[Music] [Applause] pope john paul ii is engaged in a race against time [Applause] his days on this earth are clearly numbered but his resolve to revitalize the catholic church is unyielding the pontiff believes that nothing fires the faithful like the making of saints [Applause] is created more than any other pope in history and this his 464th canonization saint making ceremony is arguably the most controversial in front of 300 000 people a spanish priest linked to the fascist regime of general franco is elevated in the kingdom of heaven [Music] foreign [Applause] [Music] since his death in
1975 jose maria escriva has been fast tracked to sainthood in record time by a pope who long admired his anti-communist ultra-conservative brand of christianity [Music] opus dei means god's work in latin critics claim it translates as catholic fundamentalism these members of an unashamedly elitist movement aim to influence and change society from the very top taking their message into the workplace as politicians lawyers businessmen and journalists the message from our founder and the message for from the opposite is always the same everybody can be a saint must be a saint but sanctifying the everyday life opus
dei has managed to polarize opinion like few other institutions in the modern catholic church for supporters it's all about achieving sanctity of the human spirit and perhaps more importantly of supporting this pope's highly conservative social agenda to detract as though opus dei is seen as a highly disciplined highly secretive sect far more interested in amassing power and influence here at the vatican [Music] in the shadow of the pyrenees lies the very heart of the opus dei movement the shrine of teresia dead it's an extraordinary monument to the memory of jose maria escriva who was born
and raised in a nearby town built on the medieval fault line between christianity and islam [Music] father habia dimara figueroa rector of tarisia dad is typical of opus dei's leadership from one of spain's elite families he's a former naval officer and lay opus day member who entered the priesthood aged 40. as father habiah assumes his priestly mantle is flanked by opus dei numeries perform the inner core of the movement they may wear the suits of layman but numeries are very much opus day's guiding force they seek careers in the professions and take vows of chastity
and poverty theirs is an evangelical mission with a rigid social agenda preaching against abortion contraception ivf programs and homosexuality the battles to to fight the struggle or to fight with the church is in the in the all around the world in the economics in the media in the universities [Music] opus dei has 85 000 members worldwide two-thirds of them in spain and latin america and many more supporters who often make the long pilgrimage to terrisia dad where jose maria's statue looms larger than any representation of christ [Music] he has a very big heart he's very
compassionate he has also a strong will and strong temperament but he for me he to to say in a few words he teach me to love [Music] others have less saintly personal memories of jose mourinho through the 1950s and 60s escava's vision was realised by a trusted inner circle of senior memories but after 15 years service one of these disciples fell out with the father alberto moncada moved on to become one of spain's leading sociologists and an implacable foe of the movement they think the figure of script by larger than the figure of jesus christ
in part in practical behavior of today people which is normal because they they need such such an agenda to have a person who is above everything that's why when they make it the same they will give argument for them to be fanatical combining personal charisma with his evangelical mission jose maria established a network of schools and universities around the world a ready-made talent pool from which the best and brightest are targeted for recruitment disillusioned recruits accuse opus dei of operating as a mind-controlling force obsessed with secrecy ordering followers to conceal their membership from the community
alberto moncada says the claims are true part of the strategy he used when sent to peru in the 1960s to establish an open state university they recruit very young people in a close environment as soon as they can they pro private to go to the movies to with person or the other gender they try to be secret in the family that don't tell your father that you are an opposite member things like that they take away the money they send them to places when they start higher education and from then from that time they are
like slaves i think that the matter is that the they they mistake the secrecy with the privacy of privacy and because the the most of the opposite people are layman and people working in his in their job and they don't they don't like to put a level a lava in the in the jacket telling i want to be a saint is a group of students from a spanish opus day university learn of the life and legacy of jose mourinho they already know that most of the technocrats responsible for spain's economic miracle of the 1960s were
disciples of escriva as are many prominent bankers politicians and journalists in spain today [Music] but the telling of opus dei's early history is far more selective founded by escriva in 1928 the fledgling movement was lucky to survive the spanish civil war when communists shot thousands of priests under the subsequent four decade reign of fascist dictator general franco opus day thrived and rapidly expanded escriva once said to be in the military is halfway to becoming an opus dang member detractors claim he had close personal links to the franco regime and lies that should disqualify him from
sainthood it's a slander on the memory of the founder says the rector who speaks with some personal knowledge his own father was an admiral in franco's navy they met i know they met and i think that our founder thought that franco was a good christian but perhaps he never never speaks about politics but there are a few other skeletons thrashing about in the opus dei closet every easter catholic spain bears witness to this ritual parade of self-flagellation to emulate christ's suffering and purge sinful thoughts while these spectacles are largely symbolic opus dei takes a more
literal approach encouraging members to engage in such practices in private along with the wearing of spiked thigh belts designed to pierce the flesh [Music] the issue of open state members engaging in flagellation mortification of the flesh this is the the mortification of the flesh is a fashion in the church from the first centuries to now was it expected of the opus dei members to self-flagellate to engage in modification on saturdays on saturdays it was terrible is it something that you do do you engage in that practice yes yes of course it's not shame i i
don't like speak about that because of my privacy and i'm shy in this in this term that i can't deny i live the mortification of the flesh it is necessary to to search the holiness it's a rare public admission linking such practices to the movement's core goal of achieving sanctity in everyday life but mortification of the flesh isn't the only ritual that mortifies some other catholics the woman they don't sleep in beds woman they sleep in mood because the cribba say the women are sexier than men they have a funny funny extrapolation he was an
expert in psychology of sex so women sleep on what on on planks yeah yeah but again what's what is the logic of that knowledge i mean that's why there are many problems many psychiatric problems mental problems in opus dei i know more than three people who who were put into sanatoriums and and many people who go and there was even a spanish psychiatrist in spain who was a specialist in opposite members alberto moncada accuses opus dei of hypocrisy of inflicting an impossibly austere lifestyle on the rank and file well for the leadership apparently anything goes
when you are important you are an important person i think you you are entitled to almost everything when i was in peru and was very worried and was tired of talking to opus dei about impossible things they wanted me to do as a rector i went to a nice hotel in lima have a good time with a lady no problem i just came back confessed confessing everything was okay [Music] sanctity through work may be the motto of the opus dei elite but there's nothing spiritual about the tough physical grind of the grape harvest here in
the southern spanish town of almendra these hearty country folks seem somewhat perplexed by the revelation that god has moved among them [Applause] but for every doubter there is a true believer these are the hands that have made jose maria a saint they belong to a retired country doctor manuel nevado ray who says the years of operating primitive x-ray equipment without shielding had left him with inoperable cancerous ulcers on his hands [Music] [Music] under vatican rules candidates for sainthood need two scientifically inexplicable medical miracles the first came from a spanish nun whose acute fatty deposits miraculously
disappeared after she prayed to the spirit of jose mourinho dr navardo's hands provided the second official miracle and a few raised eyebrows among locals what do you say to the skeptics i mean to the people who simply don't believe it [Music] jose maria's fast tractor sainthood led here to the vatican's congregation for the causes of saints the saint making department yeah history weighs heavily on these shelves where a lifetime of suffering and sacrifice in god's name awaits official scrutiny foreign [Music] the congregation is run by portuguese cardinal jose martins attempting to steer a precarious path
between forensic medical examination and the theological needs of the church he denies reports that escriver received special favors and that his case triggered an unholy row within the congregation itself in fact two members of this 30-member panel actually resigned in protest over the canonization of escrow yeah men of construction but a seasoned vatican watcher questions the church's public veneer of unity bbc vatican correspondent david willey says escriva's canonization has debased a process that was already losing currency this new passion for putting saints onto the fast track for sainthood seems to me to be a policy
which could be reversed in years to come when people realize that today's saint may be regarded as tomorrow's sinners [Music] in the lead-up to the canonization opus dei faithful gather at the movement's rome headquarters to pray at the coffin holding jose mourinho's mortal remains there's no need for a collection plate here this is an immensely wealthy movement his exact finances remain a closely guarded secret according to one unchallenged estimate opus dei investments generate the equivalent of 175 million u.s dollars a year they don't publish any accounts they have a lot of money i would suggest
it's pretty obvious that uh their close contacts with the world of high finance particularly in europe in the united states have given them access to very considerable funds the movement dispenses cash to non-opus day bishops around the world in return it expects loyalty in rome in an historic first pope john paul created a personal prelature for the movement giving these numeries and priests the right to operate anywhere in the world outside the control of local bishops it's a source of enormous power for the organization and great resentment within the vatican but no one dares publicly
attack the pope's favorites there seems to have been a sort of conspiracy of silence on the part of the church not to say anything which is going to knock opus day people may have been aware that some of their methods were not acceptable to um catholics worldwide but they don't want to get involved in con in controversy about this [Applause] these days a canonization appears equal parts religious event and media spectacle john paul ii has harnessed the information age with spectacular success taking his message to the global congregation of one billion catholics his chief image
maker is the papal press officer joaquin navarro vals a former spanish bullfighter doctor and journalist who is first and foremost an overstaying memory this is a very powerful position mr navarro vals the the head of the press office has lunch several times a week with the pope he has complete access to the holy father and he's privy i'm sure to many decisions which are made inside the vatican at a very very high level [Music] the presence of such a massive crowd at the canonization sent a clear message to the church's cardinals of the very real
power as well as the glory of opus dei i wouldn't go so far as to say they would like an opus dei pope next time round but certainly they want to ensure that this position of advantage that they've enjoyed during this papacy can be repeated during the next one the whole thing is legitimation of image nothing more we have a saint does it well they've succeeded yeah this is certain i mean i think they have the tools for their business with the elevation of jose maria escriva to sainthood opus dei comes of age and an
ailing pontiff ensures that after he ascends to heaven god's work will continue here on earth you
