Controversial Catholic Is Made A Saint

CBSNews.com/October 2, 2002

Vatican City -- Josemaria Escriva de Balaguer (above, a portrait displayed at his canonization) argued that sainthood need not require extraordinary deeds but could be achieved through everyday virtue and effort. (Photo: AP)

Many of those at the canonization came from Latin America, where Opus Dei has a strong foothold and where the Vatican is concerned about Catholics defecting to evangelical sects.

Police said more than 300,000 people turned out Sunday for Josemaria Escriva de Balaguer's canonization, overflowing from St. Peter's Square and filling several city blocks toward the Tiber River.

Sainthood for the Spanish priest who founded the group in 1928 came just 27 years after his death - one of the shortest waiting times in the Vatican's history.

The swift canonization underscored John Paul's support for a group that critics say is too elitist, inculcates unthinking devotion among its followers and encourages secretive practices, including self-flagellation and the wearing of hair shirts.

Some Catholics, including some former Opus Dei members, contended Escriva was unworthy of sainthood because he was ill-tempered and arrogant.

Opus Dei insists Escriva's leadership qualities were sometimes misunderstood and rejects the claims of elitism. Escriva held that sainthood need not require extraordinary deeds but could also be achieved by carrying out everyday tasks well, from being a homemaker to being a lawyer.

Opus Dei - which is Latin for "God's Work" - has more than 80,000 members, most of them from the laity and many of them holding top jobs in professions such as law, medicine, media and banking. It is led by a core of celibate professionals who often live in the organization's residences around the world. Membership also includes married people.

John Paul, dismayed by the flagging faith of many rank-and-file Catholics, has been intrigued by the group for decades. On Sunday, he called Escriva's teaching "current and urgent" saying the new saint "liked to reiterate with vigor that Christian faith opposes conformism and inner inertia."

In apparent reference to criticism of Escriva, the pontiff rallied to Escriva's defense in his homily, read from the steps of St. Peter's Basilica.

"Certainly, incomprehension and difficulties aren't lacking for one intent on serving with fidelity the cause of the Gospel," said the pontiff.

"No one can or should feel excluded from Escriva's vision of Christian holiness," said the pope's spokesman, Joaquin Navarro-Valls, himself a prominent Opus Dei layman.

In 1982, four years after becoming pope, John Paul made clear his favor for Opus Dei when he gave it the status of a personal prelature, roughly a kind of international diocese that did not have to report to a local bishop.

Last year, John Paul chose one of his new cardinals from Opus Dei's ranks, Juan Luis Cipriani of Lima, Peru.

Many of those at the canonization came from Latin America, where Opus Dei has a strong foothold and where the Vatican is concerned about Catholics defecting to evangelical sects.

Making the pilgrimage from Fairfax Station, Va., was Austin Schmitt, an Opus Dei member who is deputy director of the Federal Maritime Commission in Washington, D.C.

"Today will help me to go back home and live the message of the saint to sanctify ordinary life," said Schmitt.

Criticism swirled around Escriva's figure in the years leading up to his 1992 beatification, the last formal step before sainthood. Saying they were unsure, two of the nine Vatian officials who ruled on Escriva's merits did not vote in favor of beatification.

Opus Dei's reputation for elitism started during the 1939-75 Spanish dictatorship of Gen. Francisco Franco. Many of the technocrats in his later governments belonged to the organization.

Many Vatican observers Sunday remarked upon the extreme composure and orderliness of the huge crowd, a sharp contrast to the deafening shouts of joy and jockeying for good views at the last previous big sainthood ceremony in St. Peter's Square, that of Italian monk Padre Pio in June.

In addition to honoring Escriva and Padre Pio, the ailing, 82-year-old John Paul is seen by many as determined to raise to sainthood another one of his favorite figures, Mother Teresa.