Decoding Opus Dei

There's a cardinal principle behind Opus Dei, and this goes back to Escriva himself, that Opus Dei can never take political positions--corporately, it can never take political positions. On spiritual grounds it would compromise the notion of secularity--that political thinking is something for lay people to do, not for a church organization to do. Therefore, on questions that don't deal with faith and morals of the Catholic Church, there's great pluralism.

So there's no "Opus Dei plan," as some speculate, to infiltrate the European Parliament in Brussels?

Based on my experience, moving around in this world, I just don't think it works like that. I just don't think there's an Opus Dei plan for European politics or anything else. I think there's a sociological reality, that the kind of people attracted to Opus Dei tend to be extremely hard working, tend to be pretty smart and pretty talented, and tend to be conservative, theologically and politically. Put these together and it's no surprise.

Why is work so important to them?

The prime directive of Opus Dei is the sanctification of work ... they'll use that work as a means of redeeming the world, bringing a distinctively Christian approach to law or politics. Part of what that means in their approach to things is a real emphasis on meeting the highest standards of excellence in whatever occupation they're in because you can't redeem a work if, in the first place, you don't do it well.

A common criticism of Opus Dei is that it appears to be a cliquey and elitist organization. Is it?