Opus Dei

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I went to a private Catholic primary school open day recently where the school priest is a member of Opus Dei. I'm a bit uneasy about this (probably read too many trashy novels). Can anyone shed any light on what influence this might have on the children?

My impressions, for what they're worth as a non-Catholic, are that the school seemed very heavy on Catholic practice and quite traditional e.g. confessional in school (and it wasn't named 'reconciliation" which is what I thought the sacrament was called these days). My husband's a fairly liberal Catholic and I'm a protestant with Quaker leanings. I don't want my children coming in home with lots of homophobic, anti-abortion, women belong in the home etc teachings. There was a poster in the school that said "Lent is when we think about how we have hurt Jesus" (!!!!). This seems like a lot of guilt to lay on a small child.

Am I overreacting and/or does this have anything to do with Opus Dei?

I have never been a member of Opus Dei so can't make informed comments on the organization. I have known people who were members, for example a married couple who are fantastic and have six kids, who they home school and the older ones have gone on to excellent universities. Generally Opus Dei members are highly educated and often professionals or otherwise quite influential.

Although I am Catholic and consider myself orthodox i.e. I believe what the church has traditionally taught, I would not personally belong to Opus Dei and I would not encourage my children to be members. I do not agree with any religious organization that is secretive - which Opus Dei definitely is. I do not believe it is compatible with Catholicism as I understand it: open, loving and of service to others. I have also read that there is separation of the sexes at meetings, that there are different buildings for men and women members in New York City for example. I don't agree with this at all. Opus Dei is a small organization and is not representative of the Catholicism that most people practice in their local parish.

Secrecy also creates the opportunity for various kinds of abuse and a "them and us" mentality within the church when some are "more Catholic" or "better Christians" than others which is toxic and unhealthy and bad theology IMHO. Another organization that I encountered was Regnum Christi the lay arm of the Legionaires of Christ and I thought they were very seriously bad news and warned all Catholics I knew to stay away and keep their children away. Sure enough that organization imploded a few years ago and revealed it was toxic at the top.

For anyone not Catholic is is important to note that these organizations are a minuscule percentage of practicing Catholics - Much less that 1% and usually never are even encountered by the average Catholic.

Thank you.

Great post lilbunny

Thanks Fink and heylilbunny, those were extremely useful posts.

On a lighter note here are some more typical Catholics

A catholic priest of the Opus Dei is the chaplain at Oliver House. To find out about Opus Dei try the web-site www.opusdei.org.uk. Re Oliver house I would say ring them up and ask them about opus Dei and stuff. Or look up opus dei and ring them: 0207 221 9176. My kids went to Oliver House and abortion never came up. But I would say that you wont get teachers in Oliver House teaching the kids that abortion is such a great thing so if that you want that as part of your childs education perhaps try another school. But in my experience at OH they really care about the kids. I am not saying this is unique to Oliver House though

I'm amazed any parent would consider this level of indoctrination - Opus Dei are a sect within a sect and generally the deeper you go the weirder they get. If you're paying what's wrong with normal schools?

Why on earth would anyone feel that confession has a place in schools? What could a child possibly have to confess to on a regular basis. This all sounds vile to me.

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/opus-dei-schools-find-a-big-market-with-mumsnet-generation-sljhb73bn

The sub-headline to that article is Secular parents are queueing up to enrol their children at institutions run by the once controversial Catholic group. I'm not sure I agree that it's no longer a controversial group!

I went to an Opus Dei school. When I was 12, they showed us a very gory abortion video. It was horrid and I will never forgive them for that. And FWIW, I am still pro-choice.

I strongly recommend the film "unplanned" on the topic of abortion