Opus Dei

To give thanks to God for Opus Dei’s 25 years as a Personal Prelature, Bishop Echevarría invites the Prelature’s faithful to strive to go even more fervently to the intercession of God’s Mother during this year.

In 1982, with the Apostolic Constitution, "Ut sit," John Paul II erected Opus Dei as a personal prelature. The following video records the first Prelate, Msgr. Alvaro del Portillo, receiving the bull "Ut sit" in the Basilica of Saint Eugene in Rome.

From its foundation on October 2, 1928, Opus Dei was already in essence, although in an embryonic state, the same as we see it today: a part of the Church, made up of faithful and structured hierarchically around a head who was at first the founder, St. Josemaría Escrivá, a priest.

No part of the Church constitutes "a church within the Church."

Naturally this vocational requirement is not essential to personal prelatures, which could be based on very diverse circumstances, usually linked to social bonds among its faithful.

Both belong equally to the prelature.

At the institutional level, what is Opus Dei’s relationship with the dioceses? Is its pastoral work carried out in accord with religious institutions and other ecclesial entities?

Incorporation in the prelature of Opus Dei is essentially united to the personal vocation of that individual.

The prelate of Opus Dei and the prelature itself depend on the Holy See: on the Roman Pontiff and the Congregation for the Clergy.