text: For your enlightenment, Opus Dei is an extremely controversial organization within the Roman Catholic church, due in no small part to its secrecy and its unrelenting quest for earthly wealth and influence.  Friends who have become involved with OD are uniformly critical of the organization.  My copy of John Allen's OD panegyric came from a priest who found it nauseating and wanted it out of his library.  After reading it, I adopted a much less favorable opinion of Mr. Allen as a reliable reporter of "all things Catholic."  Et reliqua.