ROME, Italy — Pope Francis has denied rumors that he had “given it” to the conservative Catholic Opus Dei group when he demoted its leader from bishop to simple priest.
In an interview published Sunday in the Spanish newspaper ABC, the pontiff said that in reality he “loves” the members of Opus Dei despite opinions to the contrary.
“Some have said: ‘Finally the Pope has given it to Opus Dei…!’ I didn’t give them anything,” the pope declared. “And others, on the other hand, said: ‘Ah, the Pope is invading us!’ None of this.”
“The measure is a relocation that needed to be fixed. It is not right to exaggerate the thing, neither to make them victims, nor to make them guilty and worthy of punishment,” he stated.
“Please. I am a great friend of Opus Dei. I love the people of Opus Dei very much and they work well in the Church. The good they do is very great,” he said.
The reporter’s question that sparked these words referred to an official letter the pope wrote last July changing the statutes of the Opus Dei.
In that apostolic letter, called Ad Charisma Tuendum (In defense of the charism), Pope Francis ordained that henceforth the leader of Opus Dei will be a priest rather than a bishop, revoking the structure established by Saint John Paul II.
The letter reversed measures enacted by John Paul in 1982 that guaranteed that the Opus Dei personal prelature would always be governed by a bishop, thus ensuring a certain degree of independence and flexibility.
Francis also transferred the oversight of Opus Dei from the Congregation of Bishops to the Dicastery for the Clergy in a move widely understood as a backhanded slap to the group.
In explaining why the head of Opus Dei will no longer be a bishop, Francis said that for the good of the group’s “particular gift of the Spirit,” what is needed is “a form of government based more on charism than on hierarchical authority.”
In 1982, Saint John Paul II established Opus Dei as the Catholic Church’s first personal prelature under the leadership of its own bishop with his apostolic constitution Ut Sit, granting it a juridical configuration “suited to its specific characteristics.”
John Paul wrote in that text:
The Ordinary of the Prelature Opus Dei is its Prelate, whose election, which has to be carried out as established in general and particular law, has to be confirmed by the Roman Pontiff. The Prelature is under the Sacred Congregation for Bishops, and will also deal directly with the other Congregations or Departments of the Roman Curia, according to the nature of the matter involved.
Later, in 2001, John Paul reiterated the appropriateness of having Opus Dei governed by its own bishop.
Pope John Paul said in March of that year:
You are here representing the components by which the Prelature is organically structured, that is, priests and lay faithful, men and women, headed by their own Prelate. This hierarchical nature of Opus Dei, established in the Apostolic Constitution by which I erected the Prelature, offers a starting point for pastoral considerations full of practical applications.
“I wish to emphasize,” John Paul continued, “That the membership of the lay faithful in their own particular Churches and in the Prelature, into which they are incorporated, enables the special mission of the Prelature to converge with the evangelizing efforts of each particular Church, as envisaged by the Second Vatican Council in desiring the figure of personal prelatures.”