User:Edgarmolina18/sandbox

“Ignatius composed a "way of life," to which the pontiff Jesus, Society of, religious order of the Roman Catholic Church.” The Society of Jesus (Latin: Societas Iesu, S.J. and S.I. or SJ, SI) is a religious order of men called Jesuits, who follow the teachings of the Catholic Church. Jesuit priests and brothers вЂ” also sometimes known colloquially as "God's marines" вЂ” are engaged in evangelization and apostolic ministry in 112 nations on six continents reflecting the Formula of the Institute (principle) of the Society. They are known in the fields of education (schools, colleges, universities, seminaries, theological faculties), intellectual research, and cultural pursuits in addition to missionary work, giving retreats, hospital and parish ministry, promoting social justice and ecumenical dialogue. The Society was founded by St. Ignatius of Loyola, who after being wounded in a battle, experienced a religious conversion and composed the Spiritual Exercises in order to help others to follow Christ more closely. In 1534, Ignatius gathered six young men, including St. Francis Xavier and Bl. Pierre Favre, and together they professed vows of poverty and chastity, and then later, obedience, including a special vow of obedience to the Pope. Rule 13 of Ignatius' Rules for Thinking with the Church said: "I will believe that the white that I see is black if the hierarchical Church so defines it".[3] Ignatius' plan of the order's organization was approved by Pope Paul III in 1540 by the bull containing the Formula of the Institute. The opening lines of this founding document would declare that the Society of Jesus was founded to "strive especially for the propagation and defense of the faith and progress of souls in Christian life and doctrine."[4] The Society participated in the Counter-Reformation and later in the implementation of the Second Vatican Council in the Catholic Church. The origins of the Roman Catholic Church as it existed for 1000 years, through the Middle Ages until the Reformation—and still exists today as a somewhat different institution—can be traced to the 5th and 6th centuries. The purpose of this article is to take a look at that period of time and the beginnings of the Roman Catholic Church. Rome fell to the Goths in 410 A.D. The Roman Empire was finished in the west of Europe. The Roman Empire lived on in the east based in its new capital (from 330) of Constantinople (Istanbul today). Before and after this time on the Christian Church was catholic (universal) but after 410 it developed differently in the east and the west. In the west the Church came to dominate the political world because of a vacuum I will address shortly; in the east the political world dominated the church. The Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church were not to split apart until the 11th century, though differences arose in the 5th century that were the seeds of this later schism. After Rome fell, the use and understanding of Greek in the west dropped precipitously as Latin prevailed. Few Greeks spoke Latin. Some disputes arose that were nothing more than mistranslations of each other's languages. The Western church came to view Mary the Mother of Jesus as having lived a sinless life (Immaculate Conception) and taken to heaven without physical death (Assumption). The Eastern Church did not accept these beliefs but did believe Mary to be the Mother of God (Theotokos) and a lifelong virgin—beliefs not adapted by the west. 1000 years later, Protestants rejected all of these ideas (Mariology). All Christians have always believed in the Virgin Birth of Jesus, of course. Christians in those days treasured relics (remains). These would be body parts of a Saint, or clothing and other items said to have been worn or used by Saints. From this developed the practice of praying to dead saints (or later other dead people); and praying for dead people—ideas rejected a millennium later by Protestants. The first Pope (papa—a reference to fatherly care of the Believers) was Leo the Great (400-461). Leo was elected by the Roman people as the bishop of Rome in 440 and immediately proclaimed himself the supreme head of all Christendom. A church council was called at Chalcedon in 451 to discuss this proclamation and the council instead declared that the bishops of Rome and Constantinople were equals. The Roman Catholic Church was officially proclaimed in response to that decision. This was in no way some kind of conspiracy. Rome was where Peter and Paul had been martyred; the site of more Christian martyrdoms than any other city by far; had a long reputation for orthodoxy and piety among the churches there; and the largest city in the world. In earlier times of church history the bishops of Jerusalem, Alexandria, Antioch, Ephesus, Carthage, Lyon, and Hippo had been powerful but the influence of these cities was on the wane. Constantinople had been a hotbed of heresies and division; and generally looked to Rome to solve their theological disputes. It was widely acknowledged that one of the bishops should have final authority to adjudicate the issues that faced the Church. Rome was the logical choice. Pope Leo the Great soon assumed the role of civic and political leader of Rome—not traditionally the role of a minister. But this was no conspiracy either but rather the result of Barbarian invasions which had left no one else willing to perform these duties. The citizens of Rome insisted that he lead them. In 452 it was only Leo who had the guts to go outside the city gates and face Attila the Hun—famously persuading him, unarmed, into stopping his attacks on Europe. We, then, following the holy Fathers, all with one consent, teach people to confess one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, the same perfect in Godhead and also perfect in manhood; truly God and truly man, of a reasonable [rational] soul and body; consubstantial [co-essential] with the Father according to the Godhead, and consubstantial with us according to the Manhood; in all things like unto us, without sin; begotten before all ages of the Father according to the Godhead, and in these latter days, for us and for our salvation, born of the Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, according to the Manhood; one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, only begotten, to be acknowledged in two natures, inconfusedly, unchangeably, indivisibly, inseparably; the distinction of natures being by no means taken away by the union, but rather the property of each nature being preserved, and concurring in one Person and one Subsistence, not parted or divided into two persons, but one and the same Son, and only begotten, God the Word, the Lord Jesus Christ; as the prophets from the beginning [have declared] concerning Him, and the Lord Jesus Christ Himself has taught us, and the Creed of the holy Fathers has handed down to us. By the year 600 a barely known (during His lifetime) Jew named Jesus, who died with a handful of followers, was worshipped from Ireland to India by people from all walks of life—from emperors to slaves. In the east they had become the church of the emperor—in the west the church of the Pope of the Roman Catholic Church. When I resume this story a new danger arises: Muhammad and Islam. By this time the canon of the New Testament was used in all Christendom; the doctrine of the Trinity fully developed; and the ecclesiastical structure of the Church in place. No one could have predicted that this little baby Jesus, born to a virgin, would found a religion that would take over the known world and that He would become the central figure of human history. Christians everywhere believed—and believe today—that this is a supernatural story through the work of the Holy Spirit. Hundreds of thousands of ordinary and extraordinary people had been martyred rather than disavow the resurrection and Lordship of Jesus Christ. There are two billion Christians on Earth today. I previously published articles about the "Life of Jesus" "Who God Is" and for those who wonder why people justify their heresies or sinful behaviors in general, one of my personal favorites "Dr. Johnson." I used to think love was just a fairy tale. A story from a lectern. A postcard read from someone else's dream. And I was supposed to accept that. I was supposed to read someone else's Love Letters about a Life and a Love and a Family - and sit in my chair on a prescribed day and swoon, and then go back to my "real" life. I was ordered by the human conductor of machine-life and ceremony to simply accept that the bedtime stories were sufficient and "God doesn't Work that way anymore." The chief of the marionettes says, "Just show up and pay me money and I'll design a show to make you feeeeeeel like God's Dream is still true. Attend and go home and I'll get you a new coke line ready for next week so the story will feeeeel real to you, even if there is no resemblance between how we live and the life and priorities and church and functioning of the church bought by Jesus' Blood and Empowered by His Love and Spirit in the Bible. The Dream is past, the "WHOLE NEW LIFE" Jesus brought and demonstrated from Heaven and Declared by the Angels... That Life is only meant to be a postcard now." Or so they will tell you. And that is all most can show you, since that is all they have in their lives. But then, JESUS! I used to think love was just a fairy tale. A story from a lectern. A postcard read from someone else's dream. And I was supposed to accept that. BUT SUDDENLY..... I SAW JESUS HIGH AND LIFTED UP, AND MANY WORLDWIDE WANTED NO MORE POSTCARD READING CEREMONIES. Some are content with reading someone else's mail describing someone else's love of Father and Life in His Family, daily. But, maybe YOU are one who desires FATHER'S Dream -- JESUS' DAILY LIFE WITH OTHERS WHO CHERISH Him, AND IMPART HIS FRAGRANCE. "Even now, child, I LOVE YOU and have marvelous Plans for you! Let no mere man steal your crown! Let no mere man, with conniving or fear or apathy, or desire for wealth or power, let NO mere man contradict My Dream -- MY INTENT for MY Body, MY Bride, MY Church!" The Bible has seldom been DESIRED PASSIONATELY and OBEYED WITHOUT RATIONALIZATION AND COMPROMISE. "It's just a postcard," they say. "NOT SO!" saith the Lord of Glory, resplendent in RESURRECTION LIFE that Jesus STILL desires to pour out! His forgiveness is only meant to be UNTO the Life of His Spirit within us -- the same Daily Together-LIFE He Lived, and still Lives! For generations and centuries, instead of bowing before Jesus and the FULLNESS OF HIS DAILY LIFE TOGETHER AS HE LIVED AND LIVES IT, some with things to gain or things to hide, "the buyers and sellers," have found it more convenient to borrow external forms only, with rituals and ceremonies and holy men systems that are copied from heathen religions and superstitions, fleshly preferences, Wall Street, Madison Avenue, Hollywood, Vegas, and Sodom. For those who want to feeeeeeeel but not be Changed or challenged, and abhor the Command to "take up your own cross daily" to "lose your life that you might have one" -- true Christianity can never be as attractive as the rearranged forms borrowed from other religions and pleasures. For those who will NOT so easily discard HIS DREAM, for those who look deeply into HIS eyes and their fear and selfishness melt away, BRAVO! For this confused and decaying world of ours, He must first "Uproot, tear down, destroy, and overthrow, in order to Build and to Plant." Remember it was GOD who said that some shaking up of the status quo would be needed in order to go Forward amidst those who prefer love songs to responsiveness to God. Men need some "smelling salts" of "what isn't, and MUST NOT BE" in order to WAKE UP... before they may then "Build and Plant." As in Nehemiah's day, "There is too much rubble to Build." And, as in Josiah's time, the Word of God must be first extracted from the rubble in order that God's People may truly Know, and Worship and LIVE as His Empowered, Bride and Body and Church, Together, wherever you live! To LIVE HIS DREAM requires that we first take the Bible more seriously than pleasing mere men, or cowering under their immediate namecalling and threats that they use to protect their empires of position and pesos. From 175”ANNIVERSARY OF NUEVA CACERES” countries, beautiful people of every background and race have expressed to us in various ways, "We have held this Dream of His in our hearts for many years already! Thank you for daring to verbalize it and daring to move towards Jesus and His Dream for His Bride's Life! No more 'blowing the dust off of a postcard' from long ago - Jesus is ALIVE! He's RISEN! And UNCHANGING! We want to share His Dream, no matter the Cost of the Pearl of Great Price!" And so, will you join Him and accept NOTHING LESS in the place where you live, your home, your neighborhood, your family, your workplace, and the religious organization near you?! For more resource and clarity about what ISN'T, and MUST NOT BE... and THEN how you may "Build and Plant"…THEIR KINGDOM COME! An illuminating exposé of Opus Dei, the secretive sect operating at the heart of the Roman Catholic Church. To the outside world, Opus Dei claims that its only goal is “to remind all people that they are called to holiness, especially through work and ordinary life.” But with an elite membership of 90,000 and influences reaching around the globe, Opus Dei has far greater potential power than its leaders are willing to reveal. Investigative journalist Robert Hutchison charts the seemingly unstoppable growth of this shadow government behind the Vatican. Hutchison demonstrates how Opus Dei has forged an unholy alliance with the Mafia, secular powerbrokers, and highly placed prelates, with the result that Christian values are being threatened by the malign influences of power politics and big money. In this updated edition, Hutchison sheds light on the future of Opus Dei, its ties to the new pope, and the details of its preparations for what the organization regards as Christendom’s inevitable showdown with radical Islam. A Work of Fiction An Eastern fable recounts how a king once summoned three blind men and placed them in front of an elephant. One touched his trunk, the other his feet, the other his tail. He asked them what type of animal it was. They began to describe a monstrous creature... The book, 'Their Kingdom Come', authored by Robert Hutchison and published by Doubleday (a division of Transworld) is billed as "explosive exposé of Opus Dei". Like the elephant in the fable, Opus Dei is described as a monstrous creature. However, the story could only be applied in part to this book because the blind men at least made the effort to touch something of what they wanted to know about. In contrast, much of what is portrayed in this book is pure invention. Starting with a distorted account of the history of Opus Dei and biography of its founder, Blessed Josemaría Escrivá (beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1992), the narrative continues in a manner reminiscent of conspiracy theory literature; Opus Dei is claimed to be operating secretly on the world stage, running the Vatican, working with the CIA and masterminding a crusade against Islam. The writer is the author of several other works. Among them is 'In the Tracks of the Yeti' (Macdonald, 1989), in which the author states that this beast (which he has encountered) is alive and well, in the tall Himalayan mountains. Doubleday, a publisher of some prestige, should have realized that this new book, 'Their Kingdom Come', independently of the author's intentions, is but one more in the same series, mixing stories with a certain verisimilitude — no more than the appearance of fact — with others that are pure fiction. For much of the early part of the text, Opus Dei members are depicted as rather innocent weak-minded types inveigled into joining the organisation by Fr Escrivá, who is portrayed as unoriginal and authoritarian; a priest with a provincial mindset. Yet by the end of the book the same people are devilishly able criminal masterminds; the Mafia would be proud to have them. At first this seems odd; one presumes that the book was meant to be a unified whole, and that when he submitted the first 200 pages the writer had some idea of what he would be saying by page 400. However, even a quick perusal reveals that 'Their Kingdom Come' is no serious work, but a superficial attempt at "journalism-fiction", with a strong dose of conspiracy theory. No serious researcher could use it as a reliable source. At times scientific rigor is discarded with an abandon that is not necessary even in this genre. A number of conspiracy theories are presented, including the death of Pope John Paul I, the collapse of the Banco Ambrosiano and the so-called "Tenth Crusade" against Islam. The process by which they are developed might be summarized by saying that the narrative moves effortlessly from suspicion to speculation to working hypothesis to established fact, on which it piles further suspicions to repeat the process. Once this method is seen for what it is, the results are actually rather hilarious. The conflict in the Balkans, for example, is blamed in large measure on a priest of Opus Dei who works with university students in Pittsburgh, USA (pp.407-408). Superficiality of Research The history of Opus Dei and its founder is presented in such a way that one immediately suspects the quality of the research. It begins with his beatification, which it is claimed was "another political job" (p. 2), and then follows a travesty of a "history" of Escrivá and the first members of the organisation he founded. Escrivá is made out to be at once mystical (p.44) and superficial (p.84), feeble-minded (p.78) and a master strategist (p.89), a leader of leaders (p.85) and a coward (p.75), worldly (p.91), pious (p.21), dynamic (p.48), depressive (p.67), charismatic (p.40), ambitious (p.53), and — to cap it all — of doubtful veracity (eg, p.89). Such a contradictory character could exist only in the imagination. Examples of poor research recur throughout the narrative, and to compound matters they are frequently made the basis for sweeping judgements. For example, it is alleged that Escrivá used false pretences to ask for financial help from the Teresians, whose founder had been martyred: "He (Escrivá) spoke of his last conversation with Father Poveda a few days before (he) was martyred... Escrivá appears to have taken considerable liberty with the truth... We know from his biographers that once the Civil War broke out he never saw Father Poveda again... Poveda was killed by the milicianos on 27 July 1936" (p.80). The crucial piece of information that the war started on 18 July, just nine days before Poveda's death, is somehow overlooked. A Catalogue of Errors Leaving aside the multitude of totally unfounded allegations, the book is, full of factual errors and mistakes, which could quite easily have been avoided with a little more research. To list and expose all of these would require an appendix of over 25 pages. One example occurs on p. 188, when the narrative asserts that Opus Dei members attend Vespers before morning Mass. Vespers in the morning would be a contradiction in terms (Vespers is part of the evening liturgy, as its name indicates in Latin), and moreover the timetable of a member does not include them. Superficiality of Comprehension One would have thought that a book about Opus Dei would reveal something about what it is that attracts people of all ages to join it, if the narrative had succeeded in getting beyond superficialities. This book seems to have nothing to say on this topic. On p. 107 it is asserted that Opus Dei has links with the CIA. The start of this "working relationship" is pinpointed to the Italian General Election campaign of 1948 (no source is given for this aberration, and the charge is not specified). Does the author really believe that people go to all the effort of joining Opus Dei so they can work for the CIA? This is not an isolated sentence; the spy network theory is developed in detail throughout the narrative. One gets the impression that the writer could tell us very little about the real nature of the attraction of Opus Dei, or any religious purpose for that matter. Lack of Seriousness From the very beginning balance and objectivity are thrown to the wind. We read on p. 14: "Opus Dei employed every trick in the book including trampling over people's reputations, to steamroller the beatification through." This sort of language, which recurs not infrequently in the book, speaks for itself, at times it is hardly suited to a serious book. Here are some further examples (italics added): "His [Escrivá's] mother, a religious hysteric, had chosen as his tutor an ultratraditionalist priest, anti-Liberal to the hilt." (p.37) "To claim Escrivá was only interested in the spiritual well-being of his disciples would be nonsense. Escrivá was interested in power. He was a schemer. God's schemer." (p.87) "One of the troubles about citing anything by Escrivá is that he was a master of double talk and dual standards." (p. 89) "It also taught him that when it came to promoting God's Work some holy hi-jinx might be needed." (p. 103) And so on, throughout the 442 pages of narrative. In fairness, Escrivá is not the only person given the treatment; of others the text employs language so robust at times, and in such graphic detail, that to quote extracts here would be forsaking the high ground. The writings of Blessed Josemaría Escrivá are of a much greater level and depth than anything in 'Their Kingdom Come'. Besides, even a cursory reading of some of them would soon dispel the idea that Opus Dei had any aims other than spiritual and apostolic ones. In his published homily, "Passionately Loving the World", Escrivá explains: "St Paul wrote: 'in eating, in drinking, do everything for God's glory'. This doctrine of Holy Scripture, as you know, is to be found in the very nucleus of the spirit of Opus Dei. It leads you to do your work perfectly, to love God and mankind by putting love in the little things of everyday life, and discovering that divine something which is hidden in small details." As regards the accusation of Opus Dei trying to "steamroller through" the beatification of its founder, a serious book would not have failed to present the other side of the story. In fact the Pope was very aware of insinuations in the media, and to make sure they were false took the exceptional step of appointing a special Commission to investigate them. On 12 May 1992, five days before the beatification, it declared that the procedures had been carefully and scrupulously followed on all points. Lack of Scientific rigor The narrative purports to show that Opus Dei, far from being an institution of the Catholic Church with purely spiritual and apostolic aims, "functions like a compact tenacious mercantile state" (p.342), and is "out to build an earthly empire" (p. 137), using "devilish tactics" (p. 117). The pattern the text follows is, to describe some incident, such as a business fraud, and then suggest that some of the people on the spot were members of Opus Dei. By furnishing an extraordinary detail of names, places, dates and enterprises, the text conveys an impression of thorough and well-founded research. Much of this, however, is in fact a re-hash of well-known material published and refuted over the last twenty years or so. Sometimes the re-heated meal is garnished with a few fresh morsels picked up from a conversation here, an "unpublished" document there (why unpublished?), an unsourced rumour or some newspaper cutting. In most of the presented material there is only the most remote and entirely speculative connection with Opus Dei and sometimes no connection whatsoever. Someone involved in fraudulent trading is said to have attended a course at a university run by Opus Dei (p. 127). One might ask, when were Oxford or Harvard last blamed for Wall Street scandals involving former students? Elsewhere the link is that a person's brother-in-law was a member (p. 134) or simply that he had Opus Dei connections (p. 156) or was "linked to Opus Dei" (p. 157). There are tens of thousands of Opus Dei members working in every kind of profession, and many times that number attending spiritual and doctrinal activities organised by Opus Dei. To infer, as the narrative does repeatedly, that Opus Dei has infiltrated and taken control of all the enterprises where these people end up is not unlike arguing that the Vatican has infiltrated and taken over the United Kingdom because the new Prime Minister is married to a Catholic. If one refuses to accept the fundamental principle that members are as free as anyone else and not responsible to Opus Dei in their work, then literally millions of conspiracy theories become plausible. Non-serious Hearsay and Gossip The "journalism-fiction" approach can be perfectly respectable when carried out seriously. Sadly, in this case it degenerates into sensationalism, leading to the inclusion of hearsay or gossip about Opus Dei, presented as undoubted fact. It is not easy to imagine another investigative text being centered on statements like, "There is little doubt, though no actual proof, that at the June 1973 audience, Opus Dei's two senior prelates tabled a proposition... to assist the Vatican with its financial problems ... According to some sources, a deal was finally struck whereby Opus Dei would be elevated to a personal prelature in return for taking in hand the Vatican finances" (p.221). This is equivalent to an accusation of simony, the selling of ecclesiastical preferment. It is truly extraordinary that the text accuses Pope Paul VI of this most serious offence without a shred of evidence, as if the author were unaware of the seriousness of the charges he is making. The narrative continues: "One theory we shall now explore is that Opus Dei wanted to control, imagined it controlled, or actually did control Milan's Banco Ambrosiano" (p.239). That appears to amount to three different theories. Indeed all that needed to be added to the text was the truth, namely that Opus Dei had nothing to do with it, in order to cover every option for the reader. In similar non-serious vein one finds allegations and innuendo surrounding the death of Pope John Paul I (p.254ff); the financing of the Polish underground and Solidarity labour movement in amounts ranging from $40 million to $1 billion (p.358ff); the so-called "Tenth Crusade" against Islam (p.395ff), and much more. If a book is going to contain serious accusations of this kind, justice requires it to provide at least some sustainable evidence. If there is none to present then the text is clearly not worthy of serious attention. It is worth pointing out that scandals like the Banco Ambrosiano, or indeed Rumasa or Matesa (also mentioned in the text), were formally investigated by criminal courts and responsible government agencies in highly publicised and drawn out court cases, giving rise to indictments, trials and convictions. At no time in the course of these public investigations was Opus Dei implicated, or even mentioned. Neither the Prelature nor any of its directors was ever accused, charged, or brought to trial, because there were no grounds for such. It is a pity the book does not report those serious official investigations and legal proceedings instead of bringing together a pot-pourri of gossip and speculation. Conspiracy Theory To say the final third of the book is preoccupied with conspiracy theories is an understatement. In the last chapters of Their Kingdom Come (pp.355-442) Opus Dei has conspired to overthrow a government, to wage a military war in Bosnia, to re-define Catholic teaching, and to take control of the holy sites in Jerusalem. The purpose of this frenzy of activity, we are told, is to conduct a sacred crusade against Islam. Yet no evidence is ever offered of this wrongdoing, aside from wild conjectures on the part of the author and persons with a hostile animus to the Prelature and/or the Church. But this is not even the half of it. The text repeatedly states as fact the author's own conspiracy theories and wild imaginings (e.g. that the Prelature's centre in Jerusalem positions it to take control of the holy sites; p.396). Many times a single, innocent connection is ipso facto evidence of the most grand conspiracy (e.g., a priest of Opus Dei, Rev. Ronald Gillis, begins apostolic activities in Pittsburgh and the arming of the Croatians in the Bosnian War, p.407-408). These fantastic theories are elaborated on the back of information that is simply incorrect (e.g., confusing a ruling by the Swiss Supreme Court with an overturned lower Swiss court decision; p.372). Even worse, the narrative often simply invents things to embellish these homespun conspiracy theories (e.g., Opus Dei priests illegally travel to Saudi Arabia incognito; p. 389). No sources are ever cited for these and several other charges. This is so because they exist only in the imagination. On other occasions a terribly complicated web of events is held together with the loosest of connections to construct a grand conspiracy theory. These conjectures, including the grandest of them all, the Tenth Crusade against Islam, nearly always hinge on a single "fact" which is somehow omitted. Time and again, small factual errors completely undo the grandest schemes. This is perhaps most evident in the narrative's bizarre rendering of a trip the Prelate of Opus Dei made to Pittsburgh (p.407 ff). The text says the trip was several weeks long and occurred in 1993. Its true purpose, according to the book, was not to visit with the members of Opus Dei and encourage them in their apostolic efforts, but to supply the Croatians with arms in the Bosnian war. Two coincidences are essential to the argument. A Croatian life insurance association happens to be located in Pittsburgh and Louis Freeh was sworn in as director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in September of 1993. By linking the name of the FBI director with the Prelate's visit (the text claims that Louis Freeh is a member of Opus Dei), the narrative implies that this government agency is somehow involved in this wild scheme. The entire fantasy crumbles mightily, however, with a single fact. The Prelate spent only one night in Pittsburgh (not several weeks), in 1988 (not 1993). A news account of the visit appeared at the time in the Pittsburgh Catholic. This was over five years before Louis Freeh was sworn in, and some time before the crisis in the Balkans. As if all of this were not enough, several people in the narrative are falsely identified as members of the Prelature, adding undeserved weight to the conspiracy theories. As well as the above-mentioned FBI director, among them are an Austrian Archduke, an EU Commissioner, the Pope's personal secretary, and the President of the International Olympic Committee. One is left to conclude that checking out these facts would have killed more than one conspiracy theory. Therefore it was convenient not to. Left unanswered is how the publisher could have let it pass. Conclusion Given the superficiality of the research, the narrative's fixation on conspiracy theories, and the absurdity of many of the allegations, it is clear that this is not a book to be taken as a reliable work of reference. It eventually goes beyond the absurd with the wild charge that Opus Dei's true mission is to purge the world of Islam — to carry out the Tenth Crusade. The book is lightweight, largely fictional, and should not be taken seriously.