It didn't surprise me to find Father Richard McBrien's being quoted in the January 6-19 edition of The Catholic New World (Chicago) with regard to the Vatican's placing Blessed Maria Escriva de Belaguer on the list for canonization. After all, McBrien is the head of Notre Dame's theology department, a prolific writer and columnist. He said, "To me it's appalling - and I use the word deliberately - that Escriva is being canonized before Pope John XXIII."

What surprised me was my reaction to his comment, one of sheer comfort and relief that a man of his stature had spoken out to say what thousands of us lesser mortals are thinking. Not for a moment did I doubt my stand on the subject; I just wanted someone I trusted to be on my side, right there in the open.

It's a confusing time for us Catholics. In his recent address on peace, Pope John Paul II is quoted as saying: "True peace is the fruit of justice, that moral virtue and legal guarantee which ensures full respect for rights and responsibilities and the just distribution of benefits and burdens." (America -- 1/7/2002 )

With all due respect, it appears to me that those in the Vatican responsible for the decision to work for Escriva's canonization have disregarded the respect for millions of Catholics, who are scandalized by this action, and are left burdened in their minds and hearts, bereft of peace.

True, Escriva's beatification on May 17, 1992, found 300, 000 celebrating the event, and his supporters point to that fact as proof of his sanctity. Since when do we count ourselves to prove or to disprove moral decisions?

In books, newspaper and magazine articles, prior to Escriva's beatification, as well as in 1,500 letters from former members, the founder of Opus Dei had been judged as a man of vanity and arrogance, who loved power, honor, the finer things of life and had little compassion for the poor and powerless.

The Holy Father revealed his friendship for Escriva when he visited his tomb after being elected pope. And it was he who granted Opus Dei the status of personal prelature, which two other popes had refused.

It could have been otherwise. In 1946, when Escriva returned from Rome, he told his followers, "My children, I have lost my innocence." (The Secret World of Opus Dei by Michael Walsh)

He had seen how much of the institutional church was run by intrigue and patronage. However, this loss of innocence didn't prevent Escriva's returning to Rome to make it the center of his foundation, from which he wielded his own version of intrigue and patronage, as his sect acquired control of the media, banks, real estate, and assumed positions of power in governments around the world.

The greatest victims of Opus Dei's oppressive measures are the young people, encouraged to belong without telling their parents, and who stay, in many instances, because of fear and confusion in a Catholic version of the Moonies. A look at a few facts reveals why this is so.

Confession must be made to an Opus Dei priest, and members are commanded to reveal their innermost secrets to their superiors, who may be only a few years older than they, with no training in psychology or spirituality.

Maxim 979: "It's human nature to have little respect for what costs but little. That is why I recommend to you the "apostolate of not giving." (Opus Dei/Walsh) Yet, former members told Walsh there was hardly a meeting when a collection wasn't taken up for Opus Dei's coffers, explaining, for example, why the seminary in Peru resembles an opulent estate in the midst of abject poverty.

Opus Dei resembles a clerical aristocracy, run by priests who impose strict, blind obedience upon their lay subjects. Women, in particular, are reduced to the status of domestics or teaching in girls' schools. Higher learning is not for them.

Escriva may well be in heaven. We wish him peace and joy. And I have no doubt that there are thousands of Opus Dei members who are good, even holy people. Yet, when the bells rang out at their founder's beatification, many of us grieved for those whom he had harmed, and rejoiced over our men and women who shepherd God's people with love, as did the poor St. Francis. To canonize Escriva is to make a mockery of the Gospel and the lives of true saints, living and dead.

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