Opus Dei a recognized church organization for more than 75 years

Published: 2006-03-22

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Opus Dei, founded in Spain in 1928, now has more than 87,000 members in more than 60 countries, including 3,000 in the United States, said Brian Finnerty, Opus Dei's U.S. spokesman. The vast majority are laypeople, but about 2 percent -- people who joined Opus Dei as laymen but were later ordained priests -- are members of Opus Dei's Priestly Society of the Holy Cross, he said. He said there are also diocesan priests who have joined Opus Dei but who remain priests of their diocese. Opus Dei is Latin for "God's work." Finnerty said Opus Dei is not a religious order and does not admit their members -- hence there are no Opus Dei "monks" like the murderous albino monk Silas in the Dan Brown novel soon to come out as a movie, "The Da Vinci Code." He added with a laugh that there actually is an Opus Dei member named Silas in New York, where the fictional character was based. The real Silas is Silas Agbim, a Nigerian-born stockbroker and father of three grown children who lives in Brooklyn with his wife, Ngozi, a retired professor of library science.

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