Opus Dei

An adapted version of "A battle for the souls of the poor", an article that appeared in the Catholic Herald, 5 September 2003.

“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.

University Students have been working for ten years now, in one of the most disadvantaged areas of Manchester. The project consists of several educational programmes of a voluntary nature.

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.

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.

On the evening of Thursday June 26, at St Andrew's Metropolitan Cathedral in Glasgow, Archbishop Mario Conti celebrated the first ever feast day Mass of the newly canonised Saint Josemaria Escriva.