Says Msgr. Nolan:
Q. For a secret organization, you seem to be pretty loose with your business cards. Just how secretive are you?
A. (Laughs). We couldn’t be more opposite. We’ve been making a big effort to reach out and making our message known all over the country. A lot of effort has been put into the web site. If you were to talk to people who know members of Opus Dei, those people would say they never stop telling me about what they’re doing.
Q. So why are you considered so secretive?
A. We are really new in our approach to spirituality. For centuries in the Catholic Church you’ve had priests and nuns, who were obviously very identifiable by the way they dressed. And then you had the normal person in the pew. Along comes Opus Dei that says everyone across the board, whether priest or lay person, no matter what their work, is called to strive for holiness. This is where the puzzling thing was for most people: those people who say I want to be a holy house wife or ice cream vendor. And yet on the outside they still looks like a normal ice cream vendor or house wife because that’s what they are. All of a sudden you have people in the midst of any given society being very serious about their faith who don’t wear a uniform and some people say that’s secrecy.
I also happen to think it has to do with the fact that they're relatively obscure. And they attract the powerful. And some of them keep their membership to themselves. They don't hide it. They just don't broadcast it.
And honestly, even if these people weren't members of Opus Dei, they'd be just as conservative in their Catholicism. They just happen to associate with others who think like them.
