Opus Dei are apparently working on a film project to celebrate the life of their founder Josemaria Escriva, who was canonised (made into a saint) by the pope in 2002. The idea is that they get together with some stars such as Robert De Niro, and try to counter the impressions of Opus Dei generated by Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code. Now cyncical folks may well be thinking that this is an extremely lucrative project to piggy-back on the publicity already provided by Brown. Dutiful catholics the world over have already bought hundreds of thousands of copies of the works of Escriva (some dashed off in a few hours after counting his rosary beads), and the platform to launch a film is too good an opportunity to miss.
Opus Dei was founded with the intention of persuading people to use their daily lives and occupations to "get closer to God", which in common parlance means using their influence through their work to push a religious agenda.
They have three categories of members, the supernumeraries which are the married followers, and the two other groups, numeraries and associates, who are supposed to be celibate. These are the ones associated with corporal mortifications (hitting themselves) in a fashion very similar to some extreme muslims. Some use a celice which is a chain with prongs designed to hurt the flesh. The idea is that pain brings you closer to God - there are medical and psychiatric terms for this too. All members enter into a specific contract with the organisation and are expected to use their influence in the interest of the church.
The way in which this is done has been documented by many organisations, including the Rick Ross Institute which studies religious cults and their impact. Opus Dei has a long history of staunch conservatism stretching from the many members who served in Franco's cabinet, through to Ruth Kelly in Blair's government, an illustrious group if ever there was one. Of course, Opus Dei doesn't like to be represented in such stark terms and has claimed that it is being misrepresented, complaining in particular about an episode of Waking The Dead in which the murky world of religious fanaticism is the backdrop for a murder cover-up.
Of course, the catholic church wouldn't want to be seen to be producing commercial propaganda films so in this case it's only put up several tens of millions of dollars, and will be acting as consultants. It would be churlish to wonder whether or not the consultants are on a percentage of the gross.
