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.

The mission of the prelature of Opus Dei is the same salvific mission as that of the whole Church, carried out in conformity with a specific charism of sanctification and apostolate in professional work and in the context of ordinary life.

The work and entire life of the members of Opus Dei, to the extent to which they are loyal to their vocation, constitutes a part of the spiritual and apostolic good of the diocese.

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

The prelature of Opus Dei is financed in the same way as the dioceses and other future prelatures, that is, above all by the contributions of its own faithful and of other people who provide financial assistance for its mission.

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?

Both belong equally to the prelature.

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.