Opus Dei – Communio

Opus Dei’s new prelate

Today, Monsignor Fernando Ocáriz was elected the new prelate of Opus Dei and his election was confirmed by Pope Francis. He is the third successor of St Josemaria Escriva.

Monsignor Fernando Ocáriz succeeds Bishop Javier Echevarria who died on December 12, 2016. Until now, Ocáriz has been Auxiliary Vicar of Opus Dei. The youngest of 8 children he was born in Paris on October 27, 1944, to a Spanish family exiled in France due to the Civil War.

Monsignor Ocáriz earned academic degrees in Physical Sciences (1966), Theology (1969) with a doctorate in Theology from the University of Navarre in 1971, the year he was ordained a priest. Moreover, Ocáriz has served the Church as a consultor for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (since 1986), the Congregation for the Clergy (since 2003) and the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization (since 2011). He has been a member of the Pontifical Theological Academy since 1989. a fuller biography of Monsignor can be read here.

An interesting note, several of the significant religious order and other ecclesial movements have new leadership.

God bless Monsignor Ocáriz.

Bishop Javier Echevarria dies at 84

One key religious leaders of the Church died in Rome on December 12, 2016: Bishop Javier Echevarría (1932 – 2016). He was 22 years the leader of Opus Dei and was 84 years old. He died after a persistent lung infection.

A brief biography:

Bishop Javier Echevarría was born in Madrid on June 14, 1932, the youngest of eight children. His attended a primary school of the Marianist Fathers in San Sebastian and continued his education in Madrid at a school run by the Marist Brothers.

In 1948, at a student residence, he met some young members of Opus Dei. Feeling that he was called by God to seek holiness in ordinary life, he asked to be admitted to Opus Dei on Sept. 8 of that year. He began studies in law at the University of Madrid and continued in Rome where he received a doctorate in canon law in 1953 at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas (also known as the Angelicum), and a doctorate in civil law at the Pontifical Lateran University in 1955. Echevarria received priestly ordination on August 7, 1955. He worked closely with St. Josemaria Escriva and was his secretary from 1953 until the founder’s death in 1975.

In 1975, when Alvaro del Portillo succeeded St. Josemaria, Monsignor Echevarría was appointed secretary general of Opus Dei. In 1982 he was appointed vicar general.

After the death of Blessed Alvaro in 1994, Echevarria was elected prelate of Opus Dei, and on January 6 of the following year he was ordained bishop by St. John Paul II in St. Peter’s Basilica.

From the beginning of his ministry as prelate, his priorities were evangelization in the areas of the family, youth and culture. He oversaw the beginning of the Prelature’s stable formational activities in sixteen countries, including Russia, Kazakhstan, South Africa, Indonesia, and Sri Lanka. He traveled to all the continents to stimulate the evangelizing work carried out by the faithful and the cooperators of Opus Dei. He encouraged the founding of numerous institutions dedicated to immigrants, the sick and the marginalized, and he gave especial attention to a number of centers for the care of the terminally ill.

Recurring themes in his catechetical trips and in his pastoral ministry were the love of Jesus Christ on the cross, fraternal love, service to those around us, the importance of grace and the Word of God, family life, and union with the Pope. In his last pastoral letter, in fact, besides expressing thanks for the audience he had with Pope Francis on November 7, he asked—as always—that the members and friends of Opus Dei accompany the Pope with prayers for his person and intentions.

He wrote many pastoral letters and a number of books about spirituality, such as Itinerarios de vida cristiana (Paths of Christian Life), Para servir a la Iglesia (Serving the Church), Getsemaní (Gethsemane), Eucaristía y vida cristiana (The Eucharist and Christian Life), Vivir la Santa Misa (Living the Mass) y Creo, creemos (I Believe, We Believe). His last book is a collection of meditations about the works of mercy, which is entitled Misericordia y vida cotidiana (Mercy and Daily Life).

He was a member of the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints and of the Apostolic Signatura. He took part in Synods of Bishops in 2001, 2005, 2012 and in the Synods dedicated to the Americas (1997) and to Europe (1999).

Bishop Javier was waked at the Prelature in Rome and buried in the crypt of Our Lady of Peace, the Prelatic Church of Opus Dei (the headquarters) in Rome next to the remains of Blessed Alvaro del Portillo and in an area below the Church of the Prelature where the remains of St. Josemaria are under the altar. On Thursday December 15, a 7 pm, Mass was offered for the repose of the soul of Bishop Javier Echevarría in Saint Eugene’s Basilica.

Here is the homily given by Msgr. Fernando Ocáriz at the Mass on December 15 in Saint Eugene’s Basilica for the repose of the soul of Bishop Javier Echevarría.

It is good to note the telegram the Holy Father sent to Msgr. Fernando Ocáriz Braña Auxiliary Vicar of Opus Dei

Having just received the sad news of the unexpected death of Bishop Javier Echevarría Rodríguez, Prelate of Opus Dei, I wish to express to you and all the members of this Prelature my heartfelt condolences, while also uniting myself to your thanksgiving to God for his generous and fatherly testimony of priestly and episcopal life. He followed the example of Saint Josemaría Escrivá and Blessed Alvaro del Portillo, whom he succeeded at the head of this entire family, giving his life in a constant service of love to the Church and souls.

I raise up to our Lord fervent suffrages for this faithful servant of his so that He may welcome him to eternal joy, and I lovingly entrust him to the protection of our Mother, our Lady of Guadalupe, on whose feast day he surrendered his soul to God.

With these sentiments, and as a sign of faith and hope in the Risen Christ, I impart to all the consoling apostolic blessing.

The Vatican, 13 December 2016.

Francis

Blessed Alvaro del Portillo

Today is the first time the Church is able to celebrate the liturgical memorial of Blessed Alvaro del Portillo since he was beatified in 2014. The Church designated May 12th (the anniversary of his First Communion) as his feast day.

To mark the occasion, Fr. Javier del Castillo prepared a special meditation for listeners (a podcast) published by the St. Josemaria Institute.

Don Alvaro was known for his humility and his faithfulness but it was also said that he had the heroic virtue of courage (he was a man of fortitude, a gift of the Spirit). We need to be sure in our walking in the ways of the Lord building the Church. He is called Saxum (rock), a metaphor for fortitude by Saint Josemaría.

“The Lord is my rock….” May Blessed Alvaro help us in our daily life, to show us what it means to be people of humility, faithfulness, and courage.

Blessed Alvaro del Portillo

“Early in the morning of March 23rd, 1994, God called his good and faithful servant to Himself. Bishop del Portillo had returned only a few hours before from a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, where, with deep prayer and piety, he had followed Jesus’ footsteps from Nazareth to the Holy Sepulcher. He had celebrated his last Mass on earth in the Church of the Cenacle in Jerusalem. Later that day, Pope John Paul II came to pray before Bishop del Portillo’s remains, which now lie in the crypt of the Church of the Prelature, Our Lady of Peace at Bruno Buozzi 75, Rome.”

Alvaro Del Portillo declared “Blessed” in Madrid

Shortly after the elected of Francis to the Throne of Peter, he approved of the miracle that would lead to his beatification. His first miracle, if you are interested, concerned a case in 2003 where a Chilean baby boy’s heart started beating despite doctors’ failed 30-minute efforts to resuscitate him. The boy’s parents prayed to Del Portillo for his intercession from God to save their child. From all reports the child lives a normal life, going to school and playing soccer.

In the car last evening I was listening to various news services and NPR had a story –none of the other international services did– of the beatification of Del Portillo. But the real story seemed not the beatification of a man known for holiness but his connection to Opus Dei famously derided in Dan Brown’s The DaVinci Code. I fail to see what one thing really has to do with another.

Saint Josemaría Escrivá’s original vision for Opus Dei has nothing to do with the political monikers of being liberal or conservative. Many will frame the group in these terms out ignorance. Opus Dei –a Latin concept meaning “The Work of God”– is about encouraging Catholics to know their ordinary, everyday work and life as a path to holiness. In other words, we are all called in whatever our work is, to the universal call to holiness; a strong emphasis of the Second Vatican Council and many saints. Religion is NOT just for 47 minutes on a Sunday morning where you put your money in the parking meter.

So, what ought to be admired about Opus Dei is the group’s emphasis and witness on the dignity of the laity. This same emphasis is also seen in two other ecclesial movements in the Church: Communion and Liberation and Focolare. But, The Work of God since its founding in 1928 has a significant challenge to the ultra-clerical attitudes of our Church while raising up the beauty of being a lay Christian and building up the Mystical Body of the Church.

Blessed Alvaro Del Portillo’s style was humble and faithful to the charism he was given by God to fulfill in history. His reputable for holiness is well-regarded and and substantiated. Del Portillo worked with Saint Josemaría Escrivá, the founder of Opus Dei for more than 40 years, and later his successor as the group’s leader until 1994.

Opus Dei is a lay organization in the Church with more than 90K members; only 2,073 are priests.

Blessed Alvaro, pray for us.

Joseph Muzquiz, Servant of God

You may not know about The Servant of God, Father Joseph Muzquiz, a candidate for sainthood. His cause opened in 2010 in the Archdiocese of Boston. I recommend following the work of seeing if Muzquiz is saint material.

Since 1949, Father Muzquiz has been in the USA having been born in Spain and well-educated in Europe. The reason for his coming to the States was the establishment of Opus Dei ; he was sent by St. Josemaría Escrivá. You may remember a line I use from time to time: saints beget saints. Muzquiz died in 1983 and yet his influence continues to be felt and followed.

There is a website giving pertinent info for Father Joseph Muzquiz which will help you to know this holy and very man better (the site includes a video presentation).

For private devotion here is a prayer:

God, you helped your servant Joseph work with generosity and simplicity. He spread the message of sanctity in secular life to many people, teaching them to find joy and peace in their daily life. Help me to seek first the kingdom of God, by sanctifying my everyday work and dedicating myself generously to the salvation of souls. Glorify your servant Joseph, and through his intercession, grant me the favor I ask of you.

Our Father. Hail Mary. Glory be to the Father.

Alvaro del Portillo’s beatification set

Bishop Alvaro del Portillo, first successor of St. Josemaria Escriva, founder of the Prelature of Opus Dei, will be beatified on 27 September 27 2014, in Madrid, Spain, where he was born. The beatification will be celebrated by the Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, Cardinal Angelo Amato, SDB.

Alvaro del Portillo was born on March 11, 1914, joined Opus Dei in 1935, served in various capacities, and ordained a bishop by John Paul on January 6, 1991. He died on 23 March 1994.

When the Church gives us a new person to follow at the Altar as way to adhere to Jesus more closely, we ought to do our best to know the person well. The Prelate of Opus Dei proposes that through del Portillo that this is a good time to gain to acquaint ourselves with his life, writings, witness, and by opening our heart “…to imitate his love for God and others, his desire to fulfill always and in everything the divine Will, his apostolic zeal and capacity to serve souls….”

Here is a video about the miracle received through the Bishop del Portillo’s intercession before the Holy Trinity. The story of the newborn Jose Ignacio Ureta Wilson is moving.

The latest news on the beatification may be found at: www.alvarodelportillo.org

Pope Francis: Keys to His Thought

Many of thee books I read or glanced at over the recent six months have not been too helpful in understanding the newly elected Pope, Francis. A recent publication, Pope Francis: Key to His Thought, has promise. Penned by Monsignor Mariano Fazio, Vicar of the Prelature of Opus Dei in Argentina since 2010, begins the substance of his narrative when he first met Jorge Mario Cardinal Bergoglio in Rome in 2000. Fazio was then working at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross; he was rector there from 2002-2008.

The author’s thesis is based on many friendly meetings with Francis and thus sketches in a lively manner some of the key ideas that are fundamental in knowing who the Pope is as a person and as a shepherd. I think this perspective opens wider the door of our opinion of the new pope and hopefully engenders in us a spirit of greater collaboration based on something concrete versus the media hype that is prevalent these days.

Monsignor Fazio’s text covers Francis’ “urgency to defend human life and marriage, and the need to ‘go out to the periphery’ to meet people where they are. The latter concern is reflected in the strong encouragement given by Cardinal Bergoglio to the so-called “shantytown priests” for the envangelization of the poorest neighborhoods in Buenos Aires. This effort was grounded on sacramental catechesis and educational projects that foster human dignity, and was never to be confused, Bergoglio always insisted, with an overly political ‘liberation theology.'”

As Fazio says, “I have three letters he sent me in recent years. Whenever I sent him anything, he would respond in writing, in his own hand. The format was always the same: a large card with an image of La Virgen Desatanudos (Our Lady Undoer of Knots), a title originating in Augsburg, Germany (Maria Knotenlöserin) that he had made known in Buenos Aires . . . In the blank space he writes in small letters, much like Benedict XVI, a few personal and affectionate lines. Here are some: ‘I wish you a holy and happy Christmas. May Jesus bless you and our Lady take care of you. And, please, I ask that you pray and have others pray for me’ . . . These notecards were always accompanied by two holy pictures: one of St. Joseph and the other of St. Therese of the Child Jesus, saints to whom he had great devotion . . . On the back of the picture of St. Joseph is the famous text of St. Teresa of Jesus about the efficacy of devotion to the Holy Patriarch. On various occasions when, having spoken with him, I asked for his blessing, he always invoked these saints and in addition placed me under the protection of St. Josemaria.”

Pope Francis: Keys to His Thought is available from Scepter Publishers.

Post-Christian America: what does it look like, why?

Bouncing around in Catholic religious orders for some time is the notion that one can be a member of the Jesuits or the Sisters of Mercy and “go beyond Jesus and the Church.” I can remember hearing from a Jesuit whom I respected in the early 1990s that he was a “post-Christian Jesuit.” I wondered how a member of the Society of Jesus, a son of Saint Ignatius, could be post-Christian. The former Dominican Father Matthew Fox tried the same line of thinking. In fact, he’s neither a Catholic nor a Catholic priest and a professed member of the Order of Preachers as he’s gone to the Episcopal Church and now some kind of new ager. Christ is optional for him. Not long ago a religious sister who teaches at CTU said that the sisters in the USA can go beyond Jesus. So the recent crisis in faith in religious orders reflects a deeper divide in Christian faith in the rest of society.

I try to wrap my mind around what it means to be a post-Christian American. Father C. John McCloskey III, priest of the Opus Dei wrote a piece, “Post-Christian America,” which I am recommending. Father McCloskey is a Church historian and research fellow at the Faith and Reason Institute (Washington, DC). The point of the article is not demonstrate America’s abandonment of Christian faith but to say how it happened.

Fulton J. Sheen, Mother Angeline Teresa advances another step toward sainthood

Two “New Yorkers” advance in the study of their sanctity: Fulton J. Sheen and Mother Angelina Teresa.

Today, Pope Benedict XVI gave his permission for the promulgation of the decree concerning the “heroic virtues” of now Venerable Servant of God Fulton J. Sheen (1895-1979). Sheen was a great communicator of the faith in the 20th century. His winning personality and sincerity drew people to Christ.

A wonderful development is the recognition that Brigida Teresa McCrory (1893-1984) known as Mother Angelina Teresa, foundress of the Carmelite Sisters of the Aged and Infirmed, lived a life of heroic virtue. This is good news because it highlights the good work these Carmelite sisters continue to do, notably around the corner from St Catherine of Siena Church (NYC).

Moreover, he did the same for the former Prelate of Opus Dei, the Servant of God Alvaro del Portillo y Diez de Sollano, Spanish prelate of the Personal Prelature of the Holy Cross and Opus Dei (1914-1994). He was the immediate successor to Saint Josemaria.

Angelo Cardinal Amato SDB, prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, presented these and other causes for sainthood.

UPDATE: Cardinal Dolan writes about the 2 New Yorkers…