Opus Dei

Pastoral letter of Bishop Javier Echevarría to the faithful and cooperators of the Prelature of Opus Dei on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Pope's election.

Bishop Javier Echevarría ordained seven new priests, from five countries, in a ceremony at the sanctuary of Torreciudad, on Sunday, August 31.

“On October 7,” said John Paul II, “I count on going, please God, to the Shrine of Pompei. It will be a particularly significant moment in the Year of the Rosary, inaugurated last 16 October with the signing in St Peter's Square of my Apostolic Letter Rosarium Virginis Mariae.”

For the past 16 years, a group of volunteers have been carrying out various programs of nutrition, hygiene and literacy in Santo Tomé, a city of 43,000 where 65% of the people are living under the poverty line.

Every Sunday at the crack of dawn, scores of indigenous Mazahuas and Otomíes gather at the old hacienda of San José de Toshi to receive medical treatment, participate in a training workshop, pick up a food ration or attend a Christian doctrine class.

Dagatan opened in 1988 with 35 students. As of 2003, there were five more family farm schools in the Philippines, offering children of farmers the possibility of alternating studies and field work to help their families improve their economic situation.

Elisabeth has become a Catholic. She went for a year as an exchange student from Sweden to Cordoba, Spain, and studied at the Zalima High School, an apostolic work of Opus Dei. Now she has returned to her country to study nursing.