Opus Dei

November 28th marks the 25th anniversary of the Apostolic Constitution "Ut Sit," by which the Servant of God, Pope John Paul II, gave Opus Dei the canonical form of a Personal Prelature.

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.

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.

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

Welcome everyone, show them affection, do not reject anyone. So advised Opus Dei’s founder for those who want to imitate Christ, because our Lord did not reject anyone (Weekly Video 1’31”).

It is the Church itself, represented by the Pope, that makes the decision to create a personal prelature, after consulting the Bishops’ Conferences, in order to serve souls more effectively. Naturally this decision requires the existence of the elements that constitute a personal prelature: a community of faithful, presided over by a prelate, with a clergy that assists him in his pastoral task, and a specific ecclesial purpose.

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 only personal prelature currently existing is Opus Dei. The fact that others have not yet been erected is due to the newness of personal prelatures, which have to offer guarantees of ecclesial solidity and be harmoniously inserted into the dioceses in which they operate. Besides, there are other ecclesiastical circumscriptions, such as the military ordinariates, with the same type of configuration, that is to say, one that is both personal and that complements the dioceses.

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.

Although similar personal hierarchical structures already existed (such as military vicariates), the juridical figure of the personal prelature is the result of an apostolic desire of the Second Vatican Council that later took form in the present Code of Canon Law. The first to be erected was the prelature of Opus Dei, in the Apostolic Constitution Ut sit of John Paul II, on November 28, 1982.