A New Attack Against Opus Dei in Spain
The latest: The Spanish bishops receive an anonymous letter from alleged "former students" (now priests) of the Bidasoa International Seminary in Pamplona, Navarra, Spain.
The seminary is for diocesan clergy, founded in 1988 by the Holy See and run by Opus Dei.
In its first 23 years, 512 seminarians from 160 dioceses in 29 countries were ordained priests.
According to ElConfidencialDigital.com (28 March), the long and stormy anonymous Latin American letter was sent from a post office in Barcelona.
The anonymous author writes that "we couldn't greet the women who worked in the seminary. The women who work in the seminary can be the same age as our mothers. None of the seminarians could talk to them, smile at them or greet them. There was no good morning, good afternoon or good night for the women who work in the seminary. We couldn't say to them, 'Hello, how are you? How's everything going? How's your family? How are your children? Nothing".
They complain that during their formation they were only exposed to priests who were Opus Dei, members of the Priestly Society of the Holy Cross or sympathisers of Opus Dei.
"Everyone who entered the seminary had something to do with San José María Escriba (sic) de Balaguer and his foundation."
For their pastoral work, the seminarians were sent "to where the people of Opus Dei were: their sanctuaries, parishes, basilicas and chapels".
The author admits that "they welcomed us and looked after us well, no doubt, but all the time we were with them we heard about Saint José María Escriba de Balaguer and Blessed Álvaro del Portillo. The same old story".
There was also an "obsession of the formators with sin" and a thread of "persecution" for those who had studied in Bidasoa, and that the seminarians were trained with a "mentality of sadness, anguish and melancholy".
According to ElConfidencialDigital.com, the argument is confused at several points, such as this:
"We do not want to say that there are abuses of power and abuses of conscience in the seminary of Bidasoa, but the devil will try to do more damage to the Church, but we can and want to confirm that there is no healthy and good formation in this house. Only a lot of Latin, liturgy, organ and ornaments, nothing else".
In the last section, the author calls on the Spanish bishops to intervene and appoint the rector, the formators and, above all, the spiritual directors.
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