By Trinna Leong
ROME — Piazza Navona, with its fountains, cafes and street performers, is one of the central tourists sites of Rome. Most tourists streaming toward the square do not notice the boxy, nondescript building that sits at one corner of the site. A small plaque is all that reveals the building’s identity: Santa Croce, the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross.
The university is one of the seven pontifical universities in Rome – educational institutions dedicated to the study of Catholicism under the authority of the Holy See. Santa Croce, as the university is more widely known in Italy, was also founded by a controversial Catholic organization called Opus Dei. The university is just one of 50 educational institutions around the world that are affiliated with the group. Other renowned universities that spawn out of the group are the IESE Business School in Spain and Lexington College in Chicago. Forbes has ranked IESE as having one of the best Masters of Business Administration in the world.
Opus Dei is a Catholic lay organization within the church that was initiated by Josemaria Escriva, a Spanish priest in the early 20th century. Escriva, who was made a saint in 2002, espoused the teaching of, in his own words, “sanctifying God’s work in our daily lives,” a phrase that has been the spirit of Opus Dei and the crux of its beliefs as a group.
The group’s image took a terrible blow upon the publication of Dan Brown’s novel, “The Da Vinci Code,” in 2003. The book and the media coverage that followed offered a damning profile of the group, complete with a whip-lashing murderous albino monk. Opus Dei’s controversial practices of self-mortification – acts of flogging one’s back or wearing a barbed cilice for two hours a day – didn’t help improve its image. Other accusations included the amount of influence Opus Dei had among influential wealthy individuals and a knack for secrecy among its practitioners.
However, one investigation of Opus Dei, by the Catholic journalist John Allen Jr., found that many of the conspiracy theories about the group were unfounded. There are no albino monks. One of the things that Allen praised was the independence these educational institutions had.
“Opus Dei does not want to stifle creativity and initiative by suggesting that one needs to wait for orders from headquarters before proceeding,” wrote Allen in his book.
Marie Oates, the communications director of IESE Business School’s branch in New York, said that Opus Dei seeks to collaborate rather than dominate. “Most of these institutions are a result of collaborations with non-members,” she said of the organization’s many educational institutions.
“All of these initiatives were created to meet the needs of society,” said Oates. “Formation of schools has always been a part of the Christian spirit to serve others.”
Father John Wauck at a hallway in the North American College after Sunday’s morning mass. | Photo by Anam Siddiq.
The same seemed to be true in Rome. “My impression is that a lot of the people sent here aren’t Opus Dei,” said Corinne Mannella, a student in church communications at Santa Croce. She added that most of the faculty members were affiliated with Opus Dei and it was not something they often spoke about in class. “I only found out about it when it came up during one-to-one conversations,” she added.
The university mostly gets its students from dioceses around the world. Bishops choose seminarians to pursue religious studies in a seminary or a pontifical university. The dioceses often support the student by paying tuition and living expenses.
Santa Croce is not an Opus Dei training center, faculty members insisted. “The uniqueness of this university is that it lives out the spirit of Opus Dei,” said the Rev. John Wauck, an Opus Dei priest and professor at Santa Croce.
The same goes for another Opus Dei affiliated university 30-minutes drive away. Located amongst the lush green estates, the Universita Campus Bio-Medico is a small private medical university with just over 800 students. The university was initiated with the purpose of providing health solutions to the people, “drawing the Christian spirit of service” as its university mission states.
Students are aware that the university is founded by the religious group but insisted that they have not encountered any evangelization efforts on campus grounds.
“There are priests who are doctors and can provide religious and academic life advice to students,” said Roberta Cavignano, 23, a fourth-year medical student from Torino.
“But students are under no obligation to participate in the activities,” she added.
The medical school does not advertise itself as an Opus Dei affiliated institution. On its website, under the history section, there was a mention of former Opus Dei Archbishop Alvaro del Portillo calling for the formation of a medical institution. On campus grounds however, the only hint that Opus Dei members manage the university and the hospital adjacent to it was in the chapel. The religious sanctuary in the hospital has Opus Dei leaflets and cards lying discreetly on a table next to the door.
Cavignano’s family are members of the group and her brother is a numerary, a celibate member who lives in a residential hall owned by the group. But she said that she has no such calling.
“I like the idea of Opus Dei and its work but I have no vocation,” she said. Members of Opus Dei join the organization once they experience a calling, otherwise known as a vocation.
“Initially I felt the pressure to join when I was younger. But I decided it is not for me,” said Cavignano who considers herself a devout Catholic.
“A lot of people don’t understand and my friends question why I am in an Opus Dei university,” she said. “But I either just shrug them off or try to explain what Opus Dei is and what this university does.”
The student bodies of the three universities are vastly different from each other. Clearly with Santa Croce, most students are religious, conservative and are dressed in clerical garb. While in IESE, students are generally older, business oriented and attend classes in suits. Bio-Medico however, comes off as incredibly casual, relaxed and devoid of any religious references.
The hallways of these universities were not filled with posters or flyers of Opus Dei meetings. Students say they are hardly exposed to members persuading people to participate in activities. However they knew that if they wanted information, it was readily available in the chapels or offices of administrators and counselors.
“I feel like I may have known more about Opus Dei before I went to school than now,” said another student of Santa Croce, Auredy Anweiler. Anweiler used to work in church-related events that collaborated with the group, providing her with the knowledge of the organization’s belief system.
In all three universities where various faculty members were interviewed, the general consensus was that the percentage of faculty and administration employees in these institutions who are also Opus Dei members are higher compared to the percentage of Opus Dei students enrolled.
The school also does not use any of the organization’s books or Saint Josemaria’s quotes on a daily basis.
“At most you get professors telling you about glorifying God’s work, quotes from Saint Josemaria,”said Mannella at Santa Croce.
Cavignano, along with her peers at Bio-Medico said that they have sometimes faced criticisms, jokes and mockery from friends for enrolling into an Opus Dei-affiliated university. But they say that they are there because the school offers something that other schools do not offer.
“I came here because we learned how to approach the doctor-patient relationship with more moral principals, something that public universities don’t have,” said Cavignano.