Masses on Opus Dei founder's feast show 'universality of devotion'

Published: 2008-07-01

NEW YORK (CNS) -- "We're seeing the universality of devotion to St. Josemaria Escriva all around the world," said Msgr. Thomas Bohlin, U.S. vicar of Opus Dei, who concelebrated a Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral on the June 26 feast of the founder of Opus Dei. "Masses are being celebrated in hundreds of parishes around the world in places as far away as Botswana and Ethiopia," he said. St. Josemaria Escriva de Balaguer founded Opus Dei in 1928 in Madrid, Spain. The principal celebrant of the Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral was Archbishop Celestino Migliore, the apostolic nuncio to the United Nations. Besides Msgr. Bohlin, the concelebrants were Msgr. Jim Cassidy, who is in residence at the cathedral, and eight other priests, including three from Brooklyn and three from Bridgeport, Conn. Similarly, in 150 churches in North and South America, Africa, Europe, Oceania and Asia, including 30 American parishes, the faithful of Opus Dei gathered to celebrate the feast day.

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