Origins of a personal prelature

By Msgr. Pedro Lopez-Gallo

In my last article I spoke of the organization called Opus Dei, which has the aim of spreading the call to holiness to all. I mentioned how difficult it was for all who were involved: the Pope, members of Opus Dei, and especially the officers of the Roman Curia, to find for them a juridical structure (which depended on the Congregation for Religious).

In May 1943, in the midst of War World II, the future St. Josemaria Escriva sent his alter ego, Alvaro del Portillo, to Rome. The young engineer spoke to Pope Pius XII, who listened enthusiastically, about the new prospects being offered to the laity around the world. Del Portillo was delighted to see how interested the Pontiff was in examining the ideals of this new way of bringing anyone to holiness regardless of their background.

Father Escriva was unhappy that the lay faithful seemed to be set aside, even within canon law. They seemed abandoned, without the means to rediscover their baptismal dignity. Vatican II was still far in the future.

He realized that, within his organization, the laity needed priests, chosen from among the “numerary” (celibate) members. To his mind, men and women, young and old, married, single, priests, were all equal within Opus Dei; all were struggling for sanctification, living their secular and ordinary lives. From this “totum revolutum” was born The Priestly Society of the Holy Cross. The idea of the saintly founder became reality on Oct. 11, 1943: his institution of lay faithful could ordain its own priests.

Returning to Madrid in 1944, Alvaro del Portillo received the sacred orders. I myself was a seminarian in Burgos, hearing about him for the first time. My theology teacher told us about an outstanding priest who was the founder of a group of young girls and boys “for the Work of God.” He added, is he friend or foe of Franco? Who knows?” The Vatican approved the Priestly Society of the Holy Cross of the Opus Dei.

Pope Pius XII, a learned canonist, was cautious about this innovation. He knew how pernicious a static and unmoving legalism could be, but he was also aware that Christianity was structured by Roman Law, il Diritto Romano. He knew that canon law, so well codified by his mentor, Cardinal Pietro Gasparri, was the bond that gave vigour to the Church, which is both divine and human.

It was the time of Hitler, Stalin, Franco, Tito, Mussolini, when death, destruction, holocausts seemed to be exterminating the old continent. In these apocalyptic times, the Pope leaned on his faith, hoping that a different world would be born out of the ashes of the old by new spiritual movements and groupings.

He observed a flowering of apostolates: the Foyers de Charite (homes of charity) were founded in France by Marthe Robin, and Chiara Lubich’s brisk spirit started the Focolari. Later came the Neo-Catechumenate Way, Communion and Liberation, and others.

In 1947 Pope Pius XII took an unexpected and innovative step and set up secular institutes to accommodate what were then called the “new forms” of apostolate. Opus Dei was the first, the prototype! Secular institutes were placed under the jurisdiction of the Congregation for Religious.

On August 15, 1967, Paul VI renamed this congregation, calling it the Congregation for Religious and Secular Institutes. I was appointed commissary of the Congregation and witnessed in many discussions how strongly Don Alvaro, as we called del Portillo, pointed out the inappropriateness of the secular institute label for Opus Dei.

I noticed his disappointment, which mirrored that of the founder’s. In 1975, upon the death of Escriva, Father del Portillo succeeded him at the head of an organization that still depended on the above-mentioned congregation. Father Escriva had seen his followers as neither monks nor nuns.

He knew that the Church, in structuring herself into dioceses, apostolic vicariates, and the like, had made room for other organizations, such as missions “sui iuris” and territorial prefectures, all based on the pastor-priests-people model. Why not create a personal structure for the members of Opus Dei? Their growing number worldwide made this more appropriate.

What if instead of calling it a secular institute, Opus Dei became a personal prelature? On Nov. 28, 1982, Pope John Paul II erected it as such with the Apostolic Constitution “Ut sit,” which states: “Since Opus Dei has grown, with the help of divine grace, to the extent that it has spread and works in a large number of dioceses throughout the world, as an apostolic organism made up of priests and laity, both men and women, which is at the same time organic and undivided... it has become necessary to give it a juridical configuration which is suited to its specific characteristics.”

The Prelature of the Holy Cross and Opus Dei is now under the Congregation for Bishops.

On June 26 Archbishop J. Michael Miller, CSB, will offer the Mass of the Feast of St. Josemaria at Corpus Christi Church at 7 p.m. All are invited.