|
ICTOD - The
International Collaboration for Truth about Opus Dei |
|
THE INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATION FOR TRUTH
ABOUT OPUS DEI (ICTOD)
Opus Dei
Awareness Network, Inc.
http://www.odan.org Dianne DiNicola, Executive Director
Opus Libros
http://www.opuslibros.org/inicio.htm Agustina Lopez de los Mozos
Munoz, founder and coordinator
Note:
Regrettably, it is our understanding that the domain name
www.opuslivre.org has been
purchased by Opus Dei and is no longer a source for information
about Opus Dei. Nevertheless, concerned individuals and former
Opus Dei members remain in Brazil. Please contact ODAN if you
would like to be placed in contact with others from Brazil.
Date: June
26,
2006
OpusLivre, Opus
Dei Awareness Network, Inc. and Opus Libros have announced the
formation of The International Collaboration for Truth about Opus
Dei (ICTOD). The collaboration is the result of three separate
groups of people who have had harmful experiences with Opus Dei in
locations from all over the world wherever Opus Dei operates.
ICTOD was formed
to challenge the statements made by Opus Dei in its recent media
campaign to dispel the image depicted in the book and recent
movie, The DaVinci Code.
The collaboration
consists of Opuslivre, based in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Opus Dei
Awareness Network, (ODAN) based in the United States, and
Opus Libros, based in Madrid, Spain.
ICTOD believes
Opus Dei has focused on the extremes of the movie, such as bloody
use of the discipline (whip) and the cilice (spiked chain) while
saying nothing about how the organization takes away a person's
freedom through a subtle indoctrination process consisting of
aggressive recruiting techniques, the withholding of information
necessary to make an informed choice and the use of subtle pressure,
fear and guilt to exact blind obedience upon its members. ICTOD
will focus its resources to educating the public about the absolute
control and obedience that exists in Opus Dei along with deceptive
and manipulative recruiting practices.
Contact Information:
Dianne DiNicola
odan@odan.org PO Box 4333, Pittsfield, MA 01202, Telephone
413-499-7168
Agustina Lopez de los Mozos Munoz
oreja_de_guardia@opuslibros.org
ABOUT OPUS
LIBROS
Opus Libros was formed nearly three years ago
by former members of Opus Dei in Spain under the direction of
Agustina López de los Mozos Muñoz. On the site there are over
500 testimonies from former members that detail many of the
deceptive practices utilized by Opus Dei.
Below is a statement made by Agustina López de los Mozos Muñoz,
founder of the Opus Libros web site, regarding Opus Dei and the Da
Vinci Code. To access her statement in Spanish:
http://www.opuslibros.org/escritos/codigo_opusdei_agustina.htm
(message to the US/UK/France and Germany media follows)
"Dear Sir (or Madame),
With this letter I would like to contribute to the excellent
articles you have been releasing about Opus Dei. Almost 3 years ago
I conducted the creation of a new website,
Opuslibros.org, aimed at
collecting and making available a number of publications and secret
documents from Opus Dei that show some of the evil practices of this
organization from inside. The site has currently thousands of visits
a day and, like the site odan.org, featured in the book The Da Vinci
Code, provides help and relief to thousands of former members of
Spanish speaking countries.
Along with other former Opus Dei member that, like me, felt to have
an obligation of justice to restoring the truth to the general
public and to other former and existing members, we have managed to
gather hundreds of “internal” (i.e. secret) documents and around
10,000 testimonies and analysis from both members and ex-members.
It’s impossible to be exhaustive in a few lines. But in order to
provide you with a flavor of what is available at the site, we
include a few Opus Dei secret personal reports on numerary members
that specify (sometimes using internal secret codes) sins, defects
and wrongdoing of the member, in other words, spreading information
meant to remain confidential, including information the member told
an Opus Dei director or an Opus Dei priest during his “confidential”
spiritual coaching (see
http://www.opuslibros.org/html/fl.htm ); or various internal
management documents and meditations that, in fact, threaten with
eternal condemnation to those who dare to abandon Opus Dei after
having joined (see
http://www.opuslibros.org/libros/error_irreparable.htm ;
and
http://www.opuslibros.org/Meditaciones/marzo92.pdf ); or
internal documents, never shown to the press, the governments or
even the Church that advise members to keep apart from their real
families ( cf.
http://www.opuslibros.org/html/Glosas_san_Miguel/gsm_indice.html
), not to mention documents that encourage the recruitment of
teenagers as life-long celibacy members (
http://www.opuslibros.org/html/charla_vocacion.htm ),
letters that try to prevent members from getting into confession
with Catholic, diocesan priests that do not belong to Opus Dei,
documents that determine the way numerary members are obliged to
hand over all their financial income and resources to the
organization, etc, etc.
Since Opus Dei is basically a Spanish/Latin American organization
(up to 85% of members are Spanish-speaking people), most of the
documentation we exhibit is in Spanish. Should you need more
information or help, we (me or any of my colleagues) would be more
than glad to provide you with translations or summaries of any
document you are interested in examining.
Opus Dei is making a huge effort to counteract the current and the
future impact of the Da Vinci Code -both the book and the film-.
These efforts include press releases, articles, documentaries, etc.,
in order to reach the audience that doesn’t know the institution:
the general public.
They are trying to confuse those who don’t know them by arguing that
all this consists of “an attack against the Church”, so they use the
Church as a shield to protect themselves. But the Church is not Opus
Dei. And they care little about the attacks against the Church as
long as they don’t need to defend their own “reputation”. That’s why
they have undergone absolutely no campaign against books as famed
and as anti-catholic as, for instance “The Gospel according to
Jesus” (José Saramago), “The Gospel according to the Son” (Norman
Mailer), “Three visions of Judas” (Jorge Luis Borges), “The last
temptation” (Nikos Kazantzakis) or the recently released “Trilogy of
Christ’s clone” (James Beau Seigneur). Along with the public
campaign against the Da Vinci Code, they are also trying to
repeatedly translate a wrong message to the big audience, i.e. the
ones who, as said, don’t know them, the message being: “whoever
criticizes Opus Dei, is also criticizing the Church”.
On top of the issue with regards the general public, which is
unaware of the prelature, there are another two frontlines that Opus
Dei has to take care of:
The first one is related to the prelature’s own members. The origin
of all concerns here has been this website, Opuslibros. This site
has been the channel to break the law of silence that embraces many
aspects of Opus Dei praxis. And this channel is reaching not only
the former members, but also many current members of the prelature
that are accessing the website as the only place were they can be
understood.
The second one is the organization of the Church itself. Many
complaints about the Da Vinci Code focus on the most incredible
aspects of the book, forgetting the reason why Opus Dei gets
involved in the story. It is in chapter 100 where, as a fiction, the
Opus Dei prelate explains how he was called to the Vatican to be
informed about the new Pope’s decision of segregating Opus Dei from
the Church, as a result of the difficult position Opus Dei was
putting the Church into, due to:
a) Its aggressive proselytism practices
b) The use of the corporal self-punishment
c) The way women are treated in the organization
In our opinion, Opus Dei isn’t much concerned about the Da Vinci
Code’s thesis on Mary Magdalene, or the cilice, or the albino Silas,
or the accuracy of historical data. As long as these matters are the
only ones under debate (the more unbelievable they are, the better)
there is no problem. It is only one thing that’s driving the
management of the prelature really nervous: the possibility that
something could happen similar to what Dan Brown describes in
chapter 100.
What the Church finally will decide regarding issues such as the
aggressive proselytism with teenagers; the “collective” spiritual
direction; the “contractual covenant” and the corresponding
obligations that members don’t manage to know until years after
having joined; the psychological coactions towards members that want
to withdraw; the total control over the activities and all aspects,
related or not with the prelature’s goals, of numerary members; the
psychiatric treatments aimed at overcoming the “vocational
crisis”;…, that reaction from the Church is what Opus Dei is really
concerned about.
And the pacing of the Church is slow but certain. Trying to minimize
the noise or the scandal, but without pause.
At the end, Opus Dei will have to face the Church and then no
documentaries, image campaigns or Curial lobbying will be of any
help any more. What is Opus Dei preparing to face that situation?
Thanking you in advance for your time, I remain
Yours faithfully
Agustina Lopez de los Mozos Muñoz
Coordinator and founder of Opuslibros.org"
ABOUT ODAN
The
Opus Dei Awareness Network, Inc. (ODAN) was founded in 1991 to meet
the growing demand for accurate information about Opus Dei and to
provide education, outreach and support to people who have been
adversely affected by Opus Dei.
ODAN challenges many of Opus Dei's Questionable
Practices because of the way they affect an individual's personal
freedom, choices and family life.
Since
1991, ODAN has been in contact with countless individuals, families,
the secular and religious press, clergy, religious, cult awareness
organizations, campus ministers, home-schooling parents and more.
ODAN
is a worldwide community of people who have had painful experiences
as a result of their association with Opus
Dei.
Contact
Us
ODAN
is a registered 501(c)3 non-profit organization. Donations are tax-deductible.
| Opus
Dei Awareness Network, Inc.
P.O. Box 4333
Pittsfield, MA 01202-4333
Telephone: 413-499-7168
Fax: 413-499-7860
Email: odan@odan.org
Executive
Director: Dianne DiNicola |
Posted June 25, 2006
Updated May 7, 2008
|
