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El Padre[2009-06-29][Engleză]Inside Opus Dei"s world headquartersBy Robert Moynihan, reporting from Rome In 2006, when The Da Vinci Code was released as a film, some high Church officials strongly objected to it because it was based on the idea that Jesus married and fathered children and because it depicted Opus Dei, a recognized Prelature within the Catholic Church, as a murderous cult. Angels & Demons, which came out this spring and also features the Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon (played by actor Tom Hanks, photo) and is about Langdon"s attempt to help the Holy See thwart a plot by the Illuminati, an ancient secret brotherhood, to kill four cardinals and bomb the Vatican as a new Pope is being elected. This spring, the Vatican"s newspaper, L"Osservatore Romano, said in a review that Angels & Demons was historically inaccurate and filled with stereotypes, but the paper concluded it was "harmless" entertainment and not a danger to the Church. (The newspaper also praised director Ron Howard"s "dynamic direction" and the "magnificent" reconstruction of locations like St. Peter"s Basilica and the Sistine Chapel. Much of the film was shot on sets that painstakingly recreated Church landmarks....) ====================================== Angels Angels are spirit beings, messengers and servants of God. Only four are ever named in the Bible: Gabriel, Michael, and Raphael (Raphael appears in the deuterocanonical book Tobit (initially accepted by both the Jewish and Christian canons, but removed from the Jewish canon in late antiquity and rejected by the Protestant reformers in the 17th century. Photo, left, the Archangel Michael in a late Roman military cloak in a depiction by Guido Reni from the 1600s.) The word angel in English is a fusion of the Old English word engel (with a hard g) and the Old French angele. Both derive from the Latin angelus, and from the Koine Greek angellos ("messenger"), used in the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible done in about 200 B.C.) to translate the Hebrew mal"akh (yehowah) "messenger (of Yahweh)". Angels have a special role in major events of Jesus life, and Jesus referred to them. Gabriel appeared to Zechariah to announce that he would have a son, John the Baptist (Luke 1:11-19); Gabriel also told Mary that she would have a son, Jesus (vv. 26-38). Jesus said that "little ones who believe in me" have angels in heaven who care for them (Matthew 18:6, 10). Angels rejoice when people turn to God, and they bring the righteous to paradise (Luke 15:10; 16:22). The earliest known Christian image of an angel, in the Cubicolo dell"Annunziazione in the Catacomb of Priscilla in Rome, is dated to the middle of the third century. It is without wings. But by the late 300s, angels were regularly depicted with wings. St. John Chrysostom explained the significance of angels" wings this way: "They manifest a nature"s sublimity. That is why Gabriel is represented with wings. Not that angels have wings, but that you may know that they leave the heights and the most elevated dwelling to approach human nature. Accordingly, the wings attributed to these powers have no other meaning than to indicate the sublimity of their nature." Demons Jesus also said that the devil has "his angels" (Matt. 25:41). These are more commonly called demons, or evil or unclean spirits. The chief demon is Satan (which means "the adversary"), also called the devil (one who leads others astray), Beelzebul (lord of the house), the evil one, the enemy, the tempter, or the prince of this world. In a parable, Jesus described himself as tying up Satan and taking his possessions (Matt. 12:29). He spoke of seeing Satan fall (Luke 10:18). Through his death on the cross, Jesus drove Satan out (John 12:31-32). Satan was condemned (John 16:11). Jesus predicted that victory would be complete at the end of the age (Matt. 13:39-42; 25:41). ========================== Let"s not deceive ourselves: in our life we will find vigor and victory and depression and defeat. This has always been true of the earthly pilgrimage of Christians, even of those we venerate on the altars. "Do you remember Peter, Augustine, or Francis? I have never liked biographies of saints which naïvely but also with a lack of sound doctrine present their deeds as if they had been confirmed in grace from birth. "No. The true life stories of Christian heroes resemble our own experience: they fought and won; they fought and lost. And then, repentant, they returned to the fray. St. Josemaria Escriva de Balaguer ==================== Poor Dan Brown! He completely missed the story! In his novels The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons, he depicts Opus Dei (the Latin words mean "the work of God") as a world-spanning, secret, sinister organization, and the Vatican as impenetrable, mysterious, and dangerous. After leafing through the books, I wondered this afternoon what I might encounter as I rang the doorbell at #75 viale Bruno Buozzi, the world headquarters of Opus Dei. The building"s walls were tall and white, constructed of large blocks of what seemed to be travertine marble; the doorway seemed oddly small. A woman answered. "Come around the corner to via di Villa Sacchetti," she said. "The first door you come to on the left..." Did Dan Brown ever go to Opus Dei headquarters? It wouldn"t have been difficult... It"s in Parioli, a wealthy Roman neighborhood just a mile or so out from Piazza del Popolo. I went there today with my old friend, Richard Mileti, a retired Catholic historian from Cleveland, Ohio (he has been visiting Rome for a couple of days). As soon as we reached the door, a receptionist opened the door, poked her head out, and greeted us. "We"d like to visit the tomb of St. Josemaria," I said. "And we would like to talk to someone about Opus Dei and Dan Brown"s book, Angels and Demons. Is that possible?" "Yes, of course," the receptionist said. We were guided to a small waiting room, and the receptionist told us we would soon be joined by a guide who would show us around the headquarters. I looked around the little room. It seemed a bit dark, so I went to open what seemed to be a window in the back corner. But when I opened the window, there was just a 4-inch recession, then a blank wall, with a fluorescent bulb to illuminate the room through the glass. Then there was a sound and a motion at the door, and a young woman entered the room. "Hi," she said, in English. "I am Claudia. I can try to answer any questions you have, and I will show you around." "Where are you from?" I asked. "I am from Guatemala." "And are you a member of Opus Dei?" "Yes, I am a numerary. Do you know what that is?" "Yes," I said. "You have taken a vow never to marry." "Not precisely a vow," she said, laughing a bit bashfully. "I have made a commitment." Claudia was a lovely young woman with raven-black hair and olive skin and bark eyes. She was poised and polite. "Have you heard of the book Angels and Demons?" I asked. "Who hasn"t?" she said, and laughed again. "What do you think of it?" I asked. "I haven"t read it." I asked Claudia how old she was. "I just turned 24," she said. I asked how she came to join Opus Dei, what had attracted her. "I met some members of The Work in my country," she answered. "I was so struck by their overflowing sense of having a meaning and purpose in their lives, that I began to want to spend more and more time with them. I began to meet with them. I began to discuss with them, and ask questions of them. And after a while it was clear to me that I had a vocation. This vocation..." "What do you mean?" I asked. "How did you know?" "I sensed, deep inside, that there was a love and a meaning which responded to my own deepest longings, and I wanted to be close to that love and meaning. It was an attraction that I felt, like a magnet, like a warm fire in winter-time, when your hands are cold, and you stretch out your hands toward the fire. I was warmed by what I loved, by words and prayers and songs and contemplation, and the more I drew close to what I loved, the more right and complete I felt, and so I decided to continue on this journey, wherever it leads, to the end." We discussed our schedule for the afternoon: we would go down to the tomb of the saint, visit the chapel where he is buried, then try to reach the Opus Dei spokesman, Manuel Sanchez. "But let me get another person to come with us, because I am rather new here," Claudia said. "Someone who may be more qualified to answer any question you have." She left the room. I turned to Richard. "Well?" I said. "Hey," he said, "what do you want me to say? She"s an angel..." =============================== When Claudia came back, she brought with her a slightly older woman, who said her name was Rosario. "In Italy, it would be Rosaria, but it is Rosario in Spanish," she said. "I am from Madrid." Rosario seemed extraordinarily refined. Her hands and fingers moved when she spoke, and her grey eyes observed us attentively and with evident intelligence. "A second angel," Richard said. We went out of the reception room and started down four flights of steps -- down, down, down, down. I think we must have been 60 feet under the level of the street. We came to a small chapel, where we saw an altar and, in a glass case against the wall, a figure of a beautiful woman lying with her hands folded upon her chest and her feet in sandal. "This is the chapel of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary," Rosario said. I read the inscription on the side of the altar: "Assumpta est Maria in caelum. Gaudet exercitus angelorum." ("Mary was assumed into heaven. The army of angels rejoices.") "More angels," I said to Richard. ======================= St. Josemaria"s tomb is at the front of a small chapel called the chapel of Santa Maria della Pace (St. Mary of Peace). (Photo, me standing in front of the tomb.) His body has been moved there from its original resting place nearby, where two large words are still written on the center of the flat stone, though Escriva"s body is no longer there: "El Padre" "The Father." The stone now covers the body of Bishop Alvaro del Portillo (1914-1994), St. Josemarías first successor at the head of Opus Dei.) When I entered the chapel, I knelt for a moment in front of the saint"s tomb, on his feast day. (Once, some years ago, when my second son, Luke, fell and hit his head while playing soccer, causing a concussion and a terrible bloody eye, I chose to say a prayer to St. Josemaria saying to myself, "I need a tough saint for this task" that Luke might not lose his eye, or have brain damage. And when the doctor came back, after two hours of tests, he said, "I"m quite surprised, but it looks like there will be no permanent damage whatsoever.") Rosario nodded to me. "Here is something you should see," she said. She indicated a small niche in the very back of the chapel. What was there? Swords? Yes, some 60 swords were hung up in rows on both sides of the niche, like an emergency arsenal... "Why?" I asked. "These are the swords of all those military men who entered Opus Dei, and gave up their swords in order to show symbolically that they wished only to work for peace." The blades glistened in the cabinet, behind a glass window. There were even some daggers there. In the front of the case was a small box containing a gilded flower, a rose, made out of wood. "What"s this?" I asked Rosario. "Ah," she said. "There is a story behind that rose. "In 1936, with the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, Fr Escriva went into hiding in Madrid. Eventually, to escape persecution, he left the city, persuaded by his followers. On November 21, 1937, he spent the night in a small room in a ruined church and spent the night in prayer, not sure whether he should go forward or back. "That night, he asked for a sign from God. He asked that our Lady would give him a rose if God wanted him to continue. "The next morning, Fr Escriva left the room. When he returned, he held a gilded wooden rose in is hand this rose. And so he kept going." I listened, Then Rosario added: "In 1936, when the militia sacked the church, they had torn down the wooden altarpiece and carried it outside to burn. But the rose, part of the frame of roses encircling the image of Our Lady of the Rosary, survived. Fr Escriva saw it as the sign he had requested." ==================== Just at that moment, an important Vatican official whom I have known for many years entered the chapel. I waited, but the official did not turn toward me or see me. So I asked Rosario to go up to the prelate, and ask if I could speak with him at the back of the chapel. She did so, and he came with her. We greeted each other, and spoke about the strange coincidence of meeting just then in the chapel of St. Josemaria. "I just felt this morning that I should come here today," I told him. "So did I," he replied. And then I asked him about the Ecclesia Dei Commission document, which is much on my mind, as I wrote on Thursday. "Why has it still not been published, though it has been finished for some time?" I asked. "It isn"t yet finished," he said, without emotion. ===================== Rosario and I looked at the eight doors around the edges of a room next to the chapel. Sursa: www.InsideTheVatican.com Contor Accesări: 858, Ultimul acces: 2026-08-16 20:12:56
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