Their Kingdom Come

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY 31 MAY 1999

Hutchison has chosen a tricky subject: a secretive Catholic organization that can easily provoke the old prejudices against Catholics involving secrecy and conspiracies. It's to his credit, then, that his report on Opus Dei ("God's Work"), a small, little-known but powerful lay organization within the Catholic church, is a responsible piece of investigative reporting. Both politically and theologically conservative (many would say reactionary), Opus Dei has, according to Hutchison, flourished during the papacy of John Paul II: "John Paul II's closest advisers were the men of Opus Dei... which, through his help, had become the Church's only Personal Prelature, that is to say, a privileged bishopric without a territory." The organization's aggressive recruiting of influential professionals in business, media, finance and government has enabled it to amass enormous backroom influence. Hutchison presents a mixed chronological and thematic account of Opus Dei's development, from the provincial family background of Spanish founder Josemar a Escriv de Balaguer (1902-1975) to its present role intensifying lines of conflict with fundamentalist Islam. While Hutchison puts readers right in the middle of various complex financial/political scandals, his narrative slips rapidly from thread to thread, exacerbating the inherent confusion of such secretive dealings. He touches on important theological, philosophical and moral issues, but fails to use them systemically to illuminate Opus Dei's rivalries with others on the right or its profound hostility to progressives such as Pope John XXIII. Ultimately, while the book is packed with meticulous detail, Hutchison never weaves his findings into a coherent evaluative framework. Photos, illustrations not seen by PW.