Opus Dei’s canonical reform stalls under Pope Leo XIV. Vatican silence amid rumors of structural splits; lay identity at stake after Francis’s motu proprios.
Newsroom (04/11/2025, Gaudium Press ) For nearly a century, Opus Dei has embodied a distinctive vision within the Catholic Church: a call to holiness through ordinary work, lived out by laypeople in the heart of the world. Founded in 1928 by St. Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer in Spain, the institution—informally known as “the Work”—grew from a modest program of spiritual formation for laymen into an international network encompassing some 90,000 affiliated Catholics, both lay and clerical. Women joined its formation programs just two years after its inception, and in 1982, it became the Church’s first and only personal prelature, a canonical category tailored to its unique structure and enshrined in the 1983 Code of Canon Law.
Yet, for the past three years, Opus Dei has been navigating a profound canonical reform, initiated by two motu proprio documents from Pope Francis in 2022 and 2023. These papal interventions have aimed to reshape the prelature’s governance, supervisory oversight, and the very nature of lay involvement. In June, Opus Dei superiors submitted revised statutes to the Holy See, proposing adjustments to align with Francis’s directives. Since then, silence has enveloped the Vatican’s response—no official updates, no indications of approval or rejection.
Amid swirling media speculation about drastic structural overhauls, Vatican sources have confided to The Pillar that no definitive resolution has emerged. Pope Leo XIV, elected in May following Francis’s death, has yet to signal his stance on the future of the Church’s sole personal prelature. As one insider involved in the discussions put it, the proposed statutes “are still in revision,” with final decisions resting squarely in the pontiff’s hands.
This period of uncertainty underscores deeper questions about Opus Dei’s identity: Is it fundamentally a clerical entity with lay collaborators, or a predominantly lay institution unified under a single prelate? The reforms, while canonically modest on paper, strike at the heart of how the Work understands itself—and how the Church categorizes innovative pastoral realities.
The Essence of Opus Dei: A Lay-Centric Mission
At its core, Opus Dei promotes “holiness in ordinary lives, especially through everyday work.” Its members—roughly 90,000 worldwide—include incardinated clergy under the prelate’s jurisdiction and various categories of lay affiliates.
Supernumeraries, comprising over 90% of lay members, are often married individuals living with their families or independently. They integrate Opus Dei’s spiritual practices into daily routines without relocating.
Numeraries commit to celibacy and typically reside in Opus Dei centers, dedicating themselves fully to the institution’s apostolates. Associates also pledge celibacy but live independently or with family. Most of the prelature’s approximately 2,000 incardinated priests emerge from numerary ranks, with some from associates.
Diocesan priests and bishops connect through the Priestly Society of the Holy Cross, an affiliated entity. A broader group, cooperators, supports Opus Dei’s initiatives through prayer, work, or donations; they need not even be Catholic and are not formal members.
Opus Dei’s apostolic works—houses, schools, universities, and shrines—are overwhelmingly managed by laypeople, with priests primarily serving as chaplains. Lay numeraries, associates, and occasionally supernumeraries direct spiritual formation for others, embodying Escrivá’s emphasis on lay protagonism.
This structure has long defined Opus Dei as a bridge between clergy and laity. But Pope Francis’s reforms challenge that integration.
Francis’s Motu Proprios: Reshaping Structure and Supervision
The reform process began in July 2022 with the motu proprio Ad charisma tuendum, which transferred Opus Dei’s oversight from the Dicastery for Bishops to the Dicastery for Clergy. The prelature now submits annual reports, up from quinquennial ones. Crucially, the prelate would no longer hold episcopal rank; Francis argued that Opus Dei required “a form of governance based on charism more than on hierarchical authority.”
A year later, in August 2023, Ad Christi Evangelium amended canon law, assimilating personal prelatures to “public clerical associations of pontifical right with the faculty of incardinating clerics.” Laypeople could dedicate themselves to prelature apostolates as “organic cooperators,” with details left to statutes.
In practice, this means lay affiliates—previously “members” under Opus Dei’s statutes—may no longer be prelature members proper. Only incardinated clergy (about 2% of the total) would retain full membership. The shift formalizes personal prelatures as essentially clerical, with laity in supportive roles.
Canonical scholars view this as fitting for the prelature model, created specifically for Opus Dei. Yet for the institution, it represents a “seismic shift.” Many affiliates feel laypeople are relegated to “second-class status” in what remains a lay-driven enterprise. As Msgr. Fernando Ocáriz, Opus Dei’s prelate, told The Pillar in an October 2024 interview: “The law’s difficulty in framing new pastoral phenomena is evident. Maybe the protagonism the [Second Vatican] Council wished for the laity still has a long road ahead.”
Ocáriz emphasized fidelity to the founding charism: “The current modification… is being conducted with the fundamental criterion of adjusting to the charism, which, today, in many places, is better understood and shared. Law… follows life, follows the incarnated message, to support and give continuity to life.”
Timeline of Uncertainty: From Proposal to Papal Silence
Opus Dei planned a general congress in early May to finalize statutes for Holy See approval. Francis’s death intervened; Ocáriz limited the gathering to leadership renewals and appointed a commission for revisions.
On May 14, less than a week after his election, Pope Leo met Ocáriz and Msgr. Mariano Fazio, Opus Dei’s auxiliary vicar. The prelature submitted proposals on June 11.
Six months later, “absolute silence” persists, per Opus Dei statements.
Media rumors have filled the void: suggestions of splitting Opus Dei into a clerical prelature, a priestly society, and a lay public association; ending lifelong prelacy; separating spiritual and governmental roles; or altering election methods.
A Vatican official in reform talks dismissed these as “sheer madness.” “The statutes are in the hands of the Holy Father,” the source said. “No decisions have been made.”
Pope Leo’s Perspective: Experience Meets Canon Law
Expectations of swift approval—ratifying a Francis-era proposal—have faded. Sources tell The Pillar that Leo, a canonist, is prioritizing another Opus Dei matter: the three-year dispute over Torreciudad, a Spanish shrine run by the prelature. The local bishop threatened resignation amid reports a Vatican commissary favored Opus Dei.
Multiple sources see Leo’s deliberation as potentially positive. “It means he’s not blankly approving everything in the proposal that was supposed to be presented to Francis originally,” one said. Some proposed changes exceed Francis’s motu proprios and may be scaled back.
Leo’s background informs his approach. Unlike Francis’s “distant” relations with Opus Dei—in Argentina and Rome—Leo’s episcopal tenure in Chiclayo, Peru, immersed him in the institution’s reality.
Created in 1956, the diocese saw Opus Dei influence early. After the first bishop’s 1968 death, Pope Paul VI named Msgr. Ignacio María de Orbegozo y Goicoechea, an Opus Dei priest, as successor. Orbegozo served until 1998; his successor, Bishop Jesús Moliné Labarta of the Priestly Society of the Holy Cross, led until 2013. Over 45 years, they expanded parishes nearly twofold, established a seminary and Catholic university, amid population growth from 400,000 to over 1 million.
Appointed by Francis in 2013 (as Bishop Robert Prevost), Leo inherited this legacy. Fears of anti-Opus Dei shifts proved unfounded. His inner circle—vicar general, seminary rector, clergy vicar, cathedral rector, key parish priests—included Priestly Society members. Leo lived with them at the episcopal residence, eschewing his Augustinian brethren.
This firsthand exposure highlights lay Opus Dei’s vitality. As canonist, Leo will likely affirm prelatures’ clerical essence. Yet his experience may sensitize him to preserving the Work’s lay self-understanding.
An Unresolved Future
Opus Dei’s reform encapsulates broader Vatican II tensions: lay roles versus clerical structures. Pope Leo’s eventual decree—whether endorsing, amending, or reimagining the proposals—will shape not just one institution but the Church’s accommodation of charismatic realities.
For now, the Work waits in canonical limbo, its charism tested by law’s deliberate pace. As Ocáriz noted, law must follow life. Under Leo XIV, the balance between the two remains delicately poised.
- Raju Hasmukh with files from The Pillar
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