NPR covering Opus Dei on Morning Edition today.

[Ilsa]

Interviewing one member, a professor who puts a very positive, spin of normalcy on it, while mentioning other interviews with people who discuss self-mortification, criticize it for being power-hungry. They mention that members are in top positions of corporations, universities, and govts.

[Stephanie]

1. cross post! I just posted in GD Politics

I was surprised to hear a report on this at all, but I wanted more. No mention of Scalia, for one. Did you get the reporter's name? Maybe we can encourage him to dig deeper. I did hear the word "conspiracy" WRT critics of Opus Dei, so I guess I am asking too much that they mention an actual Supreme Court Justice who is a member of this bizarre cult.

[Ilsa]

5. Sorry, Stephanie. And here is the site...

I forgot to check GD-P. As long as we have a thread and get the word out...

I wonder why they didn't mention Salia, either.

They actually run M.E. twice here, starting at 5am, then repeating at 7am. Unfortunately, it was in the first hour, and they are entering their second run of the second hour here. I'll check the website to see if they mention it.

On edit: Here is the site:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4576620

The reporter was Jerome Socolovsky.

[Stephanie]

9. Not sorry! Just a LOL that we both posted same thing at the same time-

Better to spread it around in both places, I think, so nobody misses it.

Yeah, they run it here twice too, and later they will post the audio and hopefully a transcript.

Dear Jerome,

Very nice reporting on Opus Dei. Now could you please look at Opus Dei members in government, particularly the U.S. Supreme Court?

Thank you,

Stephanie

[BiggJawn]

2. Unfortunately, it's Beg-A-Thon week for NPR.

And only the die-hard "Prairie Home Companion" listeners are listening...
the only thing worse than listening to grovelers is listening to AMATEUR grovelers...

[Don Claybrook]

3. It's not begging week here

That was 4 or 6 weeks ago. During begging week, I always assumed that all of the NPR affiliates participated at the same time, since the programs are tailor-cut for the interruption. Anyhow, I guess I was wrong about that.

[BiggJawn]

18. Really? that's what's I thought, too.

Still, it's Fund Drive time here. One of 2 weeks out of the year that I don't listen to NPR at ALL.

Maybe I could get the "Opus Dei" story from the web site.

Wonder how many letters they'll get complaining about there being nothing about their favourite penguin in the piece? :D

[Deep13]

4. scarey shit

They interviewed a domestic servant. It really is a goddamn cult intent on infiltrating government, business and anyplace they can excercise temporal power.

[Ilsa]

6. The only organization within the Church not subject to

the authority of the Bishops.

Comments:
Pursue goals without scruples.
Possible illegal activites in banking in Spain.
80,000 members, all have a Plan of Life, even what books can be read, self-mortification or self-denial;
Ex-members say there are some that some are brainwashed into becoming virtual slaves to the domestic work that needed to be done. They are supposed to give a weekly account of all their thoughts and feelings.

[Stephanie]

10. "self-mortification" means literally whipping themselves

what kind of bizarre ritual is that? the reporter did not explore that at all. maybe squeamish?

[Bridget Burke]

16. Religous Communities (Jesuit, Franciscan) are not subject to....

the authority of Bishops.

Self-mortification seems weird to me--but have we decided to shut down the more extreme leather bars?

Interference in politics is the deal-breaker.

[K-W]

22. There is a difference between liking the feeling of pain

and thinking that self mutilation will bring you closer to God.

It isnt a value judgement, it is simply a fact that other Catholics should know.

[Minstrel Boy]

7. Have you ever seen the "cilice"?

"a spiked chain worn around the upper thigh for two hours each day, except for Church feast days, Sundays, and certain times of the year. This is perhaps the most shocking of the corporal mortifications, and generally Opus Dei members are extremely hesitant to admit that they use them. It is a painful mortification which leaves small prick holes in the flesh, and makes the Opus Dei members tentative about wearing swim suits wherever non-Opus Dei members may be."

A good site to get to know is the Opus Dei Awareness Network:

http://www.odan.org/index.htm

[Stephanie]

11. thanks for the picture!

That is some scary sh*t! If you see Scalia shifting around uncomfortably on the bench, you'll know why.

[Ilsa]

19. OMG! I thought it was only a single

strap, not a device with several inches of width like that. Only a sick mind would subject themselves to that kind of punishment.

I wonder if anyone has had a life-threatening infection from one of those?

You know, I'd love to see Scalia in pain from one of these, though!

[Spider Jerusalem]

21. Extremely creepy.

They come across as sort-of Catholic Scientologists.

[Deep13]

23. grounds for commitment

So just what about this is normal outside of an SM club? These people are B.S.I.

[underpants]

8. Followed by a mention of the sponsor -UBS

:evilgrin:

[Stephanie]

12. please explain

Who is it?

[underpants]

15. Conspiracy theory really

I *think* that UBS was orginally Union Bank.

UBS history timeline
http://www.ubs.com/1/e/wealth_mgmt_ww/u_s/about/history.html

http://www.independent-media.tv/item.cfm?fmedia_id=9409&fcategory_desc=Under%20Reported
The chairman of the nation's Homeland Security Advisory Council was helping to guide America's security strategy at the same time he was a top executive with an international banking firm that was investigated and eventually fined more than $100 million for cash transfers to rogue nations, including Iraq, Iran, Libya and Cuba, a Newsday investigation has found.
Joseph Grano Jr., 56, said he did not inform Bush administration officials, including Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge, about the problems of Swiss banking giant UBS, where he worked until June, because he said it "is public record" and he wasn't required to do so.


http://www.disinfo.com/archive/pages/dossier/id195/pg1/

G.W.'s grandfather and great-grandfather, Prescott Bush and George Herbert Walker, were among the chief American fundraisers for Germany's Nazi Party. Through industrialist Fritz Thyssen, the Bush-run Union Banking Company and W. A. Harriman & Company, the Bushes sold over $50 million in German bonds to American investors, starting in 1924. Thyssen in turn pumped money into the infant Nazi Party, which had proved its desire to rule and its willingness to use brute force in 1923's Munich Beer Hall Putsch.

[Minstrel Boy]

13. "Whips, Spiked Garters and Bloodshed...My Terrifying Life in Opus Dei"

By John Roche
The Mail on Sunday, UK, January 23, 2005

A former member tells how a lust for power drives the secretive Catholic organisation Opus Dei.

As a member of Opus Dei, I was expected to undertake a weekly discipline of private selfflagellation 40 strokes with a waxed, corded whip. We were encouraged to 'draw a little blood' and frequently told how 'the Father' the founder of the organisation- drew so much blood that he spattered the walls and ceiling with it.

I loathed it but my conscience gnawed at me to take it more frequently. When I asked if I could increase the number of times I carried out the practice I secretly hoped that permission would be refused.

Instead, it was granted enthusiastically and, for the next 13 years, I took this discipline three times a week.

...

They maintain control by disabling the judgment of many members and their ability to assess objectively or criticise Opus Dei. This is mainly achieved by undermining the semantics of ordinary language in a remarkably Orwellian manner. So extraordinarily successful are these techniques that lay members will claim to be completely free. It's thought-control raised to a fine art.

http://www.odan.org/media_roche.htm

[Stephanie]

14. We shd post everything we have on this & send the thread to the reporter

He only scratched the surface - let's ask him for a follow-up - especially if Scalia is in line to be Chief, this cult deserves some scrutiny.

[Malva Zebrina]

17. the founder of Opus Dei

Josemaria Escriva was beatified and then made a saint in 1992. I guess it's OK then.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josemaria_Escriva

[Ilsa]

20. Not only that, but NPR said that he was

beatified in record time. Obviously there is a pushed agenda.