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Opus Dei and politics

There were accusations that the Catholic personal prelature of Opus Dei has had links with far-right governments worldwide, including Franco's and Hitler's regimes.

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Critics underline that several Opus Dei members were appointed ministers in General Francisco Franco's government.

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Felzmann, on saying these things, is being inconsistent with a testimony he wrote in 1980 saying that Escrivá is "a saint for today." (Documentation Service Vol V, 3, March 1992) They claim that former members, called "apostates" by their former organization, often lend their voices to coalitions fighting their previous religious organizations (see Dr. Bryan R. Wilson).

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First, because as hardworking professionals striving after excellence, many Opus Dei members had the personal qualifications to be appointed in government as technocrats assisting in the NATO-USA supported economic Spanish miracle.

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Opus Dei's history parallels that of Francisco Franco's conservative dictatorship in Spain, and was first developed during the troublesome years of the interwar period, along with the dictatorships of António de Oliveira Salazar and Adolf Hitler, and Benito Mussolini's fascist regime.

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Critics, however, point to a letter written on 23 May 1958 by Escrivá to General Francisco Franco, dictator of Spain.

see also