[.ca] Their Kingdom Come: Inside the Secret World of Opus Dei (ISBN 0312357605)

From Amazon.com:
Their Kingdom Come: Inside the Secret World of Opus Dei by Robert Hutchison purports to expose the inner workings of an extremely conservative Catholic organization headquartered in Rome, whose members include the Pope's personal secretary, his spokesman, and several of his close ministers. These leaders are supported by 80,000 other believers around the world. Opus Dei is Latin for "God's Work," and Hutchison believes that Opus Dei's divine devotions include the operation of a media network as large as Rupert Murdoch's; immense financial support of the Church; and the preparation for a new Crusade against Islam. Their Kingdom Come paints Opus Dei as a Catholic conspiracy to infiltrate the world's upper echelons of political, financial, and educational power, and suggests that the group especially prizes its Mafia connections. Hutchison, a Swiss journalist who has written for the Sunday Telegraph and Toronto's Financial Post, weakens some of his arguments with cheap shots (chapter titles include "Moneybags Theology" and "Opus Octopus"), and he leans too heavily on anonymous sources for his most scandalous accusations. The few Opus Dei members whom he does identify, do, however, evince a steely, dogmatic self-confidence: "We have been chosen by God to save the Church," says one; "We have an orthodox vision that is pure, certain, solid, assured of everything," intones another. Opus Dei is the pope's only Personal Prelature, a privileged bishopric with no geographical boundaries. Learning more about the group is worth a reader's time, and Their Kingdom Come is a fine, though flawed, way to begin that endeavor. --Michael Joseph Gross

1 Star because you cannot give 0:
Seldom do I come across a book that turns me off so quickly, and so completely, as this book did. For a little over a year I have been researching Opus Dei with the goal of doing my Thesis on the organization. If even a tenth of what this book claims is true, then this group is the best in the world at keeping secrets, and the people I have known who are members are great deceivers, better than what the devil himself is given credit for being. The cover of the book claims: "A responsible piece of investigative reporting ... packed with meticulous detail." from Publishers Weekly. Yet I find none of that in this book in comparison with other books on the same subject. Both this author, and Michael Walsh in his book The Secret World of Opus Dei, claim to have access to secret documents that are not reproduced or evidenced other than their claims given to their existence. Hutchison claims that Josemaria Escriva, the founder of Opus Dei, was not really interested in the spiritual life of his followers. He states: "Escriva was interested in power. He was a schemer. God's schemer. And he wanted to control higher education, and later government ministries." p.87 This book makes such wide and varied accusations against Opus Dei that it is hard to believe the author has not been charged with libel and slander. Hutchison claims that Opus Dei has overturned governments, controlled the FBI and the CIA, bankrupted the Vatican so that Opus Dei could bail them out, and orchestrated assassination attempts including the one against Pope Paul VI. He even went so far as to claim that Opus Dei controls the majority of the Clergy and Laity in the Roman Curia and that they even actively recruit in the Pentagon and other government organizations around the world to achieve the power and control they want. Hutchison even alludes to the fact that Pope John Paul II was really just a puppet for Opus Dei; he calls JPII Opus Dei's Pope. How this book is published as Non-Fiction and not Fiction I will never know. Of the 30 odd books I have read, both for and against Opus Dei in the last year, this book is definitely the worst and thus deserves a `Hate It' book review. If you want to read something unbiased and informative, I would start with John Allen Jr.'s book Opus Dei: An Objective Look Behind the Myths and Reality of the Most Controversial Force in the Catholic Church. It is worth the read. But this book by Hutchison is trash and does not deserve your time, effort or hard-earned money. (First Published in Imprint 2007.01.12 as 'Hate it' part of the 'Love it/ Hate it' book review column.)

opus dei secrets of the church:
opus dei is said to mean work pd god ,yet why is it that it refers to oedipus, . the one man who was ably to answer the riddle. The shynx by the way can be seen in the Mona Lisa, as written of by oscar wild a member of the priory of sion. He also wrote the play salome, salomina in italian. Can you spell salomina using the word mona lisa? yes you can, lift the 7th letter and she reveals who she is. The egyptian sphnx gaurds th secret to the dead. Is Mona Lisa short for madonna elisabeth, st. elisabeth, the mother of John the Baptist. She has been diagnosed a having the symtoms of pegnancy. there is much more but if you want to know the big secret that she holds. Look at Da Vincis androginous John the Baptist, and also notice the difference in size in the left hand, it is covered by the right hand, What is she hiding. Its in the Last Supper, and also in the earliest depiction in 520 ce, then after years of no depictions shows up in 1045, and suggest an amputated left limb. Oddly mel gibsons only cameo shot in the hours of film is the left hand being nailed to the cross. He also portrays satan as an androdine, like the hermaphrodite john the Baptist. MelGot cute, he gave it away thinking he would have something to toy with. He knows its one of the biggest lies in history, but if it serves the purpose of opus day and the neo nazi councils to the vatican, especially the newly established head of the office of the inquisitor, the anti semetic gay bashing Cardinal Josheph Ratzinger of Bavaria no less. All the better, your dealing with a group of sociopathic fascist, who will do anything to maintain power. Money is the bottom line, power, and the necessity to blame jews, gays and others to create and foster hatred. Sound to me like Hitler used the same thing. Forget the truth, what you seee are wolves in sheeps clothing. .They all need therapy and a have no intention of giving up such a wonderful sadomasochistic gig. Sick is the word, pathetic and rotten to the core.

False book:
This book has very high biased opinion over the Opus Dei. I don't believe in anything I've read in it.

Thy Kingdom Come, Thy will be done:
THe writer rightly intuits that Opus Dei have a major role to play in the new world order, but had no access to their divine guidance. So the book is accurate in attributing significance to them but wrong in its interpretation.

Superbly Researched and Written:
This is an excellent book - superbly researched and written. I would imagine that any previous negative reviews were submitted by Opus Dei sympathizers. That's fine, of course. Everyone has the right to their own opinion. It is therefore my opinion that anyone who is interested in the machinations of the Vatican and the Roman Catholic Church should buy this book and digest it thoroughly.