Publisher's Synopsis
"God's Mafia?" is the first major account of Opus Dei (God's Work), the controversial Catholic organization founded in Spain in the late 1920s, which in 1988 had about 80,000 members worldwide.;Michael Walsh, a former Jesuit, has talked to many former members of Opus Dei and has had access to its secret constitution. He examines its history, the attempts to canonize its founder Escriva de Balaguer, its relations with the Vatican, its finances and charities, its recruitment of members, its schools and universities and its penitential practices and "instruments of mortification".;He argues that it is "a church within the Church" - ultra-conservative, priest-dominated, hierarchical, anti-feminist and secretive. He also examines its political role in Franco's Spain and in Latin America.;Walsh's previous books include a history of the papacy and "Roots of Christianity". He has written, lectured and broadcast extensively on religious affairs past and present and also on the political and social problems of Spain and Latin America.
