598. October 11, Nihil Obstat from Holy See

Meditations no. 525 (unofficial computer-aided translation)

God guided our Father along our juridical path.

In one of his letters, our Father says that Opus Dei is something new, and yet as old as the Gospel. It enables persons of every status and position, without any discrimination of race, country or language, to encounter the love of Christ in their daily tasks. Its newness is something simple, like all the good “news” of our Lord. And to open the way for this divine project, so new from the theological, pastoral and social perspective in the Church’s life, God led me by the hand, quietly, little by little, until his “castle” was built. “Take that step,” he seemed to say. “Put that here, pick that up and put it over there.” That is how our Lord has built his Work, with firm strokes and fine outlines, a work both old and new, as is the Word of Christ.

The divine game I am describing is very apparent in the history of our juridical path within the life of the Church. I have not had to calculate, as if I were playing chess; among other reasons, because I have never tried to guess the other person’s moves so as to checkmate him later. What I have had to do is to let myself be led.

Today, we give special thanks to God for one of the important steps on our juridical path: the Holy See’s nihil obstat for the canonical erection of the Priestly Society of the Holy Cross, which took place on October 11, 1943, then the feast of the divine Maternity of Mary.

From the beginning our founder’s main concern was to form very well the vocations God was sending to the Work. In addition, he knew that he had to find a juridical framework that would provide the Work with a clear path on which to travel and that would be a solid defence for the foundational charism he had received from God. With the help of God’s grace, he wanted to hand this charism down to his children in all its purity and integrity. As early as 1928 or 1929 our founder was already praying for the Work’s juridical solution, even though he did not know what exactly it would be. And this remained his special intention for many years.

Referring to the early years of Opus Dei, our Father said that the Work was born with the desire for holiness, which is one of the signs of a divine call, and with the desire to overcome oneself. I don’t say the reality but the desire to be saints. We were all deeply enthused, although we didn’t yet have any official approval from the Church. At first I didn’t speak of the Work to those who came to me. I put them to work for God and that was it. It’s what Jesus did with the apostles. If you open the Gospel you’ll see that at first he didn’t tell them what he planned to do. He called them, they followed him, and he conversed privately with them or in groups, both small and large.

Well that’s what I did with those who came at the beginning. I would tell them: come with me… Some of them aren’t even sure when they asked for the admission. And right away, naturally, like a requirement of life itself, the first means of formation took shape.

Our Father was in no hurry to obtain formal approval from the ecclesiastical authorities, since none of the existing canonical structures was suited to the Work’s nature. Nevertheless, his apostolate was always carried out with the encouragement and affection of the bishop of Madrid, where the Work had begun. Docile to God’s will and attentive to the Holy Spirit’s inspirations, he worked tirelessly, waiting trustingly for the best moment to take the right steps in Opus Dei’s juridical path.

In 1943 the Holy See granted the nihil obstat for the diocesan erection of the Priestly Society of the Holy Cross.

In the early 40’s the apostolate of the Work was in full expansion. Apostolic activities were beginning in a number of cities in Spain, and many new vocations were coming, all of whom had to be formed properly. At the same time, God permitted a harsh campaign of slander against our Father and against the Work to take place. Bishop Eijo y Garay of Madrid-Alcala, who was well aware of the Work’s supernatural origins and who had great esteem for our founder, had granted the Work his verbal approval from the very beginning. But to silence the detractors, he now urged our Father to seek the appropriate written diocesan approval. Our Father complied, and the Work was approved as a Pious Union on March 19, 1941.

This approval failed to solve all the juridical problems, nor did it silence the attacks. Yet the number of vocations continued to increase, and these required assiduous spiritual attention and a solid doctrinal formation. Therefore the Work was in great need of priests who understood and lived the spirit of Opus Dei, who would be able to form their brothers and sisters and help out in the apostolic activities soon to begin all over the world.

Our founder prayed very much for a solution to this problem, studied it and obtained the opinion of experts in the field. But he could not find any possibility that would allow the Work to have priests ordained from among its lay members and who, without changing their secular state, could remain part of the Work and at the service of its apostolates.

Then, on February 14, 1943, during Mass, our Lord himself gave our Father the solution he was seeking: the Priestly Society of the Holy Cross. But our Father was still faced with the task of transcribing this divine light into a workable juridical structure. He prepared the required documentation and sent Don Álvaro to Rome with the mission of informing the Holy See about Opus Dei and looking into the possibility of erecting the Priestly Society of the Holy Cross.

Don Álvaro was received very cordially by Pope Pius XII. In light of this positive response, the bishop of Madrid officially asked the Holy See in June 1943 for the nihil obstat required by canon law for the diocesan erection of the Priestly Society of the Holy Cross, which would allow priests to be ordained for the specific needs of the Work. The Holy See granted this authorization on October 11, 1943. Seven days later, on October 18, 1943, the feast of St. Luke, this decision was communicated to the bishop of Madrid, who immediately notified our Father. A few weeks later, on December 8, the feast of the Immaculate Conception, Bishop Eijo y Garay oversaw the canonical erection of the Priestly Society of the Holy Cross.

Our Father was very grateful to God for each step forward along the Work’s juridical path, recognizing God’s fatherly care. This particular step was indeed an important one. The Holy See placed its hands over the Work (the appositio manuum, as our Father liked to recall), granting it a nihil obstat which, for all practical purposes, constituted the Work’s first pontifical approval.

In commemorating another anniversary of this nihil obstat from the Holy See, we join in our founder’s gratitude. In one of his letters he recalled how our Lord guided our steps, back in 1943, leading us in a direction which turned out to be truly providential. He provided the Work, then a new born child, with the clothing it needed. We received the ecclesiastical approvals in scriptis required to ordain our priests and to prevent the slander which some people were uttering against the Work from causing any damage to our “way.”

We thank the Blessed Virgin for the nihil obstat; despite its limitations, this provisional solution constituted a big step forward along the Work’s juridical path.

Years after the event, our Father spoke about the first time that the Holy See placed its hands over the Work. I was very young and your brother Álvaro, who was at my side, said to me: Father, you must be very happy, since tomorrow is the feast of our Lady of the Pillar. And I told him: all the feast days of the Blessed Virgin move me deeply. They are all marvellous. However, if I had to choose, I would pick today’s feast, the Divine Motherhood of our Lady. When I said this, I didn’t know that the Mother of God had interceded on behalf of the Work of God, and that the first approval had been granted.

The solution adopted in 1943 was provisional. It consisted in transforming a small part of Opus Dei, made up of priests and some laymen in preparation for the priesthood, into a “Society of Common Life without Vows.” This was based on a provision of the Code of Canon Law then in force which explicitly stated that the members of these societies were not religious. The rest of the Work, including the women and the vast majority of lay men, were considered to form their own association, united to and inseparable from the Priestly Society of the Holy Cross. With respect to this provisional solution, our Father often used to say that Opus Dei was relegated to a place of secondary importance. It was seen as an association proper to and inseparable from the Priestly Society of the Holy Cross, when in reality neither of the two parts of the Work is secondary. Both are essential to the Work.

These steps along the Work’s juridical path made our Father suffer, since he knew that this was not what God had asked of him on October 2, 1928. Nevertheless, guided by the Holy Spirit, he realized that this was the only possible way to ensure that the many vocations God was sending to the Work would be properly taken care of spiritually. The moment would come when a better solution would be possible. In one of his letters written around that time, our Father wrote that it involved being ready to yield in the wording, always on the condition that the essential nature of our path be precisely set out in the document in question.

These steps were a question of giving way without giving in, with the determination to reclaim any concessions made. Speaking with his characteristic good humour about the difficulties along our juridical path, he once said: when the years have gone by and everything becomes known, you will see clearly the pathways of God. Our itinerary will have all the appearance of the graph of a patient’s fever.

Now, with the Work’s becoming a personal prelature, God has given Opus Dei a juridical suit that fits our spirit perfectly. As we look back on our itinerary, we marvel at the paths taken by Divine Providence. And we once again thank our Lady for her constant protection, so clearly manifested on a day like today, many years ago now, when the Church celebrated her divine Maternity.