SJ_Titulo_SanJosemaria en 1937-1945

Saint Josemaría Escrivá in 1937-1945

Home_San Josemaría en la Guerra Civil

SanJosemaria_GuerraCivil

St Josemaria in the Civil War

In 1935, although Opus Dei's membership was still very small - barely a dozen - Saint Josemaría thought of expanding from Madrid to other cities. The outbreak of the Spanish Civil War prevented this. During the war he exercised his priestly ministry first in Madrid - at great risk to his life - and later in Burgos, after crossing the Catalan Pyrenees in the winter of 1937. From that Castilian city he resumed his contacts with Opus Dei members at contact , increased his contacts with some women who gave hope of a vocation to the Work, and devoted himself to other priestly activities. In addition, with more time at his disposal, he decided to take up again the project of the doctoral dissertation in Law. Having given up the documentation that remained in Madrid, he chose as his new topic the quasi-episcopal jurisdiction of the abbess of the monastery of Las Huelgas in Burgos. He presented and defended it at the end of 1939. After fill in and extending this research, five years later he published an extensive monograph on "La abadesa de las Huelgas", the third of his published works.

SJ_PreguntasInteres_GuerraCivil

Questions of interest

source: www.opusdei.es

source: www.opusdei.es

source: www.opusdei.es

source: www.opusdei.es

source: www.opusdei.es

source: www.opusdei.es

source: www.opusdei.es

source: www.opusdei.es

source: www.opusdei.es

source: www.opusdei.es

source: www.opusdei.es

source: www.opusdei.es

source: www.opusdei.es

source: www.opusdei.es

source: www.opusdei.es

source: www.opusdei.es

source: www.opusdei.es

source: www.opusdei.es


José Orlandis recalls that in September 1939 St. Josemaría told him that he had offered Mass for Poland, which was then under attack by Hitler's Germany, "this Catholic country that is suffering tremendous pain from the Nazi invasion.

Domingo Díaz-Ambrona had traveled to Germany in 1941. There he perceived the anti-Christian nature of the Nazi regime. Upon his return, he noticed that in Spain Nazism was seen in a very different way, as an enemy of communism. For this reason, on a chance meeting with Josemaría Escrivá on a train trip from Madrid to Avila in August 1941 (when the German invasion of Russia was already underway), he was interested in discussing these issues with him. He was surprised to see the forcefulness with which the priest warned him against Nazism, which he said was a pagan ideology that persecuted the Church and Catholics.

St. Josemaría opposed all totalitarianisms, and in a very special way Nazism. Logically," says Alvaro del Portillo, "Father Josemaría distinguished between Nazism and the German people. Precisely because he felt a particular affection for that nation - it was a sentiment inherited from his father - it pained him greatly to see it subjected to that aberrant dictatorship. His sorrow would increase with the outbreak of the Second World War".

"At the end of the thirties, after having lived through the sad experience of the civil war, most Spaniards nurtured a well-founded prevention against communism. The same did not happen with Nazism: moreover, the official propaganda, for one reason or another, not only silenced the crimes of National Socialism, but also prohibited in Spain the publication of the pontifical document condemning it.

For this reason, our Founder had to speak out more than once against Nazism in his priestly ministry. Precisely because in some official Spanish circles the German regime was viewed with sympathy, he felt it his duty to warn those who were oblivious to the aberrations of that ideology: he criticized not only its totalitarianism, but also the persecution and discrimination against Catholics, Jews, etc., and the tone of paganism that characterized Nazi racism. He was lavish in making known the content of the pontifical document of condemnation, and in spreading it privately."

-PORTILLO, Á. del, Interview on the Founder of Opus Dei, Rialp, Madrid 1993, pp. 33-34.

Amadeo de Fuenmayor, Full Professor of Civil Law and Canon Law, affirms that Escriva's attitude, "condemning Nazism, was categorical," and provides an extensive list of "expressions referring to Hitler and his racist system, which we have heard from him on many occasions," including the following:

- "I abominate all totalitarianisms."

-Nazism is a heresy, apart from being a political aberration.

-It gave me joy when the Church condemned it: it is what all Catholics had in their souls.

-Everything that is racism is something opposed to God's law, to natural law".

-I know that there were many victims of Nazism, and I regret it. It was enough for me that there had been only one -for reasons of faith and, moreover, of people- to condemn that system".

-Hitler has always seemed to me to be an obsessive, a wretched man, a tyrant.

-URBANO, P., El hombre de Villa Tevere, place & Janés, Barcelona 1995, pp. 119-120.

Pedro Casciaro recalled:

"With regard to Fascism and Nazism, there was no case of confrontation, since Opus Dei began its stable work in Italy and Germany when those regimes no longer ruled. On one occasion I heard him [Josemaría Escrivá] speak with admiration of Cardinal Faulhaber, who had had the courage to publish some Advent conferences in the cathedral of Munich, during Nazism."

Testimony quoted in URBANO, P., El hombre de Villa Tevere, place & Janés, Barcelona 1995, p. 118.

source: www.opusdei.es

Home_San Josemaría Desarrollo del Opus Dei

SJ_1937-45_Desarrollo_OD

development of Opus Dei in Spain

development The harsh war situation slowed down the apostolic work of Opus Dei in Spain, but it helped to consolidate the vocation of its first followers. The 1940s saw a strong expansion of Opus Dei. In a short time the Work was established in several of the most important Spanish cities. Saint Josemaría devoted a large part of his energies and time to promoting this expansion and to training the new vocations of men and women who were coming to the Work. He also preached numerous retreats to priests. In those moments of reconstruction of the ecclesial fabric, healing the wounds caused by the war, several Spanish bishops, aware of his priestly depth, asked him to collaborate in that task.

There was no lack of hard contradictions at that time. St. Josemaría bore them with serenity and a supernatural sense. In those difficult circumstances, he always had the encouragement and blessing of the Bishop of Madrid-Alcalá, Leopoldo Eijo Garay. To publicly show his support, Bishop Eijo gave Opus Dei its first written approval in 1941. On February 14, 1943, St. Josemaría found the solution to one of the questions that most worried him: how to make the presence of priests in Opus Dei a reality. That day, during Mass, he had the inspiration to create the Priestly Society of the Holy Cross, a priestly association where members of Opus Dei called to the priesthood could be incardinated. Shortly afterwards, in 1943, with the approval of the Holy See, the Bishop of Madrid proceeded to its canonical erection. In 1944, the first three members of Opus Dei to be ordained priests were ordained.