Some weeks back there was a very interesting conversation about Opus Dei on Terry Gross' Fresh Air. You can hear the program at this link. Click on the red "listen" button near the top left side of the page.

Opus Dei is an international lay Catholic group whose core ideal is the sanctification of work. But critics and some former members have accused the group of having cult-like practices and promoting a right-wing agenda.

Opus Dei was founded in Spain in 1928; today, it has 84,000 members in 80 countries. For many, the group first gained wide attention when it was portrayed in Dan Brown's best-selling novel, The Da Vinci Code. The thriller depicted the group as a repository for arcane knowledge and fervent -- even dangerous -- belief.

Two other real-life events also helped to raise Opus Dei's profile: FBI agent Robert Hanssen, a member of the group, was arrested for spying in 2001; and Pope John Paul II canonized founder Josemaria Escriva as a saint in 2002.

Vatican reporter John Allen's new book is Opus Dei: An Objective Look Behind the Myths and Reality of the Most Controversial Force in the Catholic Church. The book is being billed as the first serious journalistic investigation of the highly secretive organization. Allen writes for the National Catholic Reporter; he is also a Vatican analyst for CNN and NPR.

When I was searching for this program that I'd heard I came across two other results in the search on "Opus Dei."

They were these:
Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews Why I Am a Catholic (Houghton Mifflin) by Pulitzer prize-winning author Garry Wills.

Pulitzer-prize winning journalist David Vise is a staff writer for The Washington Post. Hes the author of the new book, The Bureau and the Mole: The Unmasking of Robert Philip Hanssen, the Most Dangerous Double Agent in FBI History (Atlantic Monthly Press). Vise tells the story of how a seemingly all-American boy became a traitor. Vise had access to files about Hanssen, and the opportunity to talk with Hanssens family and friends.

I don't know why this second one is listed, except perhaps somewhere in the transcript they discuss this group. I haven't listened to it to find out.

SRS