[1]: 189  In 1950, Pius XII granted definitive approval to Opus Dei, thereby allowing married people to join the organization, and secular clergy to be admitted to the Priestly Society of the Holy Cross.

[22][23] There are other members whose process of beatification has been opened: Ernesto Cofiño, a father of five children and a pioneer in pediatric research in Guatemala;[24] Montserrat Grases, a teenage Catalan student who died of cancer;[25][26] Toni Zweifel, a Swiss engineer;[27][28] Tomás Alvira and wife, Paquita Domínguez, a Spanish married couple;[29] Isidoro Zorzano Ledesma, an Argentinian engineer;[30] Dora del Hoyo, a domestic worker;[31] Fr.

[30] During the pontificate of John Paul II, two members of Opus Dei, Juan Luis Cipriani Thorne and Julián Herranz Casado, were made cardinals.

[42] Opus Dei publicly acknowledged a sexual abuse case within the organisation for the first time in its history in July 2020, this one involving priest Manuel Cociña in Spain.

[43] On 22 July 2022,[44][45] Pope Francis issued the apostolic letter in the form of a motu proprio Ad charisma tuendum, which seeks to "safeguard the charism", or original foundational spirit; it is "intended to confirm the Prelature of Opus Dei in the authentically charismatic sphere of the Church, specifying its organization in keeping with the witness of the Founder.

[48] On 8 August 2023, Pope Francis issued a new motu proprio which stated that personal prelatures such as Opus Dei, are "similar to public clerical associations of pontifical law",[49] such as the Community of Saint Martin and the Family of Mary, while not being identified with them.

[65] The biblical roots of this Catholic doctrine, according to the founder, are in the phrase "God created man to work" (Genesis 2:15)[66] and Jesus' time as a carpenter in a small town.

[60] At the bottom of Escrivá's understanding of the "universal call to holiness" are two dimensions, subjective and objective, according to Fernando Ocariz, a Catholic theologian and prelate of Opus Dei since 2017.

[72] The Catholic News Agency website published on 26 August 2024, a report headlined "Opus Dei prelate responds to those who consider group 'conservative powerful and secretive.'"

The prelate pointed out in the article; "the main contribution of Opus Dei is to accompany the laity [98% of its members] so that they can be protagonists of the evangelizing mission of the Church in the midst of the world, one by one.

"[73] In Pope John Paul II's 1982 decree known as the Apostolic constitution Ut Sit, Opus Dei was established as a personal prelature, an official structure of the Catholic Church, similar to a diocese in that it contains lay people and secular priests led by a bishop.

[81] According to the study of John Allen, for the most part, Opus Dei faithful belong to the middle to low levels in society in terms of education, income, and social status.

[92] Numeraries generally have jobs outside of Opus Dei, although some are asked to work internally full-time, and thus change their professional goals in order to be available for the Prelature.

[97] Leaders of Opus Dei describe the organization as a teaching entity whose main activity is to train Catholics to assume personal responsibility in sanctifying the secular world from within.

[106] In the 1950s, Pope Pius XII told the most senior Australian bishop, Cardinal Norman Gilroy, that Escrivá "is a true saint, a man sent by God for our times".

[107] Pius XII gave Opus Dei the canonical status of "pontifical right", an institution depending directly and exclusively on the Vatican in its internal governance.

[109] Furthermore, in 1964, Pope Paul VI praised the organization in a handwritten letter to Escrivá, saying: Opus Dei is "a vigorous expression of the perennial youth of the Church, fully open to the demands of a modern apostolate ... We look with paternal satisfaction on all that Opus Dei has achieved and is achieving for the kingdom of God, the desire of doing good that guides it, the burning love for the Church and its visible head that distinguishes it, and the ardent zeal for souls that impels it along the arduous and difficult paths of the apostolate of presence and witness in every sector of contemporary life.

He emphasized that Escrivá's founding of Opus Dei was ductus divina inspiratione, led by divine inspiration, and he granted the organization its status as a personal prelature.

[121] In contrast, Catholic officials say that church authorities have even greater control of Opus Dei now that its head is a prelate appointed by the Pope,[122] and its status as a prelature "precisely means dependence".

[70][134][131][82][135] In the 21st century, Opus Dei has received international attention due to the novel The Da Vinci Code and its film version of 2006, both of which prominent Christians and others criticized as misleading, inaccurate and anti-Catholic.

[147] Opus Dei has been accused of deceptive and aggressive recruitment practices,[147] such as showering potential members with intense praise ("love bombing"),[148][unreliable source?

For example, Opus Dei's position has been "to oppose sexual freedoms and promote conservative morals," according to an investigative report produced by Catholics for Choice, a group that dissents from many church teachings, notably abortion.

[161] The report further cites a study from sociologist Marco Burgos alleging Opus Dei interference in sex education programs in Honduras that contradict the Catholic faith.

[163] Many Catholic clergy and religious sisters at church-sponsored hospitals or other charitable organizations in Spain are alleged to have been involved, including members of Opus Dei.

In contrast, these journalists continue, Opus Dei's lay members, like any normal Catholic professional, are ultimately responsible for their personal actions and do not externally represent the organization that provides them religious education.

[170][page needed][171][172] Also, there were notable members of Opus Dei who were vocal critics of the Franco regime such as Rafael Calvo Serer and Antonio Fontán, who was the first President of the Senate in Spain, following the adoption of a democratic Constitution.

[70][page needed] Similarly Álvaro del Portillo, the former prelate of Opus Dei, said that any statements that Escrivá supported Hitler were "a patent falsehood" that were part of "a slanderous campaign".

[70][page needed] Regarding alleged misogyny, John Allen states that women hold half of the leadership positions in Opus Dei, and they supervise men.

[179] As regards the claim that religious people in Spain, including Opus Dei members, were involved in the abduction of children during the Franco era, an investigation found that DNA analysis of 81 cases ruled out that they were stolen babies.

[11] In her 2006 book on Opus Dei, Maggy Whitehouse, a non-Catholic journalist, argues that the relative autonomy of each director and center has resulted in mistakes at the local level.