile. The practical spirit of the Hebrews never fails.
"They agreed to withdraw to it (the Hieronymite Order), many converts,
and since they are so cunning and the hypocrisy and ceremony from
outside, without respect for the truths from within, they began to
conceal themselves and keep themselves here for a long time and even
gain a name" if we follow the testimony that is reflected by Bro J. de
Sigüenza in his History of the Order of St. Jerome published in
Madrid in 1605.
In the monastery of Our Lady of Sisla, near Toledo, it is said that
things must not have been going very well, since the number of converts
in the Order was increasing day by day. There were cases like that of
Bro Alonso de Toledo who, in his spiritual contradiction and hell, with
a burning desire to Judaize, escaped twice, not finding or seeing any
way to get out of that permanent state of dissimulation and
uncertainty; or that of Bro. Juan de Madrid (who "had not joined the
friars except to keep the law of the Jews better"). The prior was Fray
García Zapata, a true Judaist who, together with the majority of
the community, among whom were also Fray Juan de Madrid and Fray
Jerónimo de Vilagarcía, celebrated the Jewish feast of
the Cabañuelas every year in September in the same Monastery.
(46) When he said Mass, the prior did not consecrate and instead of the
words of consecration he said: "Sus, periquete, que te mira la gente".
Along with him, several friars would be relaxed by his mocking and
derision.
A brother of García Zapata, named Francisco Álvarez
Zapata, was a canon of the primate cathedral and a serious opponent to
the implementation of the Statute of Cleanliness in the diocese,
because of the account he had for it.
Following the Jerónimos, the Inquisition of Guadalupe had found
"this leprosy not only in the town, but even within the Monastery, in
Fr. (47) Things got so bad that in 1486 the famous chapter took place
which denied entry to the Order to the converts and determined to make
an inquisition within the Order to punish the many culprits.
Another convent of the Order, that of San Bartolomé de Lupiana,
founded in 1456 by Fray Alonso de Oropesa, from the first moment was
suspected of housing Judaizers, which was confirmed when Fray Diego de
Burgos and Fray Diego de Zamora were discovered among many others.
In Aragon, Pedro de Almería, a Jew in the service of the Court,
converted to Christianity by entering the Cathedral of Huesca as a
canon between 1100 and 1104, receiving from Bishop Esteban the
almunia-monastery of San Pedro de Séptimo that the Jew Zavaxorda
had possessed, and then going on to become a canon in the Cathedral of
Jaca and from there to the monastery of San Adrián de Sasau. He
then emigrated and returned to Judaism. (48)
Another convert was Martin Garcia, son of Rabbi Azach Xuen who on March
17, 1507 was promoted to the first clerical tonsure in Huesca, entering
on the same date in the ecclesiastical state Juan de Baraiz, son of
"magistri Abraham Sustoris quodam civitatis Osce, noviter ad fidem
Christi conversus". (49) The Fajol family, fachol, faxol or faiol,
which with the four spellings appears in the documents known between
the years 1468 and 1491 (50) also gave clergymen in the area of upper
Aragon and the condemnations against them for judaizing in 1489 seem to
demonstrate the insincerity of their conversions to Christianity, which
would not be more than apparent. The converts were the canons Vicente
Gómez and Martín de Santángel, the latter
vice-president of Dean in Huesca Cathedral, in the first quarter of the
16th century, who paid for the chapel of Santa Ana, in the same
Cathedral, where the prayerful image of the prebendado in polychrome
alabaster is preserved.
The converts were able to occupy all public positions enjoying the same
prerogatives as Christians, both at the Court and among the
ecclesiastical hierarchies; thus we find converts at the Court of
Isabel the Catholic; Pedro Arias Dávila, major accountant and
royal advisor, to the advisor Pedro de Cartagena or of the queen's
secretaries, Fernando Alvarez, Alfonso de Acila and Fernando Pulgar,
being the confessor of His Majesty the crypto-Jew Hernando de Talavera,
since 1478 and finding marrano lineages in Juan de Macuenda, Bishop of
Coria; Alfonso de Valladolid, Bishop of Valladolid; Alonso de
Palenzuela, Bishop of Ciudad Rodrigo, Pedro de Aranda, Bishop of
Calahorra, Juan Arias Dávila, Bishop of Segovia...Jewish
influence is revealed even in the Queen's own marriage which was
arranged by a public Jew, Alfonso de la Cavalleria, and a converted
Abraham Señior.
The dominance of the Jewish-convert clan increased when her husband
King Ferdinand was widowed and continued to reign with Charles I, where
even the Bishop of Badajoz, head of the Royal Chapel, Pedro Ruiz de la
Mota, was a swine and the hegemony did not decrease in the time of
Philip II where even his own secretary, Antonio Pérez, were of
Jewish lineage and where the nobility, the hierarchy and the cabildos
were quite controlled by non-Christians, it is enough to cite as an
example the influential Cardinal Mendoza y Bovadilla or Diego Deza
himself, at that time Inquisitor General.
To protect from "leprosy" as it was said, statutes of blood cleansing
were implemented from 1515 in the Church of Seville and Badajoz, in
1530 in the Church of Cordoba -city mined by the converts- in 1566 in
Leon . And in the Orders there was another one, accepting as a
safeguard the statute of cleanliness since 1486 in the Order of the
Hieronymites, since 1489 in the Dominicans, since 1525 in the
Franciscans where it was said "that the new Christians ran over the old
ones pretending the total control of the Order, to return en bloc to
Judaism", or since 1593 in the Society of Jesus, where the number of
pigs was very high. (51)
For a better access to the ecclesiastical estate, the Jews resorted to
the trap of the traps, that is, SIMULARly abandoning the Jewish
religion, in order to falsely transform themselves into members of the
invaded people, falsely converting themselves to the religion of the
said people and changing their names (52) to the usual ones of the
invaded people and the one they wanted to conquer, infiltrating them
and their Church like the Trojan horse.
The Holy Inquisition came to find secret archives within the walls, in
well-camouflaged basements and even in the basements of Christian
churches and convents controlled by the Jews infiltrated by the clergy
or even in the houses of bishops who enjoyed the reputation of very
good Christians.
Some authors (53) consider that these Jews in cassocks is the worst
catastrophe that Christianity has suffered in all its history.
In the 17th century, the bachelor Juan López de Vilareal, priest
of La Redonda, diocese of Ciudad Rodrigo and priest of Riofrío,
diocese of Astorga, or Jacinto Vázquez Araujo, chaplain of the
Cathedral of Orense, was prosecuted for judaizing Jews, arrested in
1687, or the famous Felipe Godínez, priest of Seville who made
ostensible manifestations of cryptojudaism and came to write two
literary works, Queen Esther and The Harp of David, where he secretly
poured out Jewish proposals. (54)
The crypto-Jewish clergy, under "the veneer of a real Catholicism, hid
their true religious convictions in their hearts". (55) The structure
of the Catholic Church has been undermined from within, and from its
privileged positions it has been able to obtain comfortable, well-paid
jobs of undoubted social standing.
Also in the Order of St. Augustine, a Judaizing circle was discovered
in their convent in Seville and when the prior wanted to correct them
he was killed in 1536. (56)
To cite the most scandalous and Judaizing meanings of different
dioceses, such as the canon of Cordoba Pedro Fernandez de Alcaudete who
was sacrilegious, and his companion in the cathedral, Gomez Fernandez
Solano; the prior of the church of Santiago, Bartholomew Pordel; Miguel
Baeza, a benefactor clergyman of the Church of Baeza; the canon of the
Seo Leridana, Dalmay of Tortosa, who practiced superstition, always
carrying a Jewish payroll written in Hebrew and celebrating the Jewish
Passover; Superstition was also shared by the cleric of Calahorra,
Diego Sánchez, a necromancer and crypto-Jew; the cleric
García de Alava, arrested in Burbáguena for publicly
preaching the Law of Moses, or the priest Pedro López of the
Church of San Salvador in Cuenca, which was more like a synagogue than
a Christian temple, since Francisco de la Barrera, a priest of the same
church, was also a slaughterer who sacrificed animals according to the
Jewish rite.
The Inquisition, regardless of its meritorious performance, was the
target of infiltration by crypto-Jews. Previously we have alluded to
one of the General Inquisitors, Cardinal Deza, of Sephardic origin, but
he was not the only one of such condition. Other ecclesiastical
ascendancies in the Court of the Holy Office are found in Juan de
Torquemada, Cardinal of San Sixtus and of immediate Jewish descent,
being in many cases the Jews themselves those who took their
institutions of the Jewry, the Court of the Din; to the Christian
Inquisition, (57) protecting false converts in some cases and punishing
mercilessly the group of converts who had strayed too far from the
Mosaic faith. Sometimes the excess of zeal hid or concealed the
condition that was to be covered up, on the part of the one who imposed
it.
The Jesuits were not exempt from the crypto-Jewish problem and the
blood of Israel flowed through the veins of many priests of the
Society, such as the Second General of the Society, founded by St.
Ignatius, Father Lainez, was of Jewish descent, as were many famous
Jesuits of all times.
The Jews and Jesuits, Caro Baroja (58) tells us, despite the fact that
in history they have sometimes been seen in opposing camps, have
maintained very subtle links, which can be said to be drawn from the
views of the founder of the Society himself. St. Ignatius maintained a
position hostile to the statutes of cleanliness... he repeatedly said
that he would have considered it a special grace to come from the
lineage of Jews. So it should not be surprising, then, that among the
first and most effective collaborators were several converts; of this
lineage he was, as we have already noted, the second general of the
Society, Diego Lainez.
And next to the convert from Almazán stands Polanco, the son of
the wealthy family, also a convert from Burgos, who did not become the
fourth general of the Company due to strong pressure. It was not until
1593 that the statute of Cleanliness of Blood was introduced in the
Company and its incorporation was more a formal than a real procedure,
since it is known, on the other hand, (59) that in the middle of the
17th century the sons of converts and even Judaists often studied with
the Jesuits, as is the case of Isaac Cardoso, called "the apologist of
Israel".
The Jewish infiltration of the clergy was a technique of conquest of
the Christian world that Jewish imperialism considered indispensable to
dominate its main stronghold, the Church of Christ (60), employing
various tactics, ranging from frontal attacks to infiltrations. The
favorite weapon of the fifth column was to introduce into the ranks of
the clergy young Christians of Jewish descent who secretly practiced
Judaism, so that once ordained as priests they would try to climb up
the hierarchy of the Holy Church, either in the secular clergy or in
the religious orders, so that they would then use the positions
acquired within the clergy to the detriment of the Church and to the
benefit of Judaism, its plans of conquest and its heretical or
revolutionary movements.
The fake crypto-Jewish Christian clergyman is carrying out, according
to the rabbinical criteria, a holy enterprise for his unavowable
interests. The fifth column in the clergy has been and is one of the
basic pillars of international Judaism.
The aims of the infiltration of crypto Jews into the clergy are clearly
explained in an interesting document that was publicized by Abbé
Chabauty and quoted by the Archbishop of Port Louis, Monsignor Meurin.
It is a letter from the secret leader of the international Jews, who
lived at the end of the 15th century in Constantinople, addressed to
the Hebrews of France, giving them instructions, in response to an
earlier letter that Chamor, Rabbi of Arles, had addressed to him
requesting them. The letter reads as follows: (61)
"Beloved brothers of Moses, we have received your letter, in which you
make known to us the anxieties and misfortunes which you are obliged to
endure, and we are penetrated with a pain as great as yours. The advice
of the greatest rabbis and satraps of our Law is as follows:
"You say that the King of France obliges you to become Christians;
well, do so, but keep the Law of Moses in your hearts.
"You say that they want to take away your goods; make your children
merchants, so that they may dispossess the Christians of theirs by
traffic.
"You say that an attempt is made on your lives; make your children
physicians and apothecaries, that they may deprive Christians of theirs
without fear of punishment.
"You say that your synagogues are destroyed; make your children priests
and canons, that they may destroy the Christian church.
"Ye say that they make an attempt upon your lives; make your children
lawyers, notaries, or members of other professions that are commonly in
charge of public affairs; by this means ye shall dominate the
Christians, take possession of their lands, and avenge yourselves upon
them.
"Follow this command we give you, and you will see by experience that,
however despondent you may be, you will reach the height of power.
"Signed V.S.V. E.F. Prince of the Jews of Constantinople to Casleus of
1489."
The reprobates were despised for their cynical adherence to Catholic
practices. Their disloyalty and insincerity were denounced. Tens of
thousands of new Christians submitted outwardly, went mechanically to
the Church, mumbled prayers, performed rites and observed customs, but
the spirit had not been converted. (62) They still clandestinely kept
the Jewish feasts, ate their own food, kept their circles of Hebrew
friends restricted, and studied their ancient science and customs.
Amador de los Rios, the apologetic author of Judaism and Marranism,
points out how in Zaragoza "the converts considered themselves as
depositaries of the ancient culture of their elders and set their
sights not only on the minor offices of the republic, but also on the
ecclesiastical dignities". (63)
All Jewish historians admit and recognize that the converts reached
"exalted positions in the organization of the clergy" - Joseph Kastein
- to, according to the Enciclopedia Judaica Castellana that as "Daniel
Israel Bonafoy, Miguel Cardoso, José Querido, Mordecai Mojiaj
and others, defended Marranism as a method of undermining the
foundations of the enemy and as a means that contributed to making the
fight against it more elastic . to whom Queen Esther, who confessed
neither her race nor her birth, seemed to be her own prototype" -
Enciclopedia Judaica Castellana, Volume IV, word Spain
But don't think we're talking only in the past about something that
happened in the past, in a historical period or a chapter already
closed. In the present Church, cryptojudaism has a great presence and
power.
Cardinal Bea, of Israeli origin (Bea Ohim) and one of the great
architects of the Second Vatican Council, was to receive instructions
from the Heads of the Occult Power through the B`nai-B`rith, before
each session of the Council, in order to have them applied in the
Council. (64) Pius XII himself had as his confessor the Jew Bea.
The present Cardinal Archbishop of Paris, Jean-Marie Lustiger, was born
Jewish, was educated in the synagogue and maintains an ambivalent
religious stance, being a clear favourite for the succession to the
Papacy of John Paul II. He is a contemporary Jew-convert, a crypto-Jew
who boasts of being "a French Jew" as his first evidence (65) and who
is "aware of his Jewish origin, if only because of my name Aaron. (66)
Also in the female clergy and in the 20th century the phenomenon of
cryptojudaism continues to occur, such as the daughter of Israel Edith
Stein, the Hebrew convert to Catholicism, a favourite disciple of the
philosopher Edmund Husserl and famous in Germany before becoming a
Carmelite. (67)
In Spain the most famous crypto-Jew of recent times is Jose Maria
Escriva de Balaguer, founder of Opus Dei, despite the fact that, as
Father Basilio Meramo (68) confirms, "Judaism is against the Church and
has always been its enemy.
REFERENCES
38. Fernández Suárez, p 19.
39. Caro Baroja, p 118.
40. Ibid
41. López Martínez, p 49.
42. Ortiz, Dominguez, "Los cristianos nuevos", p 254.
43. López Martínez, p 113.
44. Ibid, p 114.
45. Sigüenza, Fray J., "Historia de la Orden de San
Jerónimo", Vol. III, (Madrid 1605) p 33.
46. Blánquez Miguel, p 191.
47. López Martínez, p. 118.
48. Gudiol, Antonio Durán, "La judería de Huesca"
(Zaragoza, 1984), p 31.
49. Ibid, p 88.
50. Ibid, p 91.
51. Rivanera Carlés, op cit.
52. Boyer, p 30.
53. Ibid, p 41.
54. Blánquez Miguel, p 236.
55. Ibid, p 190.
56. Ibid, p 192.
57. Formica, Mercedes, Diario ABC (March 23, 1969).
58. Wast, Oscar Hugo, "Jesuits, Opus Dei and Cursillos in
Christianity," op cit, p 18.
59. Ibid, p. 19.
60. Pinay, Maurice, "Complot contra la Iglesia" (pp 137-138, Spanish
Edition).
61. Ibid, pp 138-139.
62. Ibid, p 141.
63. Ibid, p 150.
64. The Jewish-Masonic action within the Council (1964).
65. Lustiger, Jean-Marie, "The Choice of God" (Madrid, 1989), p 16.
66. Ibid, p. 17.
67. Lelotte, F., S. J., "Converts of the 20th Century" (Madrid:
Studium, 1956), p 39.
68. Interviú" magazine, No. 780 (22-28 April, 1991), p 28.
Index
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CHAPTER
III
CRYPTOJUDAISM AND OPUS DEI
3. The Jewish roots
of
Escrivá de Balaguer
We reach the secret secretorum, the most stealthy key of those kept in
the impenetrable silence of the Work, the ineffable and also the most
absolute truth that must be clarified, discovered and revealed. These
are the Mosaic roots of the founder of Opus Dei and his work in the
service of Israel and its finances.
We should not forget the exact and extensive name of his own creation,
which generally remains, despite being the official and registered
name, in the ostracism of deliberate omission. The name of Opus Dei is
"Priestly Society of the Holy Cross and Opus Dei," and in its very name
the key to a mystery is closed, the enigma of which has been deciphered
by the Jewish historian Cecil Roth, who wrote in his well-known and
widely read History of the Sows the following: "in Barcelona, where if
a Sow said 'Let's go today to the Church of the Holy Cross,' he was
referring to the secret synagogue so called. (69) It is a suspicious
coincidence that the name chosen by Escrivá de Balaguer for his
organization coincides exactly and cryptically with that of the "secret
synagogue" in the language used by the Jews.
One can be aware that talking about the Jewish subject, and especially
if it alludes to it without praise, is a taboo subject. We must begin
to call things by their name, to say that in Escrivá de
Balaguer's mind a Jewish brain was seething, that Escriba - which was
his real name - was a crypto-Jew and that it is not possible to
understand his work or to interpret it if it is not related to the
essential phenomenon of his inner and outer Judaism.
Escriva has dissimulation in his blood, just as his fellow Jews do; he
is a Pharisee and a hypocrite who believes in the Talmud and its
teachings more than in the Gospel and its Good News.
Escriva is going to use the Church as an instrument to form little
groups where unwitting Christians will be the victims of the
machination.
In the biographies of Escrivá de Balaguer we miss three
essential elements of his nefarious personality; three basic facts are
disguised in order to understand the man and his Work: that is, that
Escrivá is a Jew, that he was practically a homosexual, and that
he created Opus Dei to serve the ends of the hidden and sinister Jewish
power, never for the greater glory of God and his Church. Escriva uses
the Church and not vice versa.
Right from the start, we may be suspicious of the fact that Escriva
changed his name so often during his lifetime, a practice common among
Jews. The undoubted and truthful document of his surname is that of
Escriba, and so it is inscribed in the Register. The surname Escriba,
if we stick to its etymological meaning, is derived from the Latin
voice scriba, which means "doctor and interpreter of the law among the
Hebrews" according to the first and main acceptance of the Dictionary
of the Spanish Language. (70)
In the Mosaic law "sofer", the archaic Hebrew root meaning to write, is
used to designate the scribe, male - women are forbidden to be scholars
and interpreters of the Law - consecrated to the strict observance of
Jewish law. Ezra was called "a scribe or a doctor very skilled in the
law of Moses" (Ezra VII, 6) who is instructed in the word and the
prescriptions imposed by the Lord who covenants and allies himself with
the people of Israel. The scribe was therefore the priest.
The scribes were very influential in the courts of Judah and Israel,
especially during the reign of David and Solomon. In Ecclesiasticus,
chapter XXXIX, their relevance as repositories of wisdom and prophecy
is considered. In the Solomonic era there were even schools that
prepared for these tasks. In Deuteronomy XVI, the scribes are also
assigned judicial functions.
The scribes, from their captivity in Babylon, will be the doctors of
the Law. They were the scribe-priests. Their influence led them to
dominate under their tutelage the people who considered the profession
of scribe as "the most noble", as watchmen and hermeneutics of the
Mosaic Law . The scribes grouped and organized themselves in the
synagogues, dividing themselves into tendencies such as the Sadducees,
the Pharisees, or the Essenes.
In the beginning the scribes of Israel followed the oral tradition for
their work. Later they collected the maxims that they spread and made
to be observed in the Mischna. The first and foremost duty of the
scribes was to zealously collect the Jewish Law. Thus, the Talmud
prescribes that "he who forgets the precept, taught by the scribe,
spoils his life.
Before becoming scribes, they went through an apprenticeship. They were
Talmids, that is, students who, in contact with their teacher, received
his teachings and from the age of 40, if they had assimilated the
subject, they were ordained doctors (hakam). The scribe was the
authority to resolve legislative, religious and ritual issues. They
held the key positions in law, administration and teaching.
Only the scribes were allowed access to the Sanhedrin. The Pharisee
party of the Sanhedrim was composed entirely of scribes. The scribes
were par excellence the bearers of a secret science: "the esoteric
tradition". The cabala was the hermetic science of the scribes who
reserved their knowledge. In Jerusalem, where they explained their
teachings, the people sat at their feet, as a sign of submission. This
account or interpretative key is the patronymic charge that Joseph Mary
Scribe carries in his blood and in his genes.
The people of his original surname Escriba is equivalent to a rabbi. He
carries his origin in his own family name. If he is called a scribe it
is because his ancestors, more or less distant, close or remote, were
"doctors and interpreters of the law among the Hebrews", that is,
rabbis. Christ, in his Gospel, speaks of the character and disposition,
in many of his passages, of the "scribes and Pharisees", who they were,
how they behaved, what their feelings were and how great their
duplicity was.
Escrivá de Balaguer was a Jew by blood and spirit.
His work, the sect of which he is the charismatic leader, is made in
the image and likeness of the small and impenetrable Jewish
communities. Opus Dei is still a ghetto, its laws and statutes obscure,
untranslated and hidden, its lack of sincerity with respect to its
other brothers and sisters, the Christians, to whom they deny their
membership of the clan, their mutual aid, but only among themselves,
their zeal for profit and money, the monetarist sense they imprint on
their lives, the worship of the Golden Calf, the words and passwords
they use, the wills they force upon them and all their paraphernalia
are the extrapolation of the laws of Kahal embedded in the Church.
Escriva may appear to be Christian, but his background is Jewish. As
Jewish as the trade of his father, a cloth merchant, typical of the
Hebrew and sow communities. The history of the Jewish community of
Huesca provides countless examples of this. Among the shops of the
Jewish quarter in 1238 there was a famous one, that of the silk
merchant Abraim Aborrave. It is also known that a certain Xalema Xuri
was a silk merchant and supplier to the royal house. (71) Already in
1290, the members of the Huesca aljama were granted the power to run
dry-cleaning shops for rags from France. There is also news of the
Jewish trade in textiles, having stood out for its significance, apart
from those already mentioned, the ragman from Huesca Abrahim Alamaca,
or the Jews Solomon Ablatorell and Mosse Abulbaca, ragmen from Huesca
like the father of Escriva, who in the year 1311 were sanctioned and
condemned to pay 1500 salaries and compensation for the purchase of
textiles, knowing that they were stolen in the town of Sariñena
by the also Jewish Caredin.
So deep-rooted and widespread was the involvement of the Jews in Huesca
and its territory - where Escrivá de Balaguer comes from and is
a native - in the textile business and trade, that in the capital there
was even a silk quarter within the Jewish quarter. (72) Among the
activities of the Jews in Huesca we find those of doctors, spice
makers, halberdiers, pinchers, silk workers, silversmiths, dyers,
tailors, rag pickers, merchants and moneylenders. (73) Escrivá's
family was engaged in one of the usual trades of those of his tribe,
that is, in the business and trade of cloth, and as indicated in
chapter II of this work, the father, after committing a collective
swindle in Barbastro on his neighbors, did not stay in the town to meet
his obligations and responsibilities, but fled at night to consummate
the swindle and not have to pay his creditors.
Escriba is a descendant of the rabbis of Huesca and its demarcation. In
1480 there were 9 rabbis in Huesca who practiced in the aljama, which
is the preferred voice of the scribes to designate the Jewish
community. The aljamas were concentrated and located in the call or
streeter, a term that derives from the Hebrew kahal, community or
neighborhood where the Semites were grouped.
In Barbastro there was an influential Jewish nucleus and both the
rabbinate and the disgorging were offices provided by royal
commandment. (74) There was a synagogue, and the story goes that the
Jews of Barbastro tore down the old synagogue of the town and built a
new one because of the size of the larger community. King Alfonso III
himself, upon learning of the uprising and construction of the new
synagogue to house more Jews in Barbastro, ordered, while the king was
in Ejea on October 3, 1287, to recognize the work and ordered that if
it was larger than the previous synagogue, to proceed against the
aljama.
An interesting and curious document in relation to the crypto Jews of
Barbastro is found in Konrad Eubaer who informs us in his work how Pope
Benedict XIII, on April 27th 1415, orders the barter of the synagogue
of Barbastro into a church because the Jews of his aljama converted to
Christianity. (75) Barbastro was the fifth most important Jewish
quarter in Aragon and the aljama was located in the vicinity of the
city's castle of La Zuda, next to the wall, where James I granted the
powerful Jewish community authorisation in April 1271 to open a gate in
the wall, so that they could enter directly from the road to Huesca,
with a width that could be travelled by both men and beasts of burden.
The aljama of Barbastro was one of those denounced for usury, which
gave cause to open an investigation that ended with the imposition of
the payment of 1000 salaries in April 1298.
The phenomenon of false conversions of Jews to Christianity in the area
of Huesca began from the very moment of the conquest of Huesca by the
Aragonese King Peter I in 1096. The cases of Rabbi Moisés
Safardó are famous. He was baptized in the cathedral of Huesca
in 1106 and took the name of Pedro Alfonso, who became a member of the
clergy and wrote two works: La Disciplina clericalis and
Diálogos contra los judíos. The canon of the cathedral,
Pedro de Almería, was also converted. Bishop Vidal de Canellas
gives us a clue of his inclinations when he bequeathed in his will 300
salaries to a certain Magpie, of Jewish race. Notorious and symptomatic
was the mass conversion of the family of Azach abin Longo or Abelongo.
So were the Santvicent or San Vicente as well as the Santángel,
some of which were families from Barbastro, the Alborit - Albás
-, Azacha, Avin, Solomon, Argelet...
There were 35 Jewish quarters in the Kingdom of Aragon, some of which
were of royal origin and others were under the rule of the Church or
the nobility.
Escrivá seems to constantly turn his eyes to his past; his
historical memory immersed in the Jewish concept leads him to write his
main work, The Way, as moral proverbs, as maxims, as short sentences,
adages of moral content and often recriminatory. These moral teachings,
which came from these Greek communities, sometimes ambiguous, sometimes
with double meanings, sometimes with interpretative differences, were
very common in the literary production of the converts and crypto-Jews,
and when well analyzed, they show a background of Hispanic-Hebrew
spirit. With its moral aphorisms it recreates the conversational
tradition of the 16th and 17th centuries in Spain, especially the
ascetic literature written by converts.
If we were to look for the sources or the precedents of his work The
Way, we would have to allude and make obligatory reference to works
such as La certeza del Camino (The Certainty of the Way) - here the
word way is even reflected - by Abraham Pereira, who also wrote his
Espejo de las vanidades del mundo (Mirror of the Vanities of the
World); or the works of the convert Luis de Granada Guía de
Pecadores (Guide of Sinners) and Introducción al símbolo
de la Fe (Introduction to the Symbol of Faith); or Diego Estella's book
Descripción de las vanidades del mundo (Description of the
Vanities of the World), the controversial treatise by the crypto-Jew
Miguel de Molinos published under the title of Guía Espiritual
(Spiritual Guide). All of them are models, stereotypes that in one way
or another have been consulted and used; some maxims have been copied
and the thoughts have been plagiarized when back in 1934, in Cuenca,
Escriva was writing his Spiritual Considerations, which was first
called the draft and draft, the Prince's edition of what would later
become popular as the catechism of the "chosen people" as the members
of Opus Dei boast, under the name of The Way. Of course, the
inspiration and slogans had a contrast of authenticity and good line in
the Talmud, the original and total source of Escriva's inspiration
These are the books written on the basis of moral proverbs, on
anathemas, on works with an instructive sieve and with a didactic
orientation, where the rules and precepts, the norms, were the clue to
know that he was a moralizing convert, a pig author, which used
semantic tricks consisting of transcribing concepts with Jewish
feelings, ideas and beliefs by changing the meaning and intention of
the terms, the meaning of the words and using a language that is a
mixture of piety and caricature, which in both worlds are identical as
if it were a semantic fraud.
In the same line of thought and action is found the oft-repeated phrase
that Escrivá liked to repeat so often: "We are the rest of the
people of Israel. We are what is left of the people of GOD..." The
quote was so pleasing to him that it has even been taken up in Vicente
García's novel: "In the name of the father" (76) when he tells
us a pose by Escrivá telling us that "the Father emerges, who
straightens up and raises his arms above his head and thunders with his
voice, exclaiming 'We are the people of Israel, my daughters! We are
the people of Israel! Again and again he recreates this in the same
context: 'we are the remnant of the people of Israel' (77)
His apparent humility was as false as he himself. Once while praying,
he said aloud "here is your mangy donkey" to which immediately and from
on high he received the answer from God himself: "a donkey was my
throne in Jerusalem". (78)
Such was Escriva's Semitic profile that a priest from Madrid, a friend
of the writer Luis Carandell, in a conversation about Opus Dei, "took
the opportunity to make the joke that Opus Dei was made up of 'a scribe
and seventy thousand Pharisees,' and added the very Spanish question of
whether the bishop was not of Jewish origin. (79) The anthropologist
Julio Caro Baroja did not deny or affirm the origin of the name,
although he did point out that it was not the best name to use in
camouflage.
It is therefore not surprising that in his report to the diocesan synod
of 1985, the rector of the seminary of the Diocese of La Rioja accused
the clergy of Opus Dei of "going on the hunt for heresies" and went on
to say: "... they believe they belong to the Melchizedek race" (80), a
direct allusion in a metaphorical sense.
The character of his divine filiation, of his covenant and pact with
God himself, was experienced by the Founder personally "...this reality
on a summer day in 1931, in a tramway in Madrid. While he was wondering
how he could carry out the mission God had entrusted to him three years
earlier, on October 2, 1928, he had a clear answer - which was engraved
in his soul with fire - through some words of Psalm II: "You are my
son; today I have begotten you. With his soul flooded with joy, he
began to repeat aloud, like a child, "Abba, Pater, Abba, Pater! Abba!
Abba!" (81)
Escriva had rightly been denounced before the Special Tribunal for the
Repression of Freemasonry, because he considered that in a Spain of
Catholic effervescence and profound Christian sentiment "Opus Dei was
the Jewish branch of Freemasonry.
An anecdote that is innocently told in the biography of Escrivá
written by his chief praiseworthy man (83) tells us that "near Caracas,
on February 14, 1975, there arose a young man with a full and wide
beard, who enhanced his joviality.
- Father, I am a Hebrew...
The founder of Opus Dei interrupted him: "I love the Hebrews very much,
because I love Jesus Christ very much - madly! - who is a Hebrew. Do
not say was, but is: Iesus Christus, hier et odie, ipse et in secula.
Jesus Christ continues to live, and he is a Hebrew like you. The second
love of my life is a Hebrew, Mary Most Holy, Mother of Jesus Christ. So
I look at you lovingly, go on..." Her Jewish instinct, which she
sometimes did not know how to or could not restrain, came out, although
it adorned her imprint with allusions to God and his Holy Mother, to
leave the most attenuated thing, that the message be understood without
being completely discovered.
One of the people who knew Escrivá's intimate reality was his
friend Professor Viktor E. Frankl, a Jewish specialist in psychology
who has left several testimonies of his meetings with the founder of
Opus Dei, where he has left us a record of his capacity for adaptation
and simulation, his metamorphosis, typical of his race, stressing "his
amazing ability to immediately tune in to his interlocutor. He lived
totally in the present moment and gave himself to him completely. (84)
So thoroughly Jewish was Escriva that he did not want, following the
Jewish custom, his parents to rest in Christian burial in a Catholic
cemetery, thus following the tradition of the Hebrews who took their
elders' bones with them if they were dug up. Escrivá did not
want his parents' remains to be buried in holy ground, so he buried
them in the crypt of the house of Opus Dei in Madrid's Calle de Diego
de León, an exhumation of dubious legitimacy if we abide by the
municipal rules and ordinances on burials that were in force when they
were buried outside the walls of cemeteries in an unsuitable street and
place.
Another trend that stands out as traditional in many Jews is that of
"seeking connections to aristocratic lineages". (85) And the
acquisition and fraud of the title of "Marquis of Peralta," for which
Escrivá had no legitimacy whatsoever, either in origin or in
practice, and only his Jewish instinct, dragged him into the fair of
earthly vanities, with the search, investigation and awarding of a
noble title for which he had to resort not only to deception, knowing
that he had no right, but even to the falsification of documents and
the malfeasance of public positions in the Spanish Ministry of Justice
that were attached to Opus Dei.
Another clear sign of unreliability, at that time widely used by Jews
of all times, is the constant change of names in order not to be
recognized. Let us recall here that Mendizábal, the author of
the most famous ecclesiastical disentailment, a liberal minister under
discussion, who in reality was called Alvarez y Méndez and who,
as Caro Baroja emphasizes, "following the very common custom among his
lineage, modified his surname. (86) The system of changing one's name
and locality is underlined by speaking of Blázquez Miguel
cryptojudaism, as a usual and homologated technique among Jews.
And speaking of tactics and techniques, of behavioral patterns,
Escrivá's behavior on March 28, 1975, when he celebrated his
golden anniversary as a priest in private, is significant, according to
his usual rule of conduct "to hide and disappear is my thing" (87),
immersion and archetypal concealment of cryptojewish.
According to the historian Pulgar the converts in Aragon "were many"
(88) and according to the Jewish historian Baer "there would be some
six thousand Jewish families in the kingdom of Aragon, which
proportionally meant a lot" (89) The famous Green Book of Aragon is a
chilling documentary account of the contamination and lack of
cleanliness of blood in a large number of families of the Aragonese
nobility where a large part of the privileged classes were truly of
Jewish origin. Bernáldez, in his Historia de los Reyes
Católicos informs us that "as soon as they could acquire honour,
royal offices, favours from kings and lords, some mixed with the sons
and daughters of old Christian knights with plenty of wealth" (90) and
then led a double life of profit.
For the crypto-Jews, as for Escrivá de Balaguer, ethics was
reduced, in short, to doing what was useful in the final term in the
hierarchy of values.
For Cobo Martinez, Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer is one
of the most qualified and efficient servants of Judaism. (91) His
services to the Jewish cause and the damage that his actions caused in
the Catholic Church gave him the great title of favorite son of Israel.
Hence his inclination to the hidden life and the constant calls to
imitation, not to the doctrine explained by Christ, not to Christian
love and charity, but "to the thirty years of the Lord's hidden life"
with an obsession for compliance and obedience as befits a religion,
the Hebrew religion, which is based not on faith but on the
prescriptions of an uncompromising law where, as Escriva said, "To obey
always is to be a martyr without dying. Blind obedience, on love and
truth. That is the great difference.
As Don Julio Caro Baroja warns us "we must be very careful with the
bloody wolves that pass among us disguised with the skins of false
sheep". (92)
REFERENCES
69. Roth, p 27.
70. "Escriba," Diccionario de la Lengua Española, Edition 19
(Real Academia de la Lengua, 1970).
71. Duran Gudiol, p 34.
72. Ibid, pp 34-35.
73. Ibid, p 42.
74. Ibid, p 56.
75. Cantera, Francisco, "Sinagogas españolas" (Madrid: CSIC,
1984), p 170.
76. Gracia Vicente, p 63.
77 Walsh, p. 196.
78. Ibid, p 211.
79. Carandell, p 80.
80. Walsh, p 131.
81. "Le Tourneau", p 132.
82. Ibid, p 46.
83. Bernal, p 263.
84. West, p 54.
85. Caro Baroja, "Races, Peoples and Lineages", op cit, p 128.
86. Caro Baroja, "Destiny of the Hispanic Jew", op cit, p 416.
87. Le Tourneau, p 19.
88. López Martínez, p 103.
89. Baer, Die Juden, Vol I, p 813.
90. Bernáldez, "Historia de los Reyes Católicos", p 600.
91. Cobo Martínez, "Faro inconfundible", No. 23 (June, 1988), p
10.
92. Caro Baroja, "Races, Peoples and Lineages", p 133.
Index
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CHAPTER
III
CRYPTOJUDAISM AND OPUS DEI
4. The Kabbalistic
Symbology of Opus
Dei
If Escriva was of Jewish stock, his signs and symbols had to be, as a
graphic and interpretative representation of his subconscious, in
accordance with his condition. The Opus, his Work, his Pompa, his
instrument, his great deception, had to be chiselled with emblems and
allegories related to the Hebrew Kabbalah. It was on this assumption
that we began our investigations, and the results have been surprising.
The official biographer and laudatory of the figure of Escrivá
put us on the track when he wrote that "word spread around Madrid that
his oratory was full of Kabbalistic signs..."(93) The elliptical
oratory in the house on Diego de León Street was also mentioned.
Fr. Severino Alvarez, a Dominican, Dean of the Faculty of Canon
Law at the Angelicum in Rome, told us as early as 1950 that complaints
against Opus Dei had also been received at the Holy Office in Rome, in
which, among other things, reference was made to the heterodoxy of Opus
Dei, indicating the elliptical form of the oratory and the external
signs, the unconventional manifestations used, so the Master General of
the Dominicans, taking advantage of the fact that Father Severino had
made a trip to Spain at that time, asked him to visit and inform him of
what he saw in the oratory in question.
The signs, the glimpses, the comments on the cryptography used began.
It was at the end of 1939 that Opus Dei had opened an oratory attached
to the residence on Jenner Street, in Madrid, around which, from those
early days, alarm and disconcert began to be felt by the believers who
began to circulate by word of mouth that the chapel "was adorned with
Kabbalistic and Masonic signs and it is said that thanks to wise plays
of light Escrivá de Balaguer was simulating levitation
phenomena. (94)
In addition, the Society for Intellectual Cooperation -SOCOIN-, an
initiative linked to the Work, was pointed out as a Masonic derivation
of an international Jewish organization. At the time when these events
were taking place - at the dawn of the foundation of Opus Dei - a
professor of international law claimed that he had found in a Hebrew
dictionary the true meaning of the acronym SOCOIN, which corresponded
to the name of a Hebrew sect of murderers. (95)
In 1940 the Special Court for the Repression of Freemasonry and
Communism, which had among other missions that of protecting the
security of the State, opened an informative file against José
María Escrivá de Balaguer, accusing him of "hiding a
Jewish branch of Freemasonry under the name of Opus Dei. (96) Such a
serious and unusual accusation must have some basis, be supported, have
reasons and arguments, which we will try to clarify.
The first symbol that calls our attention is the adoption of the rose
as an emblematic figure, as a differentiating and identifying symbol,
which is assumed and attributed to Opus Dei. In this context we cannot
forget that the rose is not a whim or something casual, but that it
reveals a profound coherence, since according to the Zohar the rose
designates "The Community of Israel" (see Zoar, I 1a). Perhaps Father
Escrivá wanted to warn a few initiates with this legend not to
forget their roots... and their obligations.
Ediciones Rialp, the publishing house owned by Opus Dei, where the
official books and texts of the Work are published, the vehicle for
disseminating the most apologetic and exultant bibliography of Opus
Dei, has as its publishing anagram the image and design of a rose.
These are the identifying marks of its bibliographical work. It is the
brand image. It is the sign of the rose...
The origin for the introduction of the Kabbalistic sign of the rose
goes back to the years of the Spanish War period, when Escrivá,
who had been in the "red zone" without too much trouble having the
prior information about the outcome of the conflict with the victory of
the national forces loyal to Franco, went from a conflict zone across
the Pyrenees to the French border, where the group took refuge in the
middle of winter in a hut for the night. In the morning, when they were
about to resume their march, Escrivá was asked to officiate a
mass, which he inexplicably refused, leaving the mountain refuge alone
and walking until he was lost in the snow and ice of the mountains,
returning shortly thereafter to the point of departure in jubilation,
Euphoric, according to eyewitnesses, with his face illuminated and a
wooden rose in his hands which he said "had been given to him by Our
Lady, who had just appeared to him" (97) in all the apparitions
officially recognized by the Catholic Church, there is proof. Of the
apparition that Escrivá spread, none, despite his live
testimony, which as it were a crude lie, insisted subsequently, nor has
such an apparition ever been recognized by the Church.
After that situation he would invent a whole legend. He said that the
rose was half buried in the snow and for him "was the clear sign that
another era in the life of Opus Dei was approaching and that the period
of the plants covered with snow would soon be over," (98) in a clear
metaphorical allusion to his secular cirptojudaism, with two obvious
interpretations, the rose and its meaning and its hiding place and
coming to the surface.
The symbol of the rose is a very important part of the Hebrew
Kabbalistic tradition. (99) Already in the psalms and in the Jewish
prophetic poems, the red rose and the white rose personify the punished
and purified bodies of Israel. But in the Kabbalah it goes even further
on the path of meanings. The Tree, sephirotic, divided into three
vertical columns, has the central one precisely under the invocation of
the rose, which in this way restores and balances the rigorous and
severe part of creation -left- with its clement and merciful side
-right-.
The rose is not only printed in all the publications that come out of
Opus Dei's publishing house, Rialp, which curiously bears the name of
the village where, supposedly in 1937, in his hermitage and on his own,
without any inconvenient witnesses, our Lady appeared to him, and which
since then has become the true symbol for Opus Dei. Nor could he be
missing everywhere in Torreciudad, the sumptuous temple built with the
obelisk of financial scandals. In Torreciudad we find sculpted roses in
the chapel, in the chapel, inside and outside the temple, in many
buildings of the architectural complex, everywhere, so that we do not
forget that we are in a place with a Kabbalistic message.
It seems that also when they kiss the ground, in that love of the
material, they mumble the Templar motto "Non nobis, Domine, non nobis,
sed nomine tuo da gloriam" (100). For the Temple, the rose and the
thorn were a symbol of capital importance.
Apart from the rose and its clear Kabbalistic message, another sign
dear to the founder of Opus Dei was the graphic representation of
palmipeds, the hermetic sign of the goose, the goose's foot. There are
drawings of ducks made by Escrivá's hand on glass, wood,
porcelain, and paper. In an exercise house in Molino Viejo, in the
province of Segovia, a duck attributed to the founder himself is
painted on a wall. The obsession with the graffiti of the geese has
another face and a sibylline Kabbalistic aspect, of an enigmatic and
deep meaning.
Another of the most striking peculiarities is the removal of the image
of Christ from the crucifixes. Neither does the typical INRI of the
cross appear, nor the black sash with the mors mortem superavit. (101)
For Opus Dei, according to its founder's design, the crucifix is the
cross without a body, so they reverence and adore not the figure of
Christ, but they praise the scaffold, its last scaffold, they venerate
the instrument of torture and torment.
The members of Opus Dei carry, in their pockets, crosses without the
body of Christ. Of the crucified Son of God, the Work accepts and
recognizes as its own only an empty wooden cross. The camouflaged
reasons given by Escrivá are that the naked bodies of Jesus
Christ are usually badly made and repugnant. The crucifix is the symbol
of faith. The wood, the Calvary where the Jews exercised their deicide.
It is a custom and compulsory rule that in every center or house of
Opus Dei "there is a black cross without Christ, which will be
decorated twice a year. (102) These heterodox practices have been
censured as well as their secrecy, as their thumb is placed on their
lips.
If to the bare cross we add the rose we have the rose-cross.
Kabbalistic alchemy could not be more explicit and perfect.
Continuing in the search for and discovery of Kabbalistic elements,
numerology has been a traditional science which draws its inspiration
from the Hebrew Kabbalah and whose representation could not be lacking
in Opus Dei. The book of Escrivá, The Way, has exactly 999
maxims or points, whose number has not been changed in any re-edition,
and which, inverted, becomes the apocalyptic 666, the number of the
"Beast", which places us in the eschatological character of the Work.
Its historical mission seems to be clearly stated, as Judaism is a
major factor in every apocalyptic age. As the Apocalypse tells us, the
name of the Beast is written in figures whose value is 666.
Undoubtedly the number is not mere chance. (103) Dante made extensive
use of the number 9 and other multiples of 3 in the Divine Comedy. In
dimensions of life (maximum 279), three times three, 999, 666...
The number 9 has an esoteric importance of the first magnitude insofar
as it represents the sign of the ninth Kabbalistic sephirah, and as
Professor Gershom Scholem of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
explains, to know the meaning of the profound reasons of the numbers as
cosmic magnitudes - it was, for the Kabbalists and for those who
followed the universal essence of their theosophy - "a system of
thought that proposes to know and describe the operations of the
Divinity". (104) For the Kabbalah, the uninterrupted constant of the
number 9-yesod, foundation-is fully justified in the Opus as a building
block. Three times three makes nine, and three times nine makes 999,
which must be reversed, turned around, so that we see the enigmatic and
significant bestial name reflected.
Other signs used by Opus Dei in its manifestations are the olive tree
and the tree; according to the explanations given in the Haggadah in
the Talmud, Israel resembles the olive tree because the oil extracted
from it is not mixed with the other liquids, and thus Israel retains
its individuality; because the supernatant oil, which the Jews say - it
is written in the law "God will place you above all nations"
(Deuteronomy XXVI, 19) and because the olive tree needs to be crushed
to produce and thus Israel will benefit from the misfortunes and
persecutions, some feigned and others provoked. (105)
As a trademark they have also used in large holdings close to Opus Dei,
such is the case of Rumasa, another Kabbalistic symbol; the bee
enclosed in an exagon, which is the graphic representation of the
Hebrew "Deborah" with all its intrinsic connotations.
Finally, it should be noted that among the members of Opus Dei there
are, as in Jewish Freemasonry, certain words of passage and
recognition. They are greeted with the word "Pax" and the answer is "In
aeternum". These are words of identification and filiation, interior
slang used to emphasize their membership, a kind of slogan or saint and
particular sign. They use Latin in the words chosen as pass or sacred
words to use among themselves and not with the other supposed brothers,
the Christians.
Another exorcism that is detected is that of sprinkling the bed with a
few drops of blessed water before going to bed, whipping oneself,
wearing sackcloths or sleeping on the floor once a week as a sign of
penance and to come closer in the distance and in the place where they
find themselves to the symbolic Hebrew wall of lamentation.
REFERENCES
93. Bernal, p 246.
94. Ricci, Marina, "Opus Dei," 30 Day Magazine, No. 5 (May 1990), p. 16.
95. Ibid, p. 17.
96. Ibid, p. 17.
97. Magaña, p 1576.
98. Ynfante, "The Prodigious Adventure of Opus Dei," p. 19.
99. García, Atienza, Juan "La Kabala, Mundo desconocido"
magazine, No. 31 (January 1979).
Cristobal, Ramiro, "The Templars, an Antecedent of Opus Dei," in
Historia, No. 6 (September 1975), p. 62.
101 .Ynfante, Jesus, "The Silence of the Termites," p. 15.
102. Le Vaillant, p 213.
103. Ynfante, "The Prodigious Adventure of Opus Dei," p 386.
104. García Atienza, p 45.
105. Wast, Oro, p 160.
Index
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CHAPTER
III
CRYPTOJUDAISM AND OPUS DEI
5. Jewish ghettos
as a model for
Opus Dei
The model and pattern of Opus Dei's internal structure is not the
Christian community based on charity and love of all its fellow men.
The Work's internal structure, its internal organization chart and its
laws and rules of operation are a plagiarism, a transposition of the
religious, social and juridical life of the communities of the Jewish
ghetto, regulated by the Talmud and the Rebbinical laws of the Kahal.
Escrivá de Balaguer created Opus Dei in the image and likeness
of the Jewish ghetto, regulating their common life under the same
principles and giving it an intrinsic cohesion based on the experiences
and normative regulations, on the prescriptions, on which the Law of
the Kahal was based. We can affirm without ambiguity that Escriva
fulfills the ancient norms of Jewish spiritual life with allegories and
Christian language. These are the old rabbinical wineskins and the
baptismal water. He speaks in Christian and thinks and feels in Hebrew.
All levels of behavior and unyielding intransigence over the group are
manifestations resulting from the spirit of the Talmud. Opus Dei is the
institution of the rabbinate within the Catholic Church.
In his youth, Escrivá knew and applied the spirit of the ghetto,
which is reflected in Jacob Brafmann's book The Book of the Kahal,
which details the life, rule and administration of the Jewish ghettos
that Escrivá wanted to assimilate for his future Work, copying
it to the letter.
It is generally thought that to be a Jew is simply to profess the
Jewish religion, but in reality it is something quite different, it is
nothing less than belonging to a different and distinct people chosen
according to them - to the one in which one was born or lives. It is
erroneously considered that the synagogue is nothing more than the
place of worship of the Israelites, when one ignores that it is also
their center of government, their legislature, their forum, their
court, their school, their purse and their club. (106) The synagogue is
the soul of Judaism, and its soul at the same time is not the Bible,
but the Talmud which is materialized in the kahal, in which from the
time the Jew calls at the threshold of life, until his spoils, washed
with water boiled with dried roses, he lives in secret submission.
The Kahal, like the Opus for its members, governs their existence,
subordinates and subdues them, reduces them and manages them
infallibly. The Kahal exists wherever there is a Jewish nucleus, which
if the number is small is called Kehillah and if there are many and
they have a rabbi and a synagogue, it is already a kahal, which has
jurisdiction over the Kehillahs in the vicinity and surrounding areas.
If the number of the Hebrew community is considerable, where thousands
of Hebrews are concentrated in the same city as the city of New York,
for example, where millions of Jews gather - a Great Kahal is
installed, which has jurisdiction over the Kahals of the whole
territory. The Kahal acts as an invisible and absolute sovereign to
which personal wills and individual interests must bow, just as in Opus
Dei, a replica of its system and functioning. The Kahal also judges as
a tribunal and pursues as an implacable exterminator. Opus Dei
constantly judges its members by watching over each other and
correcting and amending them. Kahal and Opus are two realities of the
same identity.
Commerce, politics, economics, religion, private life in its most
intimate and meticulous details - relations between parents and
children, between husband and wife, between masters and servants -
everything is governed by the Talmud and controlled by the Kahal - the
Opus Dei - which is its concrete expression. (107) There is a close
intelligence between the Rabbi who elaborates the doctrine and the
Kahal who applies it, and which the general public ignores, licenses,
keeps and confuses.
The Kahal and the Opus Dei legislate their internal regime at their own
discretion and whim, according to the Talmudic maxims and dogmas. More
hidden is and acts the Beth Din, a secret court that judges outside the
conventional justice, being its codes not the legal texts, but its own
Jewish spirit. The deception has consisted in making Jewish communities
or Opus Dei appear as simple associations of a religious nature, thus
concealing their true nature. Their presentation is like harmless
nuclei, when in reality they are secret societies that control in a
totalitarian way the individuals who are part of them. (108)
Jews, like the adept member of Opus Dei, are individuals who are
subject to the Israeli community or to the Work as a whole in
political, economic, religious, military, cultural and even private
matters. They are the most deprived men on earth. They are slaves to a
desire and a promise. They are forced into secrecy, reduced to silence
and blind and thoughtless obedience to the Jewish community, to the
Work and to its organs of government, which for the majority, even for
those inside, remain hidden and secret.
Their only freedom is to obey their leaders and spiritual directors.
Due obedience, conjured up and sworn to in everything, in work and
ideology, in religion and culture. Nothing should be done without the
unquestionable approval of the spiritual leaders and directors who are
the ones who mark in an indelible way the personality of their
followers. Ask permission for everything. Not to have initiatives of
one's own. Any suggestion to be undertaken must have the acquiescence
and prior and preliminary knowledge of the "superior",
Opus Dei, like Judaism, is the updating of the Pharisaism of
yesteryear, which gives the rabbis not only the role of priests and
high priests, but also that of political leaders, of totalitarian and
omnimous rulers of the Jewish communities or of Opus Dei scattered
throughout the world. The rabbis, as well as the leaders of Opus Dei,
direct their followers in all areas of human life, politically,
economically, religiously, socially, and in their particular concerns,
because from their influence they make a totalitarian instrument, using
an intricate system of pressure and control, of espionage and
infiltration in all areas of the personal and moral life of their
followers, to impose their will and dominion.
The word "synagogue", like the term Opus, has three meanings: as an
assembly or basic organizational cell, as a temple or building, an
immovable property where they meet, which can be a temple or in private
homes that depend on other houses of regional scope or of a greater
demarcation according to the territorial entity or the nucleus of the
associates and finally it is also synonymous with Jewish-Christian
totalitarianism, where their leaders are erected in forums of supreme
obedience.
Among the Jews, the "Parnasim" or members of the regional or local
Kahal, and in Opus Dei the spiritual directors - who may or may not be
priests of the Work - direct the local community, plan the infiltration
of its members into all political, economic, labor, etc., estates,
parties and groups, without regard to ideology. For this reason, we
find Jews and members of Opus Dei in the armies of left-wing parties
and organizations and among right-wing or centrist parties. Their
fixation is servile obedience.
The Israelite Jacob Alejandrovich Brafman says that the control of each
Jewish individual is very meticulous in all the activities of his
public and private life and that the totalitarian dominion of the
Jewish community over the Jewish individual is absolute and even
penetrates into the intimacy of the Israelite home. (109) As in Opus
Dei.
The secret to achieving blind and totalitarian obedience is coercion,
repressive laws, intimidation with the punishment of eternal damnation
without extenuating circumstances if one disobeys one's immediate
superiors, mortifications, evidence, reprisals as a result of the crime
of that community. To disobey the superiors in these nuclei is similar
to offending God, to departing from the path of "good" and entering the
path of eternal "perdition". It is the greatest of sins. Contempt is
not tolerated and its more than fraternal correction is terrible.
Among the measures taken against disobedient Jews, which are comparable
to those taken by Opus Dei, are the following:
Every Jew, upon entering the "Holy Synagogue Brotherhood", has to sign
compromising documents which, once subscribed, he does not see again
but which he knows about. From time to time he must renew his oaths of
fidelity in a public and solemn way before others, so that there is not
the slightest doubt and any temptation to repent of the step taken is
avoided. He must be subordinate to the Kahal or to the Work, above any
external value or institution, because only in the inner circle is the
truth to be found, and he must inform the rabbis or, if necessary, the
spiritual directors of the Work, of all the details and secrets to
which the Jew or member of Opus Dei has access, whether military,
political, and the members of Opus Dei live permanently mortgaged for
their whole life.
The internal laws of the Jewish sect or the Catholic mafia oblige one
to air one's differences inside. The dirty laundry is washed at home.
Controversies must be known and resolved by the rabbi or the superiors
of the Work. The scandal must never transcend public opinion, which
must live in ignorance of the inner workings of the ghetto and of the
Work.
-The Jew, like the numerary who disobeys, is deprived of the carnal
relationship with his spouse, for which reason the wife who is also
usually from the Work - Jewish and Opus Dei or spiritual - is urged to
deny all sexual relations until the husband returns to the fold of
obedience to the orders of his bosses, so that he can return to his
matrimonial bed.
-As a holy coercion, pecuniary sanctions are also allowed, being both
Opus and Judaism the best financed totalitarian groups in the world.
-The fanaticism and intransigence are so exacerbated that in cases of
serious and public disobedience, the physical elimination of the
"deserter" or the maligner can be reached. In Opus Dei there is an
endless number of "providential" and "mysterious" deaths of men who
knew too much and were not interested at the time. In Judaism the same
thing happens. The interests at stake are so enormous that they stop at
nothing.
Each member of the community is a spy for his brothers and they are
obliged to denounce any sign or symptom of disaffection with the orders
issued or with the community. That is why in a community based on
denunciation there can be neither sincere friendship, nor trust, nor
brotherhood. To denounce the errant is a bell of glory. To be confident
of heterodox intentions, somewhat in favor of the denouncer. Discipline
through this simple method is always guaranteed, because the most
meticulous systems of information, espionage and betrayal are
integrated. Thus we see children denouncing their parents, wives
against husbands, friends against each other throughout the Jewish
world and the Opus Dei world.
-The penalty in cases of contempt for the "error" of disobedience and
of liberation from the yoke of the group or community is herem or
excommunication, which entails a kind of civil death and where before
it was fictitious brotherhood, mutual aid and assistance, Suddenly, as
if by a spring it becomes animadversion and civil death, denying bread
and salt, making the one who leaves the spiral of obedience the most
frightening boycott in all domains, economic, social, political and
personal. It must be ruined, socially eliminated, discredited,
infamous, annulled and neutralized.
-Obedience is given even in the censorship prior to readings, games,
entertainment, shows and even friends. The non-Jew in a goim, a
stranger; the one who is not a member of Opus Dei, even if he is also a
Catholic, or a Christian, ceases to be a brother.
All the information collected by Jews or members of Opus Dei should
only be used for the benefit of Judaism or the Work, and in this way we
have impressive and free information controls, data centres. To know is
to reign.
"All Jews, without exception, are obliged, at least weekly, to give
their Rabbi a report of everything they see, hear, read, etc. in the
military, political, commercial, press and all kinds of offices where
they work, as well as of everything they see and hear in the street, in
the market, in the shop, in the school, in the club, in public
instruction, in the military, in university journalism, in religion, in
economics, in trade unions, or in any other way where they are or where
they "occasionally have access. (110) In Opus Dei, the parallelism is
identical, since all its members are obliged to have a weekly interview
with their spiritual director, which is called a "confidence meeting",
to inform him of their activities and to communicate to him everything
that they have learned, seen, heard or read in any medium in which they
have been involved. The director prepares a report with all the
information that the members send him every week, which in turn is sent
to the superiors. According to the importance of the information, and
after the evaluation and interest of the information, it is sent to the
top of the Central House of Opus Dei in Rome.
In Opus Dei there are also maids - the Work has centres where it
teaches and indoctrinates young women for domestic service in the homes
of the aristocracy and the bourgeoisie; they are trained to behave like
agents of espionage. In their "weekly confidences" they must tell of
the friends who frequent the house they are serving, the telephone
calls their masters receive, the correspondence and even the
conversations they listen to at home.
In Opus Dei, as among the Jews, there is an obligation to report
everything that happens within the community or the ghetto, with regard
to the observance of its customs and norms, which in the Work is called
"fraternal correction. This obligation is addressed both to the
culprit, who must be branded and censored for his faults to be
corrected, and to the spiritual director, who must be asked for
permission to make this accusation or act against the culprit, which
means that the spiritual director is also informed in advance of the
content of the public denunciation before the other members of the clan.
These practices exercise control and continuous mutual vigilance,
creating an atmosphere of mutual distrust, suspicion and suspicion that
makes normal coexistence impossible, but which is shaping the style of
Judaism or the spirit of the Work.
The obligation to denounce, with its continuous suspicion and vigilance
in Opus Dei is a copy of the usual and common experiences of the Hebrew
ghettos, in which its members were required to communicate all the
details to the rabbi. The effects on the ghetto and on the Work of such
practices are identical. In this way, all members were obliged to
engage in espionage and investigative activities, so useful in
maintaining the internal cohesion and links of the respective
communities.
Weekly "confidences" and "fraternal correction" are cornerstones in the
foundation of the Work according to Escrivá's conception, and
are to a large extent the reason for its success and its expansion
throughout the world. If these techniques or mechanisms of control were
suppressed in Opus Dei, the building would begin to crack, crumble and
end up lacking in vital strength.
The information received, classified, processed, transmitted to higher
levels or steps according to its content or importance are a key to the
dominance, hegemony, preponderance and lack of scruples and morals that
it develops.
In Opus Dei, several countries are at the head of the region. The fact
that their names are not generally known is not only due to chance.
(111) In each region, certain men in the system are secretly and
confidently entrusted with particular functions and tasks, whether in
the field of finance, commerce, teaching, etc., without their names or
missions being revealed to the basic members and naturally totally
concealed from the knowledge of other mortals.
The life of the ghetto in the Jews and of Opus Dei among Christians has
repercussions on their personality and on the interior of their souls,
creating a secret "lineage" that is "differentiated" from the rest of
their fellow men, whom they ignore, since for the Jew and for Opus Dei,
only the equals are similar, that is to say, themselves. They and they
alone are the chosen ones, those who have made a covenant with God, the
Work of God, the people of the Covenant, the children of Israel. The
rest are the garbage and scum of humanity. That is why the life and
legal order of their ghetto laws or their internal constitutions
prevail over the civil or political legislation of any state in which
they are based.
If Judaism has survived dispersion, diaspora, or circumstantial
contingencies, it is because of its ghetto spirit that it has generated
among the Hebrews a ruthless fanaticism and a willpower fortified by
education, necessity, and their own misery, which has caused them to
conceive of an insatiable thirst for gold, power, and domination. Gold,
power and domination are the premises of Opus Dei, which, as in the
ghettos, from the very first moment instills and stimulates feelings of
hatred, intolerance and pride, feelings experienced by the selected
one, the "chosen one" against his adversaries, that is, against all
those who are not Jewish or members of the Work. Their passions and
wills are stretched to the limit.
Their organizations, those of Opus Dei and those of the ghetto are
closed; the Jews form, as Schiller or Fichte would say, a state within
the state.
Ghetto and Opus Dei consciously take advantage of the vices of their
members, of their passions. As Brafmann states in his book on the
Kahal, "the maintenance of Judaism was only possible because of the
establishment of the ghetto. Separation was and should be the solution,
separation by language, by dress, by religion. Religion was
consistently shaped as a cult religion. Every Jew - the same applies to
the members of the Work - is intentionally forced to pay attention to
his religion and its prohibitions almost at every moment of his life,
in any thought because of the innumerable prescriptions, where one is
morally responsible even for one's neighboring behavior. Thus, ghetto
discipline was the main defensive weapon in the struggle for the
maintenance of the Jewish people and their small colonies" that
guaranteed their survival.
In the ghetto, as in Opus Dei, disobedience is ruthlessly repressed and
betrayal is unforgivable. Anathema is used as a terrible weapon. In the
ghetto and in Opus Dei the atmosphere is one of pride, pride and
intolerance, as befits the "chosen people" on a religious basis. This
is what the festivities, the rites, the celebrations, the practices,
the retreats, the exercises, the lamentations, and the prayers serve
above all and fundamentally for this. The four basic pillars of Jewish
dogma were faith in the covenant with Yahweh. Opus Dei, or the Work of
God, also considers itself the elite, the select, the pure and the
chosen; purity of race, in Opus Dei they are the immaculate in the face
of external contamination; faith in being the chosen people and in the
Messiah; for the Work the revived Messiah is represented by Escriva
himself, whose figure is the object of interior veneration.
Ghetto and Opus have defensive features. Hence on the one hand their
hatred of the "alter" and at the same time their mimicry, their
development in parallel with the secret of their organization and their
fanaticism characteristic of aligned and Talmudic brains, their hatred
and their dissimulation, their aggressiveness or servility according to
the circumstances, and all this for the sake of an appearance of
innocuous spirituality.
In Judaism, in the celebration of the feasts of the Pesach, the rabbis
emphasize that a single crouched Israelite, as the Bible tells us, was
able to take over the government and the wealth of Egypt, with even
more reason a whole Jewish community, infiltrated into a nation, can do
so. The silent lesson is applied by Opus Dei and was transmitted in
secret by Escriva to his men of trust and those closest to him.
Another maxim of the Talmud that Escrivá's followers follow to
the letter is that "wherever the Jews settle, they must become the
masters, and as long as they do not possess absolute dominion, they
must consider themselves exiles and prisoners, even if they come to
dominate some nations, until they dominate all of them, they must not
cease to cry out: What torment! What indignity! (112)
Unconsciously, in the silence of the termite, Jesus Ynfante tells us of
Opus Dei that "far from seeking transparency, they are caught up in the
darkness of the ghettos and the mafias. (113)
REFERENCES
106. Ibid, p 14.
107. Ibid, p 16.
108. Boyer, p 43.
109. Ibid, p 44.
110. Ibid, p 71.
111. Le Vaillant, p 60.
112. Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin Treaty, folio 104, column 1.
113. Ynfante, "The Silence of the Termites," p 15.
Index
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CHAPTER
III
CRYPTOJUDAISM AND OPUS DEI
6. Opus Dei and the
Jewish Question
The writer and essayist Alfredo Marquerie, known in the world of
Spanish literature for his elegant theatre criticism, made the
following assessment of the members of the Work: "I believe that those
in Opus Dei are new Christians. (114) The term "new Christian" was
coined to designate pigs and converts, crypto-Jews, Christians.
Although this was perhaps more an intuition than a reflection, it was
not without reason.
It is necessary to reveal a news item that has gone unnoticed by most
people but that shows the extent to which Opus Dei is a Jewish
organization that operates as a fifth column infiltrating the deepest
fibers of the Catholic Church. On May 10, 1968, the EFE News Agency
published a news item in New York, which was to be published the next
day in some of the world's newspapers and which, to quote from it, was
to be inserted in their editions:
"With the assistance of the Catholic Archbishop of New York, Terence
Cooke, and a group of family and friends, the funeral honors of Sol A
were celebrated in the "Emmanuel" synagogue of this capital.
Rosenblatt, who died in Biarritz (France) on May 4 at the age of 67, as
a result of a heart attack.
Mr. Rosenblatt was a famous New York lawyer and legal advisor to the
late Cardinal Spellman in the Archdiocese of New York.
"We remember with affection his generous life, his talent, his loyalty
and his willingness of spirit for all those who needed his help," said
the Archbishop of New York in a reminder to the figure of Sol A.
Rosenblatt, at the end of the religious services held in the
aforementioned synagogue.
"This was the first time that a Catholic archbishop attended Jewish
religious services in a synagogue. Monsignor Terence Cooke was united
by a great friendship with the deceased.
"Sol A. Rosenblatt, a personal friend and legal collaborator in the
time of American President Franklin D. Roosevelt, was also a great
friend of Spain. Recently the government awarded him the Cross of
Isabella the Catholic for his promotion of international understanding.
"The well-known New York lawyer also maintained a legal office in
Madrid, and was a personal friend of many Spanish authorities and
lawyers, including the Minister of Education and Science, Mr. Villar
Palasi, a member of Opus Dei.
"Among the family members attending the funeral was his wife, Estrella
Carrol Boissevain, who arrived last night from Madrid, and his two
children, Richard and Robert, a lawyer and banker respectively.
"Sol. A. Rosenblatt, born in Omaha, Nebraska, studied at Harvard
University, where he graduated in law in 1924. (115)
It is worth adding to this news of the funerals and religious services
of the Jew Sol A. Rosenblatt who in 1964 was circulating in the media
and among the notes and echoes of society that he was a regular on the
Costa Azul and was the strong man of finance, the treasurer of Opus
Dei. (116) How is it possible that a supposed Christian current, as
addicted to money as Opus Dei, had a famous practicing Jew as its head
of finance? Sometimes the facts are much more expressive and eloquent
than the words themselves.
The first time that a Catholic magazine joined Opus Dei with the Jews
was in the January 1990 issue of the monthly publication "Catholic
Tradition," in which a prominent headline appeared, in print from
several Scars, which read: "Opus and Judaism. Táctica del
sabotaje" (117) The magazine was beginning to see the key to the enigma
and the Opus Dei phenomenon.
It is already significant and symptomatic that Opus Dei - which
presents itself as suspiciously ultra-Catholic, with the faith of the
convert - may include "non-Christians" and "where there is a large
Jewish representation, which may explain the rapid financial boom and
the influence of the Work on the high economy. (118) And what is even
more unusual is that even non-believers can belong to Opus Dei.
According to the Jewish journalist from the New York Times Herbert L.
Matthews, a great connoisseur of Opus Dei, "one can never be sure about
the members of this organization, which works in great secrecy as to
names, number, activity (119) When everything is to be concealed, when
the truth itself is concealed, some powerful reason must exist to mask
the Work of God with so much mystery.
According to various authors, Escriva received many people: Catholics,
Christians of different confessions, Jews, agnostics, etc. "who wanted
to know him and ask his advice. (120) It is not known whether the Jews
came or went, whether they came to receive advice or to give it.
Escrivá took great care to open the floodgates so that from
within the Church, through Opus Dei, people not only non-Catholics but
even anti-Christians could operate. This possibility was offered to him
by means of the "cooperating partners," although it is difficult to
understand how a person who does not believe, who does not feel, who
does not profess religious beliefs, could help him, unless they helped
him to destroy them like Trojan horses. The four categories of
oppositional members can be: numeraries, supernumeraries, Oblates and
"cooperators" and it is in this fourth power within the Work that a
whiff of insincerity penetrates and where, so as not to arouse
suspicion, the pure Jewish state is situated.
Among the outstanding connections of Opus Dei with Judaism, let us
cite, for example, the Cardinal of Jewish origin, Augustine Bea - the
confessor of the then reigning Pontiff, His Holiness Pius XII - who was
one of the ecclesiastical hierarchies that supported Opus Dei and
Escriva the most, both economically and through his traffic of
influence in the corridors and corridors of the Vatican, with whom he
was linked by ties of blood and friendship. The Jewish Cardinal Bea was
the promoter and creator of controversial documents of the Second
Vatican Council, such as those referring to religious liberalism, to
the Jewish people - to which he belonged -, to the relations of the
Church with the sects or catapulting Opus Dei with all kinds of help
and recommendations.
Escrivá's contacts with Cardinal Agustín Bea later
enabled the founder of Opus Dei to answer question 21 of the 24
questions to José María Escrivá de Balaguer, in
the following terms: (121) "Holy Father," he referred to John XXIII,
"in our Work all men and women, Catholic or not, have always found a
friendly place: I have not learned ecumenism from your Holiness," in a
clear allusion to Bea. It was an explicit and personal recognition of
the penetration of the Jewish element in the Catholic Church.
His men positioned in political spheres began to be called technocrats,
influenced by the economic ideas of the American Jew Trostein Veblen,
who in 1919 published his book The Engineers and the Price System, from
which the technocracy promoted by the also Jewish Howard Scott was
based. Among the most ardent defenders of the technocratic economic
theory adopted by Opus Dei are the staff of Walter Rastentrauch, Basset
Jones, Del Hitchoc, Ackermann, all of the same physical anthropology
who based their system on immediate profits and profitability.
Opus left its Jewish stigma in the Mexican basilica of "Arena Tepeyac",
to welcome the Virgin of Guadalupe, whose construction raised
controversy as the article of Gloria Fuentes called The Virgin in a
Circus Tent, although some people think that it is similar to a dog
track and others to a flying saucer, as a sign of total irreverence,
but where "the structure of the main altar is exactly the same as that
of the presidium of the synagogues. (122) The Church was a project of
Opus Dei behind the scenes.
Judaism was in the "Works" and in the spirit. In the homily that
Escriva gave in 1967 on the Navarra university campus, the center of
higher studies sponsored by and at the service of the Work, he
expressed himself in this way, betraying his subconscious: "I used to
tell those university students and those workers who came to me in the
1930s that they had to know how to MATERIALIZE SPIRITUAL LIFE. (123)
One cannot be more explicit, nor more Jewish.
Mikel Gotzón Santameria Garai, a Jew from Bilbao, published the
following confession in the newspaper "ABC" on February 2, 1992: "I
learned the pride of being a Jew from the founder of Opus Dei. I had
always been proud of that important part of my paternal heritage, but
from his lips I learned what were the most important reasons for a
Christian to be proud of his Jewish ancestry. From him I learned that
the first loves of a Christian are Jewish... Because I was only part
Jewish, I envied those who could say to him in a talk show: "Father, I
am a Jew," because we knew that the founder of Opus Dei would not let
you finish. He would cut you off with affection and begin to list the
reasons he had for loving you in a special way.
Among the many Jews who frequented Escrivá were doctor Josef
Ganglberger, a professor at the University of Vienna for whom
redemption and sanctification through work is a great discovery, and
the famous Austrian Jew Victor E. Frankl, a psychiatrist, also a
professor at the University of Vienna, who visited Escrivá with
some assiduity. To magnify a man as sly and ignorant as Escrivá
was, full of gravel and brown grammar, he praised him, as if it were an
image campaign, with the following marketing presentation: "I was
fascinated by the unheard of rhythm with which his thought flows, and
finally, his amazing capacity for immediate contact with his
interlocutors. (124) The Hebrew psychiatrist, flattering his fellow
Swiss Jew Edwin Zobel, was visiting Escriva in Rome in 1960, to whom he
dedicated compliments and gallant phrases, from his militant Judaism
Escrivá wanted to preserve the Work from Christian contagion at
all costs. "We are that remnant of Israel, chosen by God to initiate
conversion." He used to say (125) to gradually open up in his mind, in
line with his growing isolation and deification, the idea that the Work
constituted the rest of Israel.
One of the first followers, of those mythical initiators, Raymond
Panikkar, says: "if we only strive to keep alive the memory of the
Holocaust of the Jews, we will only succeed in facilitating its
repetition. (One ends up becoming like what one hates)", to continue
"but in general, the good ones have so far been unintelligent: we have
the duty and the vocation to be good and intelligent: "the tiny rest of
Israel! Hence the discretion and even the secrecy, the "arcane
discipline, if necessary to avoid falling into the snares of the
"spirit of evil - not naïve! (126) Kabbalistic and enigmatic words
that I end up confessing in ambiguous language: "the reason" why I was
reluctant to enter into all this business lies in the distraction that
worrying about mint, cumin and aniseed is for me, when the important
thing in life, the "Torah" as the text says, is justice, mercy and
faith (discernment, compassion and loyalty)". The words are textual for
both the good and the bad understander.
This explains the reticence and the norms given from Rome by
Escrivá in circulars reserved for some of the important ones
like Antonio Pérez, private secretary, who could not find an
explanation when he recalled in his vestiges of the past that "once a
numerary came to him asking for an explanation because he had received
a norm from Rome indicating that minced meat should never enter our
houses. (127) Prevention and abstinence from eating pork without
intending to.
To justify the opulence, they quoted that Christ lives and lives
together with the richest Jews, (128) with Matthew who was the tax
collector, with Judas Iscariot who was an intellectual and a rabbi,
with the bride and groom of Canaan, with the rich Zacchaeus. Even his
tunic was of such a high quality that when it came to distributing his
clothes by the cross, they did not want to split it and they drew lots
for it. It is buried in a rich and unmarked tomb, dug out of the living
rock. According to Opus Dei, all places are good in all situations of
life.
Opus Dei's links with Judaism come to the surface even in the works and
books that its publishing house prints and distributes. Among Rialp's
collection of publications, we find the following titles and authors,
among many others, which we do not cite in order to avoid repetition:
Judíos españoles en la Edad Media edited as volume number
2 of the collection whose author, Luis Suárez Fernández,
professor of History at the University of Alcalá, is an activist
and propagandist of the Jewish question in Spain, being an "agent" of
the Israeli embassy, having been the promoter of cycles of conferences
on Zionism, the mentor of the memory of the 850th anniversary of the
birth of the Jew Maimónides or the one who selects and
accompanies the Spanish professors who make exchange of cultural days
in Israel with proselytizing aims; Another book edited by Rialp is the
one written by the ambassador of Israel in Spain himself, Shlomo Ben
Ami-Zvi Medin, with the title History of the State of Israel, which
appears in his collection as number 7; or the book by Joseph Lecuyer
Our Father Abraham or the complete works of some Spanish mystics of
notorious Jewish ancestry.
Opus Dei, like Judaism, has always felt a special attraction to control
the media and general information. Apart from Editorial Rialp, its work
of dissemination is carried out through various magazines and weeklies,
as well as through the airwaves, as is the case with the radio station
SER, Sociedad Española de Radiofusión, one of the most
powerful and with national coverage in Spain, which has been controlled
by the Fontán family, Eugenio and Antonio, the latter being one
of the most influential men in Opus Dei, a former president of the
Spanish parliament and currently "preceptor" to the leader of the
opposition, José María Aznar. An important package of the
company's shares is held by Opus Dei through the Fontán family,
media magnates, and "the other important package of shares in the SER
is held by the Garrigues family, front men for the Chase Manhattan Bank
in Spain. (129)
The empire knotted up and held by Opus Dei around the fourth estate is
immense, and the origin of the money in many Opus Dei publications is
investigated and critically examined. which publishes the magazine
Gente, whose capital was largely contributed and made available to Opus
Dei by the Jews Carlos Epstein and Pedro Moreno Epstein, (130) or as
happened at the inauguration of the "Mundo" club where the French Jew
Hubert Beuve-Mery, founder and director of the French newspaper Le
Monde, gave a talk on this occasion, after visiting the University of
Navarre, which is owned by Opus Dei. (131)
Despite its 53 years of official existence, the question still arises
for many, the question arises, the question arises, what is Opus Dei?
because it is not understood, and this is so because in order to
understand it one has to start from the premise and take into
consideration its close and knotted links with Judaism, both in its
forms and in its essence and thought. For many people, Opus Dei
continues to be incomprehensible because they cannot or do not want to
see its concomitance with crypto-Judaism, as a way of thinking and
feeling and a cultural heritage of the synagogue, and on the other hand
because of its blood heritage. The same as Judaism, it is also not
understood.
To know Opus Dei in depth and understand it well, it is necessary to
consider it from this double perspective, its Jewish background and its
crypto-Jewish origin, although both aspects have been systematically
and skillfully hidden. Both are taboo subjects, and therefore
anathematized. Judaism and cryptojudaism in Opus Dei are its main
beams, its innermost essence, its nature and its foundation, although
for many the treatment of these subjects, their discussion in words or
in writing, throw up the prejudice that only the unmasking of their
existence is a manifestation of anti-Semitism.
And in the same way that the Jewish question is not a religious
question, neither is Opus Dei, although Opus Dei certainly uses
Christian language and terminology, as an external garment to cover its
true intention, for which it must be stripped of its crust formed by
art and technique spread by a great propaganda apparatus. That is why
its secrecy and religious mimicry must be revealed.
What is Opus Dei? Sociologically speaking, it is a technique of
control, a totalitarian instrument to obtain docile and obedient men
with total availability, although substantially it has to be framed as
a pseudo-religion since it is embedded in Christianity, from which its
raw material, its nourishment and its elements take their foundation,
although it deprives them of their authentic and genuine meaning.
Therefore, the essential concern of Opus Dei as an organization is to
attract and train its members with extreme and rigorous methods,
brutally eliminating any disturbing movement, in order to make its
members instruments that are depersonalized and condescending to the
maximum, programmed and provided with judgment and critical thinking
and immersed in a blind and fanatical ignorance.
Opus Dei does what Judaism has always done throughout its history: to
monopolize, or at least to try to monopolize, the direction of culture,
religious life, politics and the economy, its main means being the
infiltration of all areas and strata of social life.
The ethics of Opus Dei are Jewish ethics, the ethics of submission,
obedience and compliance. To "sanctify oneself" it is enough to
strictly and scrupulously comply with the many norms and rules
established by Escriva in his thousands of prescriptions, like the
rabbis in relation to the Talmud. He who "fulfills" is "holy" according
to Escriva "holy". It is the ethics of compliance or of the Jewish
Deuteronomy, as opposed to the ethics of love or agaptism that the
Christian religion teaches us.
It should be noted that Opus Dei does not have its own theology, but is
the Jewish theology in Christian clothing. Its concepts and notions
have a double semantics, a double meaning, which with Christian
arguments and terms involve Jewish meanings and experiences with an
opposite meaning, with an art of dissimulation and secrecy.
For all these reasons, and as has already been indicated, the
accusation against Opus Dei from the beginning was very specific, that
of being a "Jewish sect linked to the Masons". (132)
Opus Dei, in the words of Escrivá de Balaguer, "was the remnant
of the People of Israel. (133) That is why when Raymond Panikkar - one
of Escrivá's early followers - moved away from the center of
power of the Work from which he was separated by certain differences,
when he was going through a personal crisis of conscience, he
established himself in an inter-church institute in Tantur, Israel,
from which he was named by Paul VI as a founding member Israel, always
Israel.
In Japan the majority of the members of Opus Dei were converts. (134)
In the United States we also have significant examples in this regard,
such as the Jewish director of photography Eric Srreiff, a member of
Opus Dei and a supposed "convert", who owned a department store in New
York with his Jewish wife, Jolene, a fashion designer, (135) as well as
the Jewish doctor from Australia, Dr. Jolene. Ben Hanemann, a member of
the local synagogue, of the EDA and president of the Warrane
Association, of whose letter published in the Sydney Morning Herald, on
the occasion of his defense of the College, owned by Opus Dei, said:
"To begin with, I want to make it clear that I am a Jew and not a
Catholic, that I am a socialist? My wife is a Protestant, but I have
always thought that the people of Opus Dei were doing a good job. And
also from a broader point of view, that Australia needs Opus Dei's
contribution to its thinking" (136) or as Mrs. Limbers'
testimony-Jewish that both she and her husband Paul "are convinced that
they can entrust their children to the centers of Opus Dei in which we
have total confidence" (137)...
Among the most notable supporters of the Work in the United States are
the Jews David M. Kennedy, president of the Continental Illinois Bank
and former secretary of the treasury under the Nixon administration; or
M. Erikson, one of the "kings" of advertising in the United States.
(138) Since its establishment, the members of Opus Dei have bought a
publishing house, Scepter Press, based in Chicago.
Also in France, in 1955, Opus Dei founded the Association of University
and Technical Culture, with the names of the Jews René David, a
professor of law and economics in Paris, and Maurice Schumann, a former
minister and president of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the French
National Assembly, appearing on the Board of Trustees. (139)
In Spain, a public body, the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones
Científicas CSIC, has been a private preserve of Opus Dei since
the time of Albareda. The Council will be used to hold a monopoly on
culture and to make available enormous sums of money from the general
state budget. Since its foundation, unique connections have been
detected, since the transaction of the land where the CSIC's facilities
and buildings are located is done through the Rockefeller Foundation.
(140)
The Jewish intellectual influence reaches such a point in Opus Dei that
the book by Lopez Amo, who was the preceptor of the then Prince of
Spain Juan Carlos de Borbon, entitled The Monarchy of Social Reform is
strongly influenced by the theories of the Jew Leonardo von Stein.
(141) López Amo assumes the essence of the Stein doctrine.
Nothing should surprise our capacity to be amazed when we investigate
the ties of Opus Dei to Zion, since among the translations of the
founder's book Escriva Camino is its Hebrew version, (142) or how in
the United States we can see the incorporation as members of the Work
of many members of Masonic lodges. (143) Several authors, including
Ramiro Cristóbal, have also assimilated Opus Dei partially to
Freemasonry.
The father of a member of Opus Dei, Nicolas Cobo Martinez, who became
suspicious of the true intentions of this organization, came to the
conclusion that Opus Dei was the "comedy of hypocrisy" and the great
lie of the twentieth century, sensing its interrelationship with the
crudest Judaism. A profoundly Catholic man, on a visit to the Opus Dei
residence where his son was, wrote that (144) "I was able to see, and I
was frightened, that in the luxurious and spacious dining room (St.
Bernard would call it a "trough") there was not a single sign to
indicate that people gifted with souls were eating there: no crucifix,
no painting of the Holy Supper, or of the Blessed Virgin, or of any
other religious symbol or memory.
Worldism has been another typical feature of Judaism. Nor does Opus Dei
lack this defining and definitive note. The former Minister of Public
Works of Spain, Gonzalo Fernández de la Mora, clarifies and
illustrates this fact when he writes (145) that "Opus Dei is not linked
to any country, to any regime, to any political tendency, to any
ideology," concluding that "although it was born geographically in
Spain, from the beginning its aim was universal.
Rafael Calvo, a man of influence in Opus Dei who played a leading role
in the Madrid newspaper "affair," always maintained more than a close
friendship with the Jewish correspondent from New York. Escrivá
used to spend the night at the London Rabbi's house on his trips to
England (witness Mr. Cantero); members of Opus Dei used to have close
connections and open circuits with the Israeli information services,
the Mossad, and even a homosexual son of the writer Thomas Mann lived
in an Opus Dei residence in Madrid.
For his part, the Jewish journalist M. Sulzberger, a sympathizer of the
Work, wrote in the N.Y. Times, a well-informed article in which he
presented Opus Dei as the "instigator of commercial relations between
Spain and the Soviet Union." (146) In governments, both "the
clandestine Jew and the false technocrat of Opus Dei" have always
sought positions of economic, financial or commercial relevance (147)
Therefore, it seems appropriate to us to reproduce the alarm bell
launched by Jean Boyer when he writes (148) of the danger of falling
"under the spiritual influence of Opus Dei which, by saying that it
saves souls from hell and guarantees their entry into heaven, what they
achieve, their pretext of converting them into saints, is to convert
them, after successive brainwashes, into unconditional followers",
hooked on the "essence of Judaism".
REFERENCES
114. Jardiel Poncela, op cit, p 133.
115. "The Sun of Mexico" (May 11, 1968)
116. Wast, "Jesuits, Opus Dei and Cursillos in Christianity", p 93.
117. "Catholic Tradition" (Magazine of the Fraternity of St. Pius X),
No. 54 (January 1990), p. 23.
118. Sanchez Covisa, Mariano , "Las relaciones Guevara Opus", p 2.
119. Ibid, p 4.
120. "Le Tourneau", p. 18
121. "Magaña", pp 20-21.
122. Ibid, p. 222.
123. Bernal, p 125.
124. Ibid, p 147.
125 Moncada, "Oral History of Opus Dei," p. 29.
126. Ibid, pp 133, 136-137.
127 Ibid, p. 147.
128. Moreno, "Opus Dei, Annex to a History," Editorial Planeta, p. 214.
Ynfante, "The Prodigious Adventure of Opus Dei," p. 201.
130. Wast, O. H., "Jesuits, Opus Dei, and Cursillos in Christianity," p
93.
131. Ynfante, "The Prodigious Adventure of Opus Dei," p. 290.
132. Walsh, p. 49 and Bernal, p. 249.
133. Ibid, p 196.
134. West, W. J., p 29.
135. Ibid, p 137.
136. Ibid, p 169.
137. Ibid, p 177.
138. Ynfante, "The Prodigious Adventure of Opus Dei," p 350.
139. Le Vaillant, p 136.
140. Artigues, p 46.
141. Ibid, p. 157.
142. Thierry, p. 32.
143. Ynfante, "The Prodigious Adventure of Opus Dei," p. 115.
144. Cobo Martinez, Nicholas, "Unmistakable Lighthouse," No. 31
(February 1989).
145. Fernández de la Mora, Gonzalo, "Pensamiento español"
1968 (Barcelona: Rialp, 1969), p. 98.
146. Thierry, p. 32.
147. Boyer, p. 79.
148. Ibid, p 80.
Index
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Index
CHAPTER
III
CRYPTOJUDAISM AND OPUS DEI
7. The finances of
Opus Dei and
international Judaism
For Opus Dei and Judaism, experience had taught that only honesty can
bring business to the crooks. Since the time of the Bible, the best
business is to do none. To lend money, dinars, to those who do business
so that in the end, when the crisis comes, the one who borrows will be
hanged by the moneylender. (149) Jews and oppositionists, so attached
to money, do business with others, is a lesson learned long ago and
shared, so that if the business goes well, the financier and his client
win, and if it goes badly, only the client loses.
Jews have a passion, just like Opus Dei, for banking and finance. This
is the gold rush. It is a hierophantic and irresistible attraction. The
enjoyment of the possession of wealth, the search for it, the hoarding
of money without regard to the means and without paying attention to
scruples or morals. The only ethics is that the end justifies the
procedures.
Jews and oppositionists want to set themselves up as the bankers of the
world, so that governments and individuals will be their eternal
debtors. With the wealth in their hands they make the economies
fluctuate at their will. They provoke crises and moments of tension and
create expectations of stability according to their interests. They can
create fictitious panics and exits from crises like an accordion
exercise.
We see them treasured without limit or measure, without contingency.
They stimulate and encourage overproduction in certain markets and when
operations are abundant, the unforeseen crisis, the crisis of opulence,
occurs, in which stocks and excess stocks are liquidated at balance
prices to the benefit of financiers and lenders who know the mechanical
laws of their action.
The strength is in the magnitudes of wealth and gold. If the Jews and
Opus Dei were to be deprived of their wealth, they would be left
defenseless, vulnerable, and helpless.
For the Jews and crypto-Jews the present reasoning is valid: "Better
than the sword, the rifle; better than the rifle, the cannon; better
than the cannon, gold...". (150) But in the same way that not all men,
not all peoples, not all races, have been able throughout history to
handle the sword, not all are able to handle the springs and levers of
money, the threads of the economy.
The desire, expressed in the form of premonition or prophecy, is close
to being fulfilled. We refer to the famous manifesto of Adolph
Crémieux, founder of the Universal Israelite Alliance, which he
wrote in 1860 and which was led by the magnate Moses Montefiore when he
predicted that "the day is not far off when all the riches of the earth
will belong to the Hebrews". (151) Opus Dei was created to add to the
Jewish patrimony the assets of Christians, to fill with blessings their
Jewish brothers and sisters who, according to their sacred book, the
Zohar, "the blessing on earth consists in wealth", a maxim or aphorism
that impregnates Opus Dei and Judaism.
In the weekly magazine Cambio 16 of March 16, 1992, we can read what
Luis Carandell significantly wrote: "On the feast of the Day of the
Kings, his sons ordered him to put the roscón, instead of the
classic lucky figurines, gold coins of Carlos III, the so-called
"peluconas", knowing the enormous satisfaction that finding them gave
them.
It is not a rule, but an inclination and an atavistic tendency to hoard
goods and wealth. Moneylenders and financiers have always been
predominant among the Jews and so, during the Middle Ages, the Jews
were the bankers of Europe because, according to Father Mariana, "they
knew all the ways to get money". (152) If to the Jews, as to those in
charge of Opus Dei, one could apply the famous sentence of Pedro
Sarmiento that "by great cunning and deceit they have taken and stolen
great and innumerable amounts of maravedís and silver. (153) And
it is curious to see how they are poisoned by all kinds of usury to
which he has given an almost religious meaning. Usury has always been
denounced and forbidden by the Church for her faithful and exercised to
the point of satiety by the Jews and their related organizations.
The essential coincidence between Jews and Opus Dei is that both are
one and the same thing, eternal servants of the golden calf to which
they direct all their activities, including religious ones, whose
practices are based on economic motives, which generally makes them,
and when their real intentions are discovered, repugnant men, without
entrails and without God, with a capital letter.
For Opus Dei, the Christian is the object of pillage, of economic
plundering, of raw material for exploitation and extraction.
In the world of finance they form an impenetrable enclosure for
the profane, within both national and international economies, and Opus
Dei has even managed to gain control of the Vatican's own finances,
which until now were difficult for the Jews to access and penetrate.
Opus Dei in the Church is a power that to a large extent holds it back,
but a power that seeks perfection not through charity and love, through
helping the poor and the needy, but through the work of working for all
that means expansion of power and wealth.
For Opus Dei, religion has a utilitarian dimension and is a good
breeding ground for interior proselytism for infiltration into all
spheres of influence. This explains the clandestinity with which they
act and the hypocrisy they display. Double life. Converted life. A life
that is more Jewish than Christian, even though it may seem and say
otherwise.
The fact that the crypto-Jews are trying to take over the world's
riches is neither new nor original to Opus Dei. Already in the
sixteenth century, in both Portugal and Spain, false Christians were
the most vital elements in the world of commerce, banking and finance.
Financial converts in Spain were the Santangels, or the general
treasurer of Aragon, Luis Sanchez, or the court banker, Alfonso
Gutierrez, of Madrid. In Seville, as early as 1480, there were
twenty-four Pedro Fernández Cansino, Gabriel de Zamora, Pedro de
Jaén, Pedro del Alcázar of Seville, Francisco
Almazán, and among the families of powerful converted bankers
were the Espinosa family, from Medina de Rioseco, as well as the
wholesale lenders, the García Sevilla family and Pedro de Jerez
. We find the crypto-Jewish clans as settlers, traders, merchants,
bankers and moneylenders advantaged.
In the 17th century, under Philip IV, Portuguese converts moved to
Spain to take over part of the economy, among them the Cardoso, Luis
Correa Monsanto, Marcos Fernandez Monsanto, Felipe Maetin Dorta, Simon
Suarez and Rui Diaz Angel. The Count Duque de Olivares himself was a
pig and his two main collaborators were the corracials Manuel
López Pereira and Jacob Cansino. (154)
Manuel Cortizo was a recipient of the Treasury Board and advisor, of S.
M. in the Major Accountancy. Sebastián Ferro o Hierro de Castro,
a cousin of the Cortizo family, was a paymaster to Philip IV in
Flanders and a commissioner of millions. The Cortizo bank, through
Sebastian's son Joseph Cortizo, supported and financed Archduke Charles
against Philip V in 1717 and when he was defeated he went to England
where he again publicly embraced Judaism, dying in 1742 as a member of
the Sephardic synagogue.
The situation of crypto-Jewish financial power is also reflected in
literature itself. Quevedo, in his work The Island of the Monopaths,
puts the following words in the mouth of a rabbi: "In Rouen we are the
stock exchange of France against Spain and, together with Spain against
France; and in Spain, with a suit that serves as a mask for
circumcision, we will help that monarch with the wealth that we have in
Amsterdam in the hands of his own enemies, to whom it matters more to
command that we defer the letters, than to the Spaniards to collect
them". (155)
Escrivá de Balaguer seems to have read with delight and slowly,
memorizing, verses XXIII, 20 of Deuteronomy, in which the Hebrews are
commanded to demand and lend with interest to non-Jews, but not to
their relatives "so that the Lord your God may bless you in all your
undertakings in the land you are about to enter to possess it.
The earthly life for Christ was only a transitional phase, so it is
natural that Jesus did not attach any value to the material goods of
this world and will come to physically and violently expel the
merchants from the Temple. He himself came from a poor family, and
chose all his apostles from among the humble people. He did not limit
himself to throwing the money changers out of the sacred precincts, but
proclaimed that "it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a
needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God" (Luke, XVIII,
25). Jesus' mental attitude was against money, wealth, and saving.
Asked one day about the possession of earthly goods, he instructed his
disciples: "Take nothing for the journey, neither staff, nor bag, nor
bread, nor money, nor wear two coats" (Luke IX, 3). (156)
But between Opus Dei and the world of high international finance we
find many links with the Rothschilds, the Hambroos Bank in London or
the Morgan in New York, although their transactions and interrelations
are carried out with the strictest secrecy.
Ernesto Giménez Caballero, the Spanish Jewish philosopher and
ideologist, avant-garde of our letters, imaginative, idealistic, poet
and quixote, who was Spain's ambassador to Paraguay, said that "Opus
Dei was the organ that Rome now needs to confront not only the demon of
technology, but also its financier, the great capitalism, in the hands,
fundamentally, of Jews and Protestants. (157)
That is why Escrivá wanted to capture everything from "peasants
who cultivated the land in remote villages in the Andean mountains, to
bankers on Wall Street," (158) masters and slaves of the 20th century.
What Escrivá de Balaguer was pursuing through his Opus Dei, his
genuine and original vocation more or less explicitly, was to obtain
temporary power through economic power.
The test for admission to Opus Dei, at least in certain instances of
the Work, is a tough one. The scene, in fictional form, could be
developed by subtly softening the expressions, in this way:
-Do you have money? -I do.
- No
- Do you have any possessions; houses, farms, bank stocks?
- No
- Do you have political influence or noble titles?
- No
- Well, then you're no good to us. Opus Dei is not a placement office;
look elsewhere...(159)
Escrivá de Balaguer even wrote about "spiritual poverty" but it
is public and notorious that he lived surrounded by corporal opulence,
with servants, servants, refined details, delicacies,
sumptuousness...(160)
For Oscar H. Wast, the unlimited financial daring that the members of
the Work have had in Spain surpasses the Jesuit Order in every
imaginable way, allowing many to ask themselves: by what means are some
conspicuous members of Opus Dei connected to the highest international
banking system? (161)
To give some examples that answer the question, we will cite the case
of the European Business Bank, linked to Opus Dei, in which the
fundamental capital was subscribed by thirteen banks, ten foreign and
three Spanish. (162) Opus Dei's mother bank, the Banco Popular
Español, reserved almost half of the capital for itself; the
Caja Provincial de Ahorros de Guipúzcoa and the Banco
Zaragozano, controlled by members of the Work and now dominated by the
Koplowitz Jewish family, also subscribed. The international financial
capital was present in the Opus Dei Eurobank with the Banque de
l`Indochine, Credit Comercial del France, R. de Lubersac et Cie., the
Société Générale, the Bayerische
Vereinsbank, the Bankhaus F. Simon, Mediobanca Italiana, Lombard et
Cie., Odier et Cie., Hambros Bank Ltd. and the First National Bank of
Boston. A select group of banks run by Jews.
In 1962, the opusinian Banco Popular Español bought a strong
package of shares, specifically 34,900 shares of the Banque de
l'Intérêts Français belonging to the Giscard
D'Estaing, of which Rafael Termes, who is a former member, was a
director. Rafael Termes, a former member of Opus Dei, was a board
member of the Giscard d'Estaing. In Switzerland, Opus Dei initially
acquired almost all of the Banque d'Investiments Mobilier et de
Financement, based in Geneva. In Germany, in 1964, Popular took control
of the Hardy and Co. Bank in Frankfurt. In Mexico, the tentacles were
lengthened at first through Banco del País and Financiera y
Fiduciaria Mexicana, S.A. (163) Opus Dei also had many links with
American capital, and according to E. Zujar, (164) "Opus Dei is the
financial group most closely linked to Yankee capital".
Opus Dei also invested in the construction sector and in real estate,
and among the many companies it controlled, some with the suggestive
name of Urbanizadora Hebron or Babel, S.A., evocative and nostalgic
company names.
The Work's orientation in earthly life is clearly towards money,
corresponding with its Jewish lifestyle in granting university degrees
or aspiring to the nobility, the love of money, above all of others'
money rather than one's own which becomes greed, The placement of his
men in political and administrative positions, the luxury of the
decorations, the good food, - "in Opus Dei one eats and drinks with
refined elegance and superabundance" according to Angustias Moreno -
and the attention to dress are matters that have a primary attention
for Escrivá and his Work that he repeated incessantly: "Rich,
intelligent, good-looking and from a good family, the founder wants for
this humble Work".
It is curious to note that the most venerated saint in the Work after
St. Joseph is Nicholas of Bari, who, as is well known, the Church
considers him the patron of bankers. One more key to an eloquent
interpretation.
The economic relations with international financial organizations such
as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund are channeled in
Spain through what the men of Opus Dei called the "Development Plan",
which was launched on January 26, 1962, and which was led by the
minister and numerary Laureano López Rodó. Another of
Opus Dei's prominent men with international financial ties was Antonio
Garrigues, a front man for the Chase Manhattan Bank and a relative of
the very influential Nelson and David Rockefeller. (165)
In a novelized way, which is often the way to reveal secrets and say
important things as if they were unimportant, Vicente García in
his book In the Name of the Father, relates the following scenes and
situations: (166)
"In the early hours of the morning, he has been on the phone with the
Finance Committee in Madrid and with senior banking executives in Rome
and London. While waiting for the Monsignor to do so with Luis Valls,
one of his bankers in Spain, and with Mr. George Dulles of the Chase
Manhattan Bank in New York, one of the most influential men of the
Rockefeller clan.
"But Father, Rockefeller is a Jew," exclaims Don Benito.
"So what? What's wrong with Jews?" replies Father energetically. Look,
the person I love most in this world is Jesus, and he was a Jew. And
the second person I love most is Mary his mother, and she was also a
Jew... besides, it is no news to anyone that the Work has been
welcoming for years sympathizers and protectors of any belief, faith or
ideology as long as they come to it with good will because... my
children, in the Vatican it is the only reason they understand: money.
"...We have to save the world and this costs money! Money, money,
always money..."
This craving for money, this desire for God that Escriva had and that
he confused with money, because his god was money itself, made him set
up bank holdings and financial groups linked to the most stale and
greedy in the international sector. Banco Popular Español, Banco
Atlántico, among whose advisors Opus would designate the Jew
José Salama, or later, when he joined the "holding company of
the Bee of Rumasa", Jesús Aguirre himself, the consort duke of
Alba who presided over Jewish associations that would sign in 1966 an
agreement of cooperation and exchange of shares with the Continental
Illinois Bank and Trust Company of Chicago, whose president at that
time was David M. Kennedy, a Jew who would become in the administration
Nixon Secretary of the Treasury and a great cooperator of Opus Dei, the
holdings controlled by Opus Dei established their headquarters in
Luxembourg - International Holding and Investment Company or the
Société Holande Suisse de Participations - or in
Switzerland - Norfinanz Bank of Zurich or the Société
Anonime de Trust et d'Operations Financieres of Geneva, or in Spain,
through the banking division of the holding company Rumasa . Opus Dei
is the leading oligarchic group in Spanish finance and the most
powerful in its private banking, and its members even hold the
presidency of some of the largest financial or credit institutions,
such as Popular (Luis Valls), Banco Bilbao (Vizcaya) and Ybarra, etc.
Among its influential associates and cooperations in America, Opus also
had the Jew M. Erickson, one of the American "kings of publicity".
(167) Vice versa but identical we have seen men of Opus Dei (Enrich
Vals, Llopis Guiloche) representing in Spain the Jewish interests of
Coca Cola International.
Gold, gold, always gold. Alfredo Sanchez Bella, a former minister of
Opus Dei in Spain who had previously been the ambassador in Rome, head
of certain information services, and a "collaborator of the FBI," was
very much involved in gold buying and selling companies (168)
A typical case of the evolution of Opus Dei's interconnection in Jewish
international finance is given as a sample button by the Ex-intrade
company which was created in 1958 with a minimum of share capital and
is run by two young members of Opus Dei, an engineer and a lawyer who
are profane in any matter related to foreign trade and international
marketing, This does not prevent the powerful international Jewish
group Goldschmit (169) from associating itself with them before a year
had passed since the foundation of this company and without having
carried out practically any of the activities that constituted its
social object.
The fact is that Opus without the money is worthless, just as the Kahal
without the strength of gold is weaker than Samson, who was confronted
by the scissors of Delilah. The Jewish serpent is repelling the
Catholic world through Opus Dei.
Finding the incognito link, the missing link, is the clasp that serves
as the clasp of the chain. When it does not come out into the light,
one looks hard for it so that the chain can see its circle closed. Opus
Dei also had its non-emergent lapses, ignored by its members and
institutions with the exception of Escriva and Alvaro del Portillo who,
with the hidden man, formed the enigmatic and eloquent triangle.
The "third man" was a Jew who converted to Catholicism for mere
convenience, named Bernardino Nogara. His profession, a banker. He was
born in Bellano, near Lake Como in northern Italy. A skilful, slimy,
insinuating man. He worked in his youth in Turkey as a gemologist.
Later on he was entrusted with diplomatic missions, such as his
participation in October 1912 in the signing of the Ouchy Peace Treaty
between Italy and Turkey or his participation in 1919 in the commission
that negotiated the Peace Treaty between Italy, France, Great Britain
and Germany, as a corollary of the first world conflagration.
As a banker he was the representative of the Italian Banca Commerciale
in Istanbul, later taking charge of Vatican finances by appointment of
Pope Pius XI, to whom the friend and confidant of the Pontiff,
Monsignor Nogara, the banker's brother, gave his name.
As soon as he took up his responsibilities at the head of the holy
economy, he began to place the money in activities and sectors
unthinkable until his appointment, such as the stock exchange, the arms
industries and even the prophylactics. He knotted and locked close
connections with his brothers of race of the Rothschild and Morgan
Banks of Paris and London, the Credit Suisse, Hambros, J.P. Morgan, The
Bankers Trust Company of N.Y., the Continental Bank of Illinois or The
Chase Manhattan Bank.
On June 23, 1946, Escriva landed in Rome with the firm intention of
staying in the shadow of the dome of St. Peter's. That same year he
would be received twice by Pope H.H. Pius XII, on July 16 and December
8. The first audience will have a relevant meaning. At the end of his
stay, the Holy Father introduced him to the Jewish convert and head of
Vatican finances, Bernardino Nogara. From that very moment he would
become the epicenter of Opus Dei's finances, serving as advisor,
counselor, magician, and corruptor of a long series of financial
outrages that, with the approval and acquiescence of Escriva and
Portillo, made the "miracle" possible.
The Work never spoke of this important figure, nor is his name even
known to people who think of themselves as watchmen of responsibility.
He is the enigmatic and mysterious name, but also the key Jew for whom
the economic machinery of the Work was put to work.
Such was his influence that in 1956, in August of that year, the Second
General Congress of Opus Dei was held in the Swiss city of Einsiedeln
at the behest of Nogara. At that Congress, along with topics of a
spiritual nature by way of coverage, other more profane topics were
debated, such as the Work's assault on the United States and Latin
America, and matters of an undoubted crematory nature. The general
meeting lasted three weeks, with almost one hundred members attending.
When the work was finished, Escrivá, Del Portillo and Nogara
stayed a few more days to establish the financial networks of the Swiss
Bank, stopping in Zurich, Bern and Geneva, where they established solid
and impenetrable contacts with, among others, Mr. G. Drollaert of the
Union of Swiss Banks, Mr. Wintermaier, a Jewish agent who enjoyed
Escrivá's trust, or Zs. Freeman, who was in the silent secret of
the invisible threads of the great apparatus that Opus Dei installed in
Switzerland, where it consolidated the great center of its
international economic headquarters.
Money is being trafficked, currencies are being evaded, fraudulent
commissions are being charged, bankruptcies are being forced, the
Work's brush is being passed on to institute an obloquy whose destiny
will be Switzerland. Opus works in direct and subordinate collusion
with Jewish financial capitalism. The designer of the strategy and of
the fiduciary operative plots, the architect and the maximum channel of
the financial and accounting operations was the Jew Nogara, who in
marriage with Escrivá and with Alvaro del Portillo as a witness,
unleashed the multinational money company at the service of the Hebrew
speculators, under the patronage of Opus Dei.
REFERENCES
149. Wast, Oro, p 61.
150. Ibid, p 12.
151. Wast, "The Kahal", p 49.
152. López Martínez, Nicolás, "Los judaizantes
castellanos y la inquisición en tiempos de Isabel la
Católica", op cit, p 127.
153. Ibid, p 127.
154. Rivanera Carlés, op cit, p 127
155. Caro Baroja, "Races, Peoples and Lineages", op cit, p 127.
156. Corrado, Pallenberg, "Las finanzas del Vaticano" (Barcelona: Ayma
ediciones, 1970).
157. Jardiel Poncela, p 104.
158. Fernández de la Mora, op cit, p 169.
159. Cobo Martínez, Nicolás, "Faro inconfundible", No. 31
(February 1989), p 11.
160. Ibid, p11.
161. Wast, Jesuits, Opus Dei, "Cursillos de Cristiandad", op cit, p 62.
162. Ynfante, "The Prodigious Adventure of Opus Dei," p. 239.
163. Ibid, p. 239.
164. Zujar, E., "Spanish Revolution", No. 1 (1966).
165. Magaña, p 70.
166. Gracia Vicente, pp 51 and 54.
167. Ynfante, "La prodigiosa aventura del Opus Dei", p. 349.
168. "El Opus de Franco," Revista Area Crítica, No. 2 (July
1983).
169. "Le Vaillant," p. 267.
Index
of Chapter I
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CHAPTER
III
CRYPTOJUDAISM AND OPUS DEI
8. Identity between
the "Spirit of
the Work" and the "Jewish Soul
What is called "Spirit of the Work" and what is understood by "Jewish
soul" are synonymous concepts. Both are inspired by the Talmudic
morality, severe, rigid, prescriptive, of militancy and blind
obedience, of strict compliance. The mentality that presides over the
acts of Opus Dei can only be understood if the notion of what is Jewish
has first been understood as a lifestyle and behavior.
When Menéndez Pelayo refers to Fray Luis de León he calls
him a "Hebrew soul" because in his theories he observes reminiscences
of his background. In the same way and for the same and identical
reasons, the soul of Opus Dei, its spirit, has the stamp of the Hebrew.
Its hints, insinuations, dissimulation, concealment as a principle and
lies as a practice leave no room for doubt. People who, as a rule, lie,
deny their condition of belonging to the Work, and denounce their
brothers and sisters to their superiors if they see them departing from
orthodoxy and making public and vexatious corrections to them, can only
fit into a Jewish mind, far from the Christian light and affirmation,
from the charity and love of neighbor, from the understanding and
transparency that should preside over the simple and natural life of
the Christian.
In Opus Dei there is no freedom, but rather submission. Neither
correspondence, nor friendships, nor readings, nor the most intimate
and personal relationships escape the organization's control.
Confidences, the weekly psychological void of members, are typed in
triplicate. It is to live empty, without content, immersed in the
mistrust and suspicion of one's fellow men which is the antipode of
true love for men.
To live in Opus Dei is to reincarnate the Jewish spirit in its most
exaggerated form. Ambition, greed, resentment, hatred. Escrivá
summarizes the ideal traits, the distinctive profiles of its members as
"daring, sagacious, awake and rogue" under the auspices of "holy
efficiency, holy shamelessness, holy intransigence or holy coercion,"
which is not, as a model, a paragon of virtue, however much
Escrivá insists on sanctifying them.
Members of Opus Dei, like Jews, must have a high opinion of themselves.
They should be considered the chosen ones, the select ones, the
protruding ones.
Jews and members of the Work are also united by their sense of
reverence for money. They are not at all idealistic and their sense is
eminently practical with respect to material goods.
Among them, assistance and mutual aid is only for themselves. They
always sweep inwards. They are always ready to receive without giving
anything in return. They share neither their goods nor their wealth
with others who are not of the same condition. Their motto, in this
regard, is reminiscent of the legend of the pastry cook on display in
the living room of the Opus Dei residence, Nethernhall, in London,
which says "the brother, helped by the brother, is like a walled city.
(170) But of course, the brothers are them, only them and nothing else.
The myth of the "chosen people" is becoming more acute in both
communities. The Jews do no more than repeat it with a vengeance, that
they are God's chosen people. The members of Opus Dei boast to each
other about their "divine election. It is an idea that is repeated to
them insistently so that they imbibe it and share it. They are made to
believe with all their might that they, because of Opus Dei, are the
chosen ones from among those called. Even when they are admitted and
enter, when they "whistle" at its reception, they are congratulated on
this priceless "gift of God," for having fixed his attentive gaze on
the neophyte when he abandoned and renounced everything to entrust
himself to Opus Dei, which will take care of him as befits a
"privileged" person during his life and in his home.
Among the teachings given to the Jews, they are educated with arguments
like these:
"Do you know, my son, that only the souls of the Jews are descended
from the first man?
- Who says that, Dad?
- The Talmud... And do you know that the world was created only
because of Israel?
- And that, who says that?
- Also the Talmud. It's in the Bereschich Rebba Treaty, section
1. The goods, therefore, that other men possess, actually belong to the
Jews. (171)
The Talmud carefully sets out how Jews should live. It prescribes even
the smallest and most insignificant details. Their life is regulated,
alibied. Hence the praise of meekness, discretion or vulpine sagacity,
so dear to the Jews and to the members of Opus Dei.
It is said that the strength of the Jews, like that of Opus Dei, is to
keep silent and that their survival lies in secrecy. They are proud to
be Jewish or to belong to Opus Dei, even if they don't say it, don't
show it, and hide it. It is preferable that they never say it, that
they do not exteriorize it, because in the silence of their condition
resides their best and most protected protection, because in this way
they can carry out their hidden plans with impunity, amidst the
ignorance of others, because they act according to plans that are
invisible and inexplicable to those around them.
They do not forget and celebrate the passage of the Exodus, when Aaron,
Moses' high priest brother, before the people around him, with great
joy, showing them the golden calf, urges them: "Israel, behold your
God" and there is no doubt that Opus Dei is a reflection of the people
of Israel.
They present themselves as mystics and religious, although their hope
is only in the goods of this world, since they ignore what lies beyond
and therefore want to establish their paradise on earth. They think
that God has created them not to win heaven, but to dominate and subdue
the earth. That is their faith. (172)
For the Jews, as for Opus Dei, "the deliverer will come out of Zion"
according to the apostle Paul when he repeats Isaiah's promise.
His spirit is calculating. That is why they infiltrate so deeply among
the baptized. They do not care about the contempt of the people if they
know how to gain the trust of the rulers. They know well that public
office is the best means of gathering wealth.
On the social condition of the converts in general, the priest of the
palaces speaks to us of the matter when he writes, "and for the most
part they were successful people, and of many arts and deceptions,
because they all lived by comfortable occupations, and in buying and
selling they had no conscience for Christians. They never wanted to
take up jobs of plowing or digging, or to walk in the fields raising
cattle, nor did they teach it to their regulars except for village jobs
and sitting around earning a living from eating with little work",
(173) The psychological portrait of the spirit they nest would be
extrapolated to today.
They look for the most lucrative trades. Their profit instinct never
fails and they always take advantage of any situation. They have an
innate ability - says Baer - for financial business, which is one of
the classic characteristics of the Jewish race and the Opusian clan.
The members of the Opus do "their prayers" and this is a point of
union, they have their own peculiar prayer repertoire. They recite the
Psalms that they are prescribed.
Another of the characteristics of the spirit of the Work is positivism,
duplicity, short-term hope, tenacity, a certain religious or
semi-superstitious spirit for a small number of truths of simple
expression - more felt or practiced than believed with theoretical
faith - instinctive solidarity among its co-religionists, especially
when it comes to practical problems, to scandals that can transcend.
They can be formally Christian. They gesticulate in Christianity. They
adopt outwardly the ways and manners of Christians. But they behave in
everything like Jews. This is discovered by knowing their confused
language, by guessing what they want and what they do not express.
For the Jew, as for those in Opus Dei, their life is a permanent
contradiction because they lack fixed and consistent direction. They
are practical men above all, with ideals of attachment to this world to
which the other is subordinated, materialistic entities even, anchored
in the false belief of having been chosen; their dialectic is the
argument of prescription, the truth that interests them, their desires,
ambition and living life in the kingdom of this world. Salvation made
to their measure, that is why they cling tenaciously to their thought,
to their eagerness. Their salvation is by law, and therefore they
believe in a personal and distant God who approaches them only through
his power at the request of merely material practices.
Their expressions may sound Christian, but they are not.
Jews and members of Opus Dei have a great love for prayer together, one
in their synagogues, the other in their oratories and retreats. Those
in Opus Dei do not go to just any church, nor do they choose just any
church. They have to go to the offices and places indicated to them, go
to confession with priests of Opus Dei, and avoid spiritual and
relational contact in other religious centers. They do not go to their
parish for the services. They only go to certain temples, where they
know, almost secretly, that the only ones they consider to be brothers
and co-religionists also go there.
They are usually very hypocritical. Insincere. Lack of honesty towards
others who are not their own is commonplace. Inside, they don't trust
him and he doesn't trust anyone. It's the morality of the condemned for
mistrust.
The rite is for the Jew and for the members of Opus Dei a vehicle of
salvation. It subordinates the religious to the material and not vice
versa. This is the great revelation of both the spirit of the Work and
the Jewish soul.
Salvation and holiness are certified and guaranteed by the work. (174)
The more they work, the holier they are for the Work. Docility and
servitude are a positive evaluation of work. The more they work, the
greater the earnings of the Work, and of course the Work will tell them
that they are saints. Escrivá said that "the message of Opus Dei
is that any kind of work can be sanctified" no matter what the
circumstances are. One of the words most often repeated in the Work's
internal statutes is "availability," which we find on numerous
occasions. Its pretensions are the achievement of absolute availability
and of its members by means of brainwashing techniques.
It is often said of the Jews that they have a soft tongue, cold blood
and hard skin. Those of the Opus have the same shell, the same
consanguinity and of course the same verb.
Not even the communication of their message or any transmission of
knowledge is a gift. Escriva's official biographer, Salvador Bernal,
says that the founder of Opus Dei "never accepted that teaching was
free of charge in the apostolic works promoted by Opus Dei in the field
of teaching. (175) Giving is a sin, even if it means teaching those who
do not know how to do so, and receiving a demand. Therefore, "in the
work we ask, we squeeze the families of the members, the friends,
everyone who comes to us. (176)
Opus has a Jewish soul: a) because it gives its words a different
meaning from that attributed to it in ordinary language, its meaning
not corresponding to the current of the word; b) because it masks the
reality of things using ambiguous arguments, which allows it to
infiltrate and occupy dominant positions; c) because it does not want
the question of Opus Dei to be debated and discussed openly in the
light of day; d) because secrecy and dissimulation have become its
second nature and have shaped its personality; e) because in Opus Dei
there are many concepts: economic, religious, financial, commercial,
intelligence service....; f) because they seek God's monopoly and to
obtain the maximum benefit as befits their monopoly position in the
laws of the market; g) because they manipulate their organization
through an oligarchic and totalitarian organization, with unlimited
force of psychic coercion, which leads them to the absolute dominion of
their members although they call it "spiritual and religious aid"; h)
because the collection takes precedence over theology.
Perhaps nothing better than a phrase by Alvaro del Portillo and another
by Escrivá, collected by Salvador Bernal, to define the Jewish
spirit of the Work. Escrivá's successor in the presidency of
Opus Dei, Alvaro del Portillo, used to say: "Why should the sick man be
angry with the scalpel, especially if the scalpel is made of platinum?
(177) Escrivá's statement in Buenos Aires is no less
illustrative: "You and I must touch everything that is not
intrinsically evil, but with everything that is good or indifferent,
without any inconvenience, we must do what King Midas did: turn it into
gold. Is that clear?" (178) Although cynically I would say in 1972 in
Barcelona that "the fact of handling money or having it, does not mean
that you are sticking to wealth". (179) The latter seemed to be a
phrase of remorse.
By hiding and crouching, it is practically impossible to know who and
what the members of Opus Dei and their collaborators really are, who
are all those who, without being so, become "accomplices of darkness.
(180) For some authors, Opus Dei has come to occupy in the Catholic
Church the role that Freemasonry occupied among the liberals.
The spirit of the Work has a very strong moral basis. They do not
retreat, in their fanaticism, from eliminating those who disturb,
hinder or prevent the realization of their plans. When someone, from
inside or outside the Work, becomes uncomfortable because he knows too
much, he can have a natural death or an accident which, for that
matter, is the same thing, if this safeguards the Work of God;
eliminate the adversary or the member who is convenient or dangerous.
Ruiz Mateos, the president of the holding company Rumasa, a
supernumerary of Opus Dei, who knew the pipes of the Work well, went so
far as to say in this regard: "The government and Opus Dei are capable
of killing me," (181) although later, out of obedience, an official
declaration of death may be made. The Jews use the same methods. In the
book of The Protocols of the Wise Men of Zion, during the fifteenth
session, the following testimony was raised, which works to paragraph
145: "Every man must finish by death. It is fitting, therefore, to
hasten the end of those who hinder the progress of our Cause"
The apology for the extermination of inconvenient people is backed by
the Talmud itself which authorizes that "traitors be thrown down the
well and not removed". With regard to Opus Dei, it is rumored that
there are already dozens of providential and strange deaths, of people
who have died in unclear mishaps, and that their coincidence or
convergence was their ties of aversion or internal or external
confrontation with Opus Dei. Even several of the members, who because
of their work in Opus Dei might know too much, have been found dead in
"accidents that could have been crimes." (182) Albareda, López
Bravo, Ruiz de Alda, those responsible for the accounts in Rumasa,
López Amo... before they could be deep throats.
Jews and those responsible who are in the secret of Opus Dei can become
perfidious.
If simulation is their most effective weapon, and a definitive note of
their character, let us remember the case of Maimonides, a rabbi who
was perfect in his science, his intolerance and his cunning, author of
the book that is considered a second Talmud, the Mishnah Thora, of an
orthodoxy that the scribes consider audacious and rigid, even
questioning any Israelite who did not abide by its doctrine in its
entirety; Well, Maimonides, the rabbi par excellence, the prototype of
the orthodox Jew, the greatest doctor of the synagogue, who has been
called the torch of Israel, the light of the East and the West and who
an adage presented as the new Moses, "for sixteen or seventeen years he
professed outwardly the Muslim doctrine. (183) The praise and
sublimation with which the Jews treat the figure of Maimonides reminds
us of the consideration given by the members of Opus Dei to Escriva,
who surpassed Maimonides himself in the external profession of the
Catholic religion.
The Father exhorted and demanded that "everything should go through his
head and his heart," thus ensuring the Judaization of all the Work's
acts.
The morality of Opus Dei is Talmudic. It resorts to deception, slander,
personal discredit, constant lying, fraud, swindling, coercion, and
scandal when it suits it. For Opus Dei there are no Christian concepts
such as dignity, noble sentiments, personal worth, honorability, or
fidelity of word.
One woman who for many years linked her life to Opus Dei said that the
circular letters she received sometimes read as follows: "We will come
to have our own parishes, because they give a lot and with many brushes
of all advocations and many confessionals. No one can imagine what
those parishes, brushes and confessionals give. Confessionals are a
constant shower of alms and donations and even of unsuspected
inheritances. The best penance is the alms in those brushes for the
apostolate with those means..." (184)
Despite its strict intolerance, to be a member of Opus Dei one does not
even have to be a believer, even though its juridical basis is the
personal prelature, the religious basis par excellence. They are
religious exclusivists, economic exclusivists and political
exclusivists... They are possessive, but lack generosity. They do not
share with others even the figure of God, the Work of God is only them.
He is the rabbi installed inside the Holy Mother Church.
Their mission is clearly defined: they will be an indispensable factor
in the apocalyptic era -it may be the one we are living in. That is
when messianic movements - such as Opus Dei - appear, offering to
destroy the old building and to point out the land and materials where
it should be replaced. They show great dynamism. They are the worm that
devours the healthiest apple.
In their relationship with each other, both the members of Opus Dei and
the Jews are quite unsociable, because of their lack of solidarity.
Their exclusivity excludes them. They are intolerant. They annoy
everyone without wanting to be disturbed. They are arrogant in success,
servile in misfortune, cautious and accumulate money.
Because of their way of thinking and acting, one can reach the
conclusion of the book of Abraham F. K. published in Israel under the
title A People, a Religion-Mission where it is held "that the religion
of Christ is the cause of the evils that the world suffers". (185)
REFERENCES
170. West, H.J., p 104.
171. Wast, "Gold," p 45.
172. Ibid, p 90.
173. Bernáldez, p 600.
174. Cristobal, p 63.
175. Bernal, p 153.
176. Moreno, "Opus Dei, Annex to a History," Planeta, 1976, p. 215.
177. Bernal, p 251.
178 Ibid, p. 269.
179 Ibid, p. 290
180. Le Vaillant, op cit.
181. "Time and Tribune", July and September 1989.
182. "Tiempo" magazine (14 August 1989).
183. Wast, "El Kahal", p 41.
184. Moreno, "The Other Face of Opus Dei," p. 31.
185. Wast, Jesuits, etc., p. 15.
Index
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CHAPTER
III
CRYPTOJUDAISM AND OPUS DEI
9. Jesuit
influences in Opus Dei
Escriva received a Jesuit influence through a double bond. His initial
confessor from whom he received "the first stimulus for the
construction of the Work was given to José María by a
member of the Society of Jesus", (186) Father Valentín
Sánchez. The relationship between the young Escrivá and
his spiritual advisor, the Jesuit Father Sánchez, was at first
intimate, cordial, fluid, and in full rapport. From Father Sanchez he
would receive advice and teaching that he would never forget. The
friendship between the confessor and the priest lasted until 1940, when
there was "a stormy encounter, after Father Sánchez read the
documentation that Escrivá intended to submit to the bishop's
study, and he harshly criticized some articles of the Statutes and
dismissed Escrivá unfriendly. (187) That year
Escrivá changed his confessor, from Sánchez to Portillo.
The second link of inspiration for Escrivá that he received from
the Jesuits was the discovery of a text first published in Paderbon, in
Westphalia in 1661, known as Monita Secreta, which contains the secret
instructions of the Jesuits. It was one of his favourite texts, he knew
it very well, he studied it, he devoured it, he was inspired by it. One
might think that the two books that most decisively shaped
Escrivá's will in the annals before the foundation of Opus Dei
were Jacob Brafmann's The Book of the Kahal and the Jesuits' Secret
Monk.
Many volumes have been written about the Jesuits, but perhaps an
exhaustive study of the Jewish concomitances within the Society of
Jesus has yet to be written; Julio Caro Baroja in the second volume of
his work Los judíos en España, writes "It is known that
in the 17th century the children of the converts and even Judaists
often studied with the Jesuits in the various cities where the latter
had schools and that they produced men who on the one hand had a solid
Talmudic education and on the other hand had a profound scholastic
knowledge, like Isaac Cardoso, the apologist of Israel. (188)
The famous anthropologist continues to tell us how "between Jesuits and
Jews there were hidden and close relations and that in short, the
so-called Jesuit morality was a Talmudic morality". (189)
It should not be forgotten that according to Father Miguel Marcos -
back in 1593 - of the 27 Jesuits who had signed memorials against the
current organization of the Society, no less than 25 were new
Christians, including Acosta, nor, in this regard, should it go
unnoticed that the second "Black Pope", the "General of the Society of
Jesus" after Saint Ignatius of Loyola, Father Laínez, was of
Jewish race.
From the Jesuits Escriva took the pattern for his work by wanting to
create in his likeness a passive and obedient instrument that would
spread throughout the world for his rule, that like the Jesuits, in his
future organization all its members would walk at the voice of his
command, like disciplined soldiers.
For Escrivá it was a great revelation to learn about the primer,
known only to the superior members of the Jesuit order, and this after
ensuring that nothing of its contents would be communicated to anyone
and that it would be renounced if it suited the Society, called the
Secret Monk.
The manual of the secret instructions was never printed, it was a
manuscript and was found, by profane hands, for the first time in
Paris, in the Jesuit convent, written by the hand of the scholar
Brothier, who was the librarian of the Society. Its text is entirely
consistent with the one that would later be found in the Ruremonde
house in Belgium and that was deposited at the Court of Justice in
Brussels when the Jesuits were expelled from the country... The unity
of the text of these secret instructions, known only to the principal
members of the Society, removes any doubt as to their authenticity. Ch.
Sauvestre would publish in France, in 1861, an edition of the Monite
Secréte with very interesting and curious comments.
In Spain it was first published as an appendix to the Historia resumida
de la Compañía de Jesús written by Fernando
Garrido and published in 1880.
In the Library of Rio de Janeiro there is a manuscript copy that was
found in the school of the parents of the Society of Jesus when they
were arrested in 1720.
The definitive wording is attributed to Father Claudio Aquaviva, fourth
General of the Jesuits and reformer of the Society based on the
recommendations received from his predecessors.
These instructions were possibly a source of inspiration and an
invaluable tool in Escriva's hands. Let us select some of the
provisions that are applied and taught in Opus Dei:
To seek the benevolence, mainly of ecclesiastics and lay people in
authority, that they may one day need.
- That all seem to be inspired by the same spirit and that they learn
to have the same manners.
- Let them buy property in the name of faithful friends who lend only
their name and who keep the secret. In order that our poverty may be
better seen, it is good that the lands held by any school be in the
name of others who are far away, thus preventing princes and
magistrates from knowing how much the income of society is.
- Let our people only go around the rich cities with the intention of
residing there.
- The old widows must be made aware of our extreme poverty in order to
get as much money as possible out of them.
- Let only the provincial know how much our income is; but let the sum
of the Society's treasure in Rome be a sacred mystery.
- We must devote our efforts to win over the courage and the sympathy
of the princes and the most important people so that no one will dare
to go against us.
- The sympathy of the princesses will be won through their wills and
maids; for this it is necessary to obtain their friendship, which is
the means to enter everywhere and to get to know the most secret
business of the families.
- Let ours get from the Bishops the government of the churches and let
the parishioners be subject to the Society, which will get from them
all that it can.
- The prelates are to be influenced when it comes to the beatification
or canonization of our people.
- Let our prelates guide princes and illustrious men in such a way as
to make it seem that they tend only to the greater glory of God and to
austerity of conscience.
- Let the princes and those in authority believe that our Society
contains the perfection of all the other orders, except chant and
exterior austerity, in its manner of living and working.
Ways of conquering rich widows:
-Provide them with a confessor who will direct them so that they
maintain their state of widowhood, affirming to them that in this way
they will have eternal merit and an effective means of avoiding the
penalties of purgatory.
-To keep them away from the conversations and visits of those who seek
them.
- To set aside servants who are not in good standing with the Society,
recommending that they be replaced by individuals who depend or wish to
depend on ours to inform us of what is going on in the family.
- The confessor must have in view no other objective than to induce the
widow to follow him in all his advice, showing her, when he has the
occasion, that this obedience is the only condition for her spiritual
perfection.
- He has to advise her on the frequent use of penance wherein she
discovers her most secret thoughts and temptations.
- The widow must be induced to make donations, skillfully taking
advantage of her spiritual disposition.
- They are not to be treated with too much rigor in confession so that
they do not hate it: inasmuch as their sympathy could be lost.
- They are to be skillfully prevented from visiting other churches or
attending other religious feasts, repeating often that all indulgences
granted to other orders are accumulated in our Society.
- The widow must be made to dispose of her income in favor of our
Society, so that she may become a saint and be given the hope of being
canonized if she persists to the end.
- If she does not give all her possessions during her lifetime, she
should be given the opportunity, especially when she is ill or in
danger of death, to remind her of the poverty of our schools and of the
many schools which are about to be founded, by inducing her, gently but
strongly, to contribute to these expenses if she wants to enter into
eternal glory.
- When something is offered to us, the opportunity to receive it will
not be wasted.
- What was said about widows is useful for merchants, for rich married
people without children, of whom the Society will be heir if the means
indicated are used prudently.
- Devout persons who ardently aspire to perfection are to be induced to
donate all their goods to the Society, in order to achieve supreme
perfection.
- Even if with prudence, one has to instill fear of hell, or at least
of purgatory, by making them aware that, just as water extinguishes
fire, almsgiving extinguishes sin.
- Those who have scruples about acquiring goods and wealth for the
Society should be expelled from our Society.
How to proceed with those expelled from the Society:
- Before expelling them, oblige them to promise in writing and to swear
that they will not say or write anything to the detriment of the
Society. The Superiors will keep their bad inclinations, defects, and
vices, which they have confessed in the name of conscience, in
accordance with the custom of the Society, and will make use of them,
if necessary, by revealing them to the elders and to the prelates.
- They should write to all the colleges announcing the expulsions,
exaggerating the reasons for them, preventing them from having any
connection with them, saying everywhere that the Society does not expel
any person without powerful reasons, just as dead bodies are thrown
into the sea.
- The domestic exhortations will try to convince all members that the
expelled are unstable individuals, exaggerating the misfortunes of
those who will perish miserably by leaving the Society.
- When any unworthy and reprehensible fact of their conduct is
discovered, it should be disclosed . Both those expelled and especially
those who voluntarily leave the Society must be completely annulled.
- Great care must be taken in choosing men who are talented, handsome
and noble, or who excel.
- They must be made to understand that it is only by special grace of
Providence that they are chosen among so many who attend the school.
- In exhortations, they are to be censured by threatening them with
eternal damnation if they do not obey the divine vocation.
- They are to be effectively warned not to reveal their vocation to any
of their friends, not even to their parents, before being admitted...
In this selection we see how Escriva plagiarized, literally copied,
enforced and consummated the Instructions he had learned in his Secret
Monk's Manual. Without this text it would have been difficult for him
to start Opus Dei.
REFERENCES
186. Ricci, Marina, "30 Days" Magazine, No. 5 (May 1990), p 16.
187. Ibid, p 17.
188. Caro Baroja, "The Jews in Spain", Vol II, p 252.
189. Ibid, p 253.
Rene Fulop Miller, "The
Power and the Secret of the Jesuits", pp 216-221
S. Pey Ordeix, "Jesuits and
Jews before the Republic".
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CHAPTER
III
CRYPTOJUDAISM AND OPUS DEI
10.
The World
Government, the New
Order and Opus Dei
A journalist from the French daily Le Monde wondered as early as 1972
whether one could speak of an "Opus Dei conspiracy" (190), since
theological maneuvers can mask the hidden side, the shadow of the
ultra-secret apparatus of the Jewish project of world conquest, Opus
Dei being, in this case, a strategic weapon of that Great Conspiracy.
One thing is certain and that is that "all the members of Opus Dei are
convinced that they belong to the Order that is going to conquer the
century with the help of modern weapons, "grey matter" and money that
guarantees the control of opinion. (191) The news was anticipated in
the French publication Le espectacle du monde.
The myth, the legend and the confirmation of the existence of hidden
governments, superpowers and great powers that act in silence and under
cover, is not a new one, being generally associated these plots to the
world power, especially in the economic and its derivatives: the Jews,
as invisible rulers of History. For Serge Hutin (192) the fate of
nations often depends on men who do not hold official positions. These
are secret societies, real hidden governments that decide our destiny
without our knowledge.
The term "secret society" is commonly understood to mean a more or less
numerous group of people, characterized by meetings strictly limited to
their followers and also by absolute silence regarding the ceremonies
and rituals in which the symbols and instructions attributed to this
society are manifested. The purposes of these secret societies can be
very varied: political, religious, spiritual, philosophical or even
criminal. Opus Dei would be related to this type of society. There is
no doubt about the important role of politics, economics, religion,
influence peddling and control of the media in various countries and
institutions, and so the possibilities of such secret contacts between
this organization and societies struggling for world empire cannot be
excluded.
The writer Vázquez Montalván stated (193) that
"Escrivá de Balaguer, López Bravo, Calvo Serer,
López Rodó... were the tip of the iceberg, but the
earthly strength of Opus Dei was due above all to the hidden part of
the iceberg, 'clarifying that' the law of truth is established in the
subsoil of cities, the history of truth is written by the top secret
information services and the spiritual power is held by the most secret
sects... The disappearance of pyramid builders does not imply the
disappearance of secret gallery builders. The whole world is today a
gruyere excavated by the secrets of plutonic athletes of Opus Dei and
one of the widest and best constructed of the tunnels leads to the very
heart of the Vatican. Opus Dei has recovered its sense of the occult
and no one today is in a position to answer the question: Who are they?
Where are they?
Therefore the most loyal and effective means of fighting one's enemies
is to vulgarize their doctrines, revealing the truth that, no matter
how much they try to oppress it, in the end always comes out. As St.
John says "only the truth will set us free". (194)
In order to dominate the earth, the coordination and collation of a
world government is necessary. The philosopher Joseph de Maistre
already announced the danger that was looming over Rome because of the
action of sects conspired for that purpose. To carry out missions of
this magnitude, the "true holders of power, those who pull the strings,
live in the shadow, behind the curtain". (195)
Pope St. Pius X declared that "the danger today is almost in the bowels
and veins of the Church; their blows are therefore safer because they
know where to strike best. (196)
Not for nothing did one of the leaders of Judaism, Alfred Nossing,
write in Integrales Judentum (197) that "the Jewish community is more
than a people in the modern political sense of the word. It is the
depository of a world historical, I would even say cosmic, mission
entrusted to it by its founders, Noah and Abraham, Jacob and Moses...
The primordial conception of our ancestors was to found not a tribe,
but a World Order destined to guide humanity in its development. This
is the true and only meaning of choosing the Hebrews as the chosen
people. Gesta naturae per judeos, that is the formula of our History. A
spiritual order destined to guide the development of Humanity".
We start from the fact that Opus Dei cannot confess its true aims even
to the majority of its followers who are unaware of the Jewish work
that operates through and in harmony with its press, through its
influence in the Church, with its specific weight in national economic
circles, in the information circuits of the secret services with which
it collaborates, especially with the Mossad, with the control exercised
over its devout and sometimes unwary contributors. The ambush, however,
has a more recondite explanation and that is that Opus is a necessary
cooperator for the last phase of Judaism in its serpentine closure.
Both Jews and their cooperators in Opus Dei make up a small percentage
of the world's population, yet they control and decide on most of the
world's wealth. A few, by means of their own means, move the levers
that affect the whole world. Imbued with their predestination of
domination, their messianism engenders the idea of the advent of Israel
as the center of the world, in the omphalos terrae, as the axis and the
hinge of everything that moves. His fullness and glory will be when all
the weight of power, all the burden of wealth, is concentrated under
his new order. The new Jewish order is inscribed on all American bank
notes, on all the handfuls of dollars that circulate in the world,
where one can read, in capital letters, the phrase "New Order of the
Century" in Latin, that is, its word of order is based on money, and
Opus Dei has taken this choice very well. For Israel to reign, Christ
must be abolished, he must be crucified again without the possibility
of resurrection.
Opus Dei forms part of the Apocalypse. It is one more step and one step
forward for the symbolic serpent to close and complete its circle. And
when the snake bites its own tail, embraces and strangles the nations,
and they are all grasped inside, the chains that are established will
be irredeemable and the strangulation of freedom will have been
consummated. The era of submission to the new world order will begin.
It will be mundialism in power. It will be the pontificate of the
golden ox. The victory and the triumph of Opus Dei.
But to reach this irreversible situation, "the hidden intelligence that
directs the destinies of men is still necessary, since the visible
political and economic leaders are only, in reality, puppets moved by
wise men. (198)
That is why it is necessary to use Masonic methods, even within the
Catholic Church itself, such as those practiced by Opus Dei, in order
to destroy it from within and up close. It is symptomatic that the Work
of Escriva is graphically represented as a dense, prehensile,
tentacular "spider's web".
All this is to reach the state of the spiritus mundi, of the New World
Order, of the soul of the world, the degree to which the philosopher's
stone, which has previously been transmuted into gold and sublimated,
leads men to trade and market with the spiritual and with the most
sacred of man, which is the defrauding of his faith.
The world is governed either by the ideas of the Jewish Marx or by the
principles of the wild and selfish capitalism propelled by the Jewish
minds. The Jew continues to dream of the earthly kingdom, where he will
impose his postulates and values, because that is what Isaiah prevented
and glimpsed in his famous prophecy of the empire of the world. Man
will cease to be such, to move to the condition of human material,
productive element or consumption as appropriate.
We have to think that Jewish messianism, which calls itself
universalist, mundialist, is in reality nothing more than an
imperialism in disguise but absolute. New Order equals pan-Israelism or
if you prefer pan-Judaism, where the unification of the world is forged
through Jewish Law, under the direction and domination of the priestly
people.
A devastating brotherhood is at hand. The great fraternity that is
announced will be that of the brothers and sisters, those who consider
themselves brothers; the others will only be considered slaves.
Opus Dei will take on, in the role assigned to it in the New World
Order, the task of sabotaging religious and spiritual centers, a
bastion inaccessible by other means to the masters of the world.
The New Order is the Jewish master plan drawn up in the past and
pursued generation after generation with persevering tenacity. It is
the same that the Jews of Arles announced to those of Constantinople in
1489, the same that Rabbi Reichhorn confirmed in 1869 on the tomb of
the great Rabbi Simeon Ben Ihuda, the same that is revealed by Bernard
Lazare or the one that appears in his famous Protocols of 1897 agreed
upon in Basel.
For that they need a Pope who is suited to their needs, who is
committed to the plot. It is written in the Protocols of the Wise Men
of Zion that it is planned by the Jews "to penetrate to the very heart
of the papal court, from which nothing in the world can drive us out,
until we have destroyed the power of the papacy.
New World Order means new religion, new dogma, new ritual, new
priesthood. The new religious, political and social redeemer "will
reign over humanity by impersonal institutions", sheltered in the
propaganda of this new weapon of our times. The novelty will be that in
the contest for world domination, the Jewish world is betting on a
winner.
The swords are high, once again raised by the crusaders of faith, under
the sacrosanct sign of victory.
REFERENCES
190. Le Torneau, p 53.
191. Berghe, L. van den, "L'Opus Dei au pouvoir en Espagne," Le
Spectacle du Monde (January 1970), p 58 (quoted by Artigues, El Opus en
España, (Ruedo Ibérico, 1971) p 11.
192. Pistone, Aliana Marina, "The Hidden Governments," in Unknown
World, No. 38 (August, 1979), p 23.
193. Vázquez Montalbán, op cit, pp 113-114.
194. San Juan, 8:32.
195. Le Caron, H. "Le Plan de domination mondiale de la Contra-Eglise,"
Fideliter (1985), p 30.
196. Ibid, p. 35.
197. Ibid, p. 66.
198. Christopher, p 59.
Index
of Chapter I
Previous
Section
Bibliography
Complete
Index
RECOMMENDED
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Annex to the book OPUS JUDEI
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Disclaimer
Index
of Chapter I
Index
of Chapter II
Index
of Chapter II
Complete
Index