What is Opus Dei?What is Opus Dei? Is it the organisation renowned in The Da Vinci Code as a malevolent society protecting the Catholic Church at all costs? Or is it a secret society with undue influence in politics, the professions and society? Or is it just a another Catholic organisaton preaching the word of God?In a uniquely balanced account, Noam Friedlander, a leading expert on religious affairs, investigates some of the most controversial and hard-hitting claims about Opus Dei. From its inception in Spain in 1928, Friedlander tracks Opus Dei’s growth from its controversial involvement with the Franco regime to the allegations of the provision of Nazi escape routes for prominent Catholic Nazis to Spain and South America. She looks at allegations of its role in the South American dictatorships of Augusto Pinochet, the American CIA spying scandals and its involvement with the Vatican Bank and the Mafia in the death of Robert Calvi.
She reveals how Opus Dei used missions to spread from its origins in Spain through Catholic Europe, the US, South America and to the newly emergent democracies of Eastern Europe and under John Paul II to the very heart of the Vatican, and shows how through its methods of targeting the elite, it seeks to build influence in the most powerful parts of society. With an in-depth look at the internal organisation of Opus Dei from the divisions within to its strict segregation of men and women, What is Opus Dei? reveals the real story. In a final analysis Friedlander considers whether Opus Dei truly does represent God’s Work.What is Opus Dei?
