I do not claim to be an expert on this organization, since I only
attended a few of their meetings over ten years ago. But I think I
should relate what I saw of them. Perhaps I think Opus Dei is getting
a bum rap by the press.
Someone invited me to one of their Saturday evening meetings. There
was a brief get together and dinner. Afterwards there was I think a
service. The priest gave a devotional followed by prayer and
liturgy. What I remembered was towards the end the group sang the
Gregorian chant �Salve Regina.� I think this is a prayer or chant to
Mary, the Mother of Jesus or Mary, the Mother of God. I suppose the
memory of that chant makes me think it a bit ironic that Dan Brown�s
novel is charging the Catholic Church as being anti-women.
My chronology may be off, but I think the group afterwards had
lecture. I remember hearing a lecture, delivered over a period of two
meetings, dealing with the philosophy of science. The lecturer
discussed the works of the works of three philosophers of science:
Imre Lakatos, Karl Popper and Thomas Kuhn. The philosophy of science
deals with issues of how one knows. Contrary to popular
misconceptions, science is not simply facts. It is observations
conditioned by a scientist�s worldview and scientific model. Thomas
Kuhn called these models �paradigms.� A criticism of Kuhn�s work was
that it led to a sort of relativism in science where one model is as
good as another. That may not have been his intentions. But I suspect
many of his critics thought his ideas left their pet scientific
theories open to competition. I wish I could remember more about
the lecture.
My guess is such a lecture would not be heard on one of those
pretentious �politically correct� university campuses which prides
itself on �openness.� I never heard anything like this when I went
to college.
They did not strike me as wild eye fanatics, but people trying to
follow Roman Catholic doctrine and practice. What I�ve observed of
their faith and practice could be found described in a 1950�s Roman
Catholic Missal (prayer book). But what is most amusing is that Opus
Dei is not only criticized by the �liberal� Catholics, but the by
the �traditional� Catholics as well. There is a �traditional� group
called the Society of Pius X, who say the Tridentine mass is valid but
the Novus Ordo mass of Vatican II is invalid. The Society of Pius X,
was excommunicated in 1991. Since I visited the Society of Pius X on
several occasions; an Opus Dei person asked me what the Pius X people
thought of Opus Dei I told him that they say that Opus Dei is
conservative, but Novus Ordo. In other words the Pius X group, who
cling to the Tridentine mass, disagree with Opus Dei�s acceptance of
the Novus Ordo mass.
Opus Dei people are not mindless robots with no individual
personality. The Opus Dei people, I met had different personalities
and interests. Though I have no plans to become Roman Catholic or an
Opus Dei member, I must thank them for their meetings, especially
their most interesting lectures.
# posted by GuyTak @ 6:13 PM
