In OpusDei's means of formation, something that is frequently said is that OD's mission is to serve people.

However, according to my own experience in St. Raphael, that isdisappointingly often not the case.

Some examples:

- In one occasion, I told a numerary I was thinking about inviting a friend to one of the retreats - an idea that was happily supported then. Days later, I was with the same numerary when, by chance, I met that friend on the street. After a minute or so of greetings and small talk, we left and the numerary told me "Oh, no. Not her." My obvious reaction was to ask why - to which she simply replied "She is not going to understand the Work".To date, I have no clue about what led to that reaction. However,my friend is black and was humbly dressed in the occasion, which makes me wonder.It's worth mentioning that a similar situation to this one happened again some time later involving the same reaction from another numerary.

- An ex-supernumerary was considering taking a friendwho was interested in learning more about Catholicism to the Opus Dei center. That friend happened to be openly homosexual. When the center's director learned about this,she saidher friend shouldn't come to the center "because it would cause scandal and it would make a bad example for all the others".

- Few weeks after a new girl joined theSt. Raphael Circle I used to attend, the numerary member responsible for that activity let out "it was a mistake to let her attend the Circle". I couldn't tell why. She was totally normal. I couldn't see anything that made her "different" from any of the others from St. Raphael. I didn't get to know her much, but I knew that she lived in one of the poorer areas of the city.

Apart from those examples, there were times when people at the centers would mock at different groups of people such as the more popular, progressive catholic movements and people they considered to have leftish political views.

Back to the means of formation given by Opus Dei, the closing question for conscience examination at the end of the Circle activities is:

"Have I been making efforts into bringing more people to attend these means of formation (OD's)?"*.

So, putting it all together: it's important to bring new people, but not "just" anyone?

And also: Are some people more deserving of our apostolate than others? Is it possible to determine whether a person is going to understand theWork's spirit by first impressions? Are non-members and memberswho don't succeed in bringing people who qualify their standards in supposed to feel bad or guilty about it? Is headhunting-like selectivity more important thanallowing anyone the opportunity of getting to know the catholic doctrine?

That, sadly, leaves a lot to think about.

* Freely translated.

JCheyenne