Our blogging brethern have spent a lot of bits and bytes on the canonization of Saint Josemaría Escrivá and Opus Dei.
Amy Welborn and Mark Sullivan link to an article on The Spectator from a former member of Opus Dei.
The comments on their posts are not particularly illuminating. We find those who are supportive of the movement and many who are vehemently against it. In terms of its exclusivity or the allegedly “cult-like” recruiting tactics, the movement could be doing the opposite of what St. Francis did when he founded the Friars. He welcomed thousands into the Friars. I’ve heard it said by Franciscans today that many men joined in those days who should not have. The hairshirts, poverty and celibacy just weren’t what they were called to. Opus Dei could be at the other extreme.
Whether one personally supports Saint Josemaría Escrivá’s canonization, this is a matter where the Church does not err. St. Thomas Aquinas wrote the following about the infallibility of canonization:
Since the honour we pay the saints is in a certain sense a profession of faith, i.e., a belief in the glory of the Saints [quâ sanctorum gloriam credimus] we must piously believe that in this matter also the judgment of the Church is not liable to error.