The Holy See recognized it in 2010 as in full conformity with the Church's teaching, after a period in which controversy about it led to it being placed in 1992 under the oversight of a Dominican priest.
[1][2] It spreads devotion to the Holy Angels among the faithful, exhorts them to pray for priests, and promotes love for Christ in his Passion and union with it.
[4][5] The movement is now under the overall direction of the Order of Canons Regular of the Holy Cross,[6][7] who have about 125 members, living in 12 communities in 10 countries (Austria, Italy, Germany, Portugal, Colombia, Brazil, Mexico, India, the Philippines, United States).
In a similar ceremony members consecrate themselves to the angelic kingdom, thus enabling them "to live in sacred communion with all things" and bringing to life the individual's "unmanifest creative potential".
[13] In her many writings, Mrs Bitterlich also proposed some novel theories about the functions, groupings and personal names of angels and demons and about an on-going "spiritual warfare" between the two.
These theories and the practices based on them gave rise to controversy and on 1 December 1977 Cardinal Joseph Höffner, Archbishop of Cologne, brought them to the attention of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which began to study them shortly after Mrs Bitterlich's death in the following year.
"[3] The tabloid German newspaper Frankfurter Rundschau published a disapproving article by Jörg Schindler on the Holy See's approval of the movement, claiming that Opus Angelorum believes "smooth-haired dogs, peasant women, gypsies and midwives are particularly susceptible to Satanic impulses, that demons love to take control in Jewish business neighbourhoods and that a long-standing apocalyptic fight between angels and the Evil One is going on.
[25][26] The exorcism using Mrs Bitterlich's demon names in violation of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith's 1982 prohibition of use of "the 'names' derived from the alleged private revelation attributed to Mrs Gabriele Bitterlich" may have been one of the reasons for enacting the Congregation's more detailed 1992 rules against the use in the movement's "ministry and apostolate" of "the theories originating from the alleged revelations of Mrs Gabriele Bitterlich concerning the world of the angels and their personal names, groupings and functions", and its ruling, "Exorcisms may be carried out only in line with the Church's norms and discipline on the matter, and with the use of formulas approved by the Church.
"[citation needed] In 1993, the Brazilian priest Frederico Cunha was found guilty in Madeira of the murder of a 15-year-old who resisted his homosexual advances and was imprisoned.