RITE AND REASON:OPUS DEI always makes good copy for journalists. It was in the news again last week, having been given the lucrative parish of Merrion Road in Dublin, and the usual questions about cult-like practices and extreme secrecy were raised once more, writes Garry O'Sullivan
Perhaps this is why Opus Dei is so keen these days to inform journalists about the church and its members, and would angrily refute any comparisons with cults. It is holding a week-long seminar in Rome, beginning on September 8th, to introduce journalists to the Vatican up close. The event will end with an angelus with Pope Benedict XVI.
As for charges of secrecy, Opus Dei has Dan Brown and The Da Vinci Code to thank for shaking off that once-credible allegation. With the worldwide success of the book, Opus Dei found itself fighting rearguard actions globally against the damaging publicity brought by the, to put it frankly, often wild allegations in the book.
Yet as the controversy and debates surrounding the book grew, something happened in Opus Dei - a "Eureka!" moment. Its members decided to climb out of their bunkers, go public and tackle the suspicion and controversy head on.
At another media seminar organised by Opus Dei in Rome earlier this year, titled Church Communication and the Culture of Controversy, delegates from church communication offices around the world heard first-hand reports on how to handle controversy, as learned in the Opus Dei school of hard knocks.
Boston Opus Dei member Marie Oates told how, in the wake of The Da Vinci Code, the organisation began to media-train its members, a large proportion of whom are married women, all over the US. The experience of being under siege as a result of the book actually engaged people and enabled Opus Dei to create a network of proactive press officers.
Instead of avoiding the media, the group dealt directly with the controversial issues raised. Speaker after speaker detailed their experiences and the lessons learned. This was coalface crisis management.
The experience of Opus Dei is an excellent case study for the whole church on how it can learn lessons from controversies, such as the child abuse scandals, and how it might think again about the way it communicates. There are also indications that this has finally got through to the very top.
In 2005 Pope Benedict, reacting to criticism that he wasn't harsh enough in comments he made regarding the passing of a law on gay marriage in Spain while on a visit there, replied: "Christianity, Catholicism, is not a collection of prohibitions; it's a positive option.
"It is very important that we look at it again, because this idea has almost completely disappeared today.
"We have heard so much about what is not allowed that now it is time to say: we have a positive idea to offer."
The pope put this to the test during his recent visits to the US and Australia, when he apologised for clerical sexual abuse and met victims.
As the veteran Vatican correspondent for CNN, John Allen, told the Rome media conference earlier this year, the pope's visit to the US was "a six-day seminar in how to get things right".
Promoting Catholicism as a positive option and engaging in dialogue with secularist governments are not what we expected of Cardinal Ratzinger as pope.
As someone said to me in Rome at that conference, this pope has confounded those who wanted a harsh, hardliner pope and bewildered those who feared he would be so.
Maybe the holy spirit is having the final laugh on all of us, liberals and conservatives alike, who predicted the direction of this papacy on that April 2005 day when we heard "Habemus Papam" being recited.
Between the pope and Opus Dei, the church in Rome seems to be at last "getting" communications.
In Ireland, promoting Catholicism as a positive option is a monumental task for a church still recovering from massive controversy and scandal. But it can be done and the gospel demands that it must be done.
However, communications as a genuine ministry needs investment of talent and resources. As Opus Dei discovered, every scandal, conflict and controversy is an opportunity for the church to teach. The church here is finding its voice again, but it is a voice that needs to be professional and evangelising.
For too long in the Irish Catholic Church, communications has been influenced by the mentality of the lawyer or the insurance broker, only concerned with legalisms or risk assessment, but as the gospel says, "as you sow, so shall you reap".
Press officers left that seminar in Rome earlier this year to return to their respective bishops and bishops' conferences worldwide with this message ringing in their ears: "Always tell the truth and use conflicts to preach about the church, and above all don't be afraid of communicating."
What a challenge for the Irish church that is - if anyone here is prepared to listen and learn from the past.
• Garry O'Sullivan is editor of the Irish Catholicnewspaper