Opus Dei

The Prelate of Opus Dei ordained 37 priests from 16 countries on May 22 in Rome. In his homily, Bishop Echevarría said: “We have big hopes for them, as the world is so much in need of Christ’s love. By sowing peace and joy, we Christians are carriers of the ‘sweet fragrance of Christ’ so long as we remain closely united to Our Lord with unshakeable confidence in his goodness and power.”

An interview with Peter Fitzsimons, an Australian who is one of the deacons who received the priestly ordination at a ceremony in the Roman basilica of Saint Eugenio on 22 May 2004.

Pope John Paul II, in his recent Apostolic Letter on the coming Jubilee, has issued an energetic call to “penance and reconciliation,” encouraging everyone to make an “examination of conscience.” As one who has just assumed an important responsibility, do you see anything about Opus Dei that needs to be changed? Anything needing correction? New messages to pass on to the faithful you have been entrusted with?

Msgr. Escrivá de Balaguer “democratized” holiness, something the Pope has recommended to the whole Church. But how can ordinary men and women imitate a priest whose way of life is so different from the kinds of concerns they have to deal with?

On one occasion you spoke of an “authentic feminism.” What does that mean?

Interview with Roger Bissonnette, car mechanic and school bus driver, Besner & Bissonnette Inc. He is married with two adult children.

“I phoned a friend to tell him I had discovered a treasure which I wanted to share with him.” Testimony of Patrick Utomi, a lecturer in business studies and a consultant in Lagos, Nigeria.

Father Jose María Casciaro, Associate Professor of Semitic Philology at the University of Madrid, died in Pamplona on March 8. He had lived in Madrid with the founder of Opus Dei during a considerable part of the years between 1939 and 1942. His recollections of those years crystallized in a book published in 1998, whose title “It’s worthwhile” is even more relevant today.

New York is legendary for its fast pace of life. Like everywhere, people here have trouble finding time to reflect on the meaning of life, or on what it takes to live a fulfilled life. But that is exactly what a group of college students and young professionals did recently at Schuyler Hall, an Opus Dei center in Manhattan, at a seminar entitled “The Examined Life: Philosophical Reflections on Ordinary Life.”

Are the members of Opus Dei supposed to do outstanding work and seek to be the best? Does one have to stand out in order to be a saint?