TIS...

Now this is what I know of Opus Dei, so take it with a grain of salt. Maybe a whole can...

I've never heard my Sainted Grandmother (TM) mention it at any time, or anyone else in my family. We're also very, very Catholic.

They are supposedly a very conservative Catholic group, kinda' like the sect to which Mel Gibson belongs. They are technically not a sect of the Church, though. People who favor the more conservative elements of the Church tend to flock to them, although it's not too popular here in the States. They, in a way, try to remove any and all secular aspects of their daily lives and make everything they do revolve around the Church and their Religion in one way or another.

Their opponents view Opus Dei as cultish. They supposedly advocate self-pain as a method of atonement. This brought an image to my mind of Savonarola beating hiself with a flagellum in a documentary I saw on the Medici before his rise to power in Florence, the Bonfire of the Vanities, etcetera.

I don't really know what to put here as my thoughts are kinda' scatterred all over the place and I don't want to hijack the thread. There is probably plenty of stuff that can be found on the WWW about Opus Dei, both pro and anti.

Still... I had to crack up when hearing Carmine mention it as "new agey" when everything I had ever heard about it made it rather neo-conservative. Maybe it's just the idiot savant at work again...

Nick