Reply #2: Oh no, I bet Newt has an OPUS DEI

[ShortnFiery]

:grr: :thumbsdown:

http://www.odan.org/

Ascetism, anticommunism, a rigid hierarchicalism, religious militancy and secrecy have become the distinguishing marks of the organization. (3) Opus Dei has followed a deliberate policy of keeping its membership, hierarchy, rituals and rules hidden. (3) In an interview for the Catholic diosesan newspaper, the Brooklyn Tablet, Fr. Angel de la Parte Paris observed that Opus Dei professes a fundamentalist theology, condemns Liberation Theology, has no concern for social problems, leaves little freedom to an individual's conscience, and is associated with secular power structures. (5)

Opus Dei has a hierarchical organization. Numeraries--a select group of people who belong to the middle or upper classes-- hold a university degree, must be unmarried, and must pledge vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. Below the numeraries are the associates, who have the same obligations as the numeraries, but come from the working class. A final category consists of "co-operators," or sympathizers, who can be Catholics or non-Catholic. This class division is rigorously enforced. (3)

To join Opus Dei, according to Msgr. Alvaro del Portillo, it is necessary that "each person must have received from God the specific vocation to dedicate himself (herself) to the specific aims of Opus Dei, and must meet the requirements necessary to undertake responsibly the commitments involved in that dedication."(4) Membership with Opus Dei requires a contract which spells out the rights and the obligations which the members assume. (1)

The group has received criticism for being connected to powerful institutions and for entering the field of education for the middle and upper classes. (2) Critic John Roche, a professor at Oxford University, has said,"I am convinced is a sect, a cult, a malignant growth upon the body of the church."(2)