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Chastity, Not Celibacy. Such are the demands that Opus Dei makes of its members that it takes a dedicated and devout youth indeed to join the fold. "Jesus is never satisfied sharing; he wants all," warns Escrivá. Although less than 2% of its members are priests, all members are encouraged to take the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. As interpreted by Opus Dei, the vows for lay members are somewhat less strict than for priests. Whether or not they have taken the vows, members may own their own cars and homes and salt away enough money to protect themselves from financial ruin, but they are expected to turn over all "excess" income to the organization. They may marry and have children ("Chastity does not mean celibacy"), but they must remain faithful to the "spirit" of chastity. Single members, moreover, must agree to go anywhere that Opus Dei sends them, and all must follow the guidance of their religious counselor.
The organization makes no attempt to tell its members how to do their jobs, nor does it try to influence their political thoughts. "Opus Dei has nothing whatever to do with politics," says President General Escrivá. "It is absolutely foreign to any political, economic, ideologic or cultural tendency or group. The only thing it demands of its members is that they lead a Christian life, trying to live up to the ideal of the Gospel."
Although the presence of so many high-powered Opus Dei men in the Franco government has led to charges that the organization is pro-Franco, others of its members are in outspoken opposition to the regime. Spanish police last year arrested two Opus Dei professors of the Universidad de Navarra for putting up anti-Franco posters, and Opus Dei students joined a nationwide strike for greater campus freedom. Civil Law Professor Amadeo de Fuenmayor, an Opus Deite, risked his neck by going on record with a scathing attack on Franco's much-publicized religious-liberty law, calling it inadequate outside "the context of freedom in general." Within the government, Opus Dei Cabinet ministers, all of them brilliant young technocrats, have been directly responsible for the sweeping economic reforms that brought Spain out of isolation and into prosperity. They have also been among the prime movers of the Franco regime's slow but unmistakable political liberalization.
Inevitable Suspicions. Most of the controversy surrounding the organization, in fact, stems from the very success in so many fields of its members, who are generally from the better-off, better-educated stratum of Spanish life. The Jesuits resent Opus Dei's incursions into Spanish education, and old-fashioned businessmen blamed Opus Dei when they lost their clients to brash young Opus Dei competitors. With their air of enthusiastic self-righteousness, Opus Dei members often irritate both laity and clergy—particularly since in many areas they accomplish more than the church. With their insistence that secular life should be Christianized rather than Christianity secularized, they raise inevitable suspicions in some quarters that they favor a practical union of church and state.