Another BMW marketing-engineering-legislation quandary - Pedestrian Protection
- Thread starter michaeltan
- Start date
michaeltan
Banned.
Re: Another BMW marketing-engineering-legislation quandary - Pedestrian Protection
I emailed to BMW as earlier stated in the thread. I guess they want to remain silent on this issue, or they don't have english native speakers in their Q&A team, as this is their reply:
BMW Customer Service to me
More options 12:01 am (9 hours ago)
Dear Mr Tan,
Thank you for your e-mail.
Unfortunately, you did not state your request clearly. Please explain your
enquiry in greater detail. In particular, we would like to know why you
wish to contact BMW and we would also like to have some more background
information about your request.
Your efforts are appreciated.
Kind Regards,
BMW Customer Service Team
I emailed to BMW as earlier stated in the thread. I guess they want to remain silent on this issue, or they don't have english native speakers in their Q&A team, as this is their reply:
BMW Customer Service to me
More options 12:01 am (9 hours ago)
Dear Mr Tan,
Thank you for your e-mail.
Unfortunately, you did not state your request clearly. Please explain your
enquiry in greater detail. In particular, we would like to know why you
wish to contact BMW and we would also like to have some more background
information about your request.
Your efforts are appreciated.
Kind Regards,
BMW Customer Service Team
michaeltan
Banned.
Re: Another BMW marketing-engineering-legislation quandary - Pedestrian Protection
and this is my reply:
I with to know what are BMW's efforts in improving its Pedestrian Safety ratings as stated in EuroNCAP public ratings, because BMW's E90 and E60 cars are currently very poorly rated in this area.
Please let me know if you require any other details.
On 4/26/06, BMW Customer Service wrote:
--
____________________________________________
Michael Tan
[email protected]
and this is my reply:
I with to know what are BMW's efforts in improving its Pedestrian Safety ratings as stated in EuroNCAP public ratings, because BMW's E90 and E60 cars are currently very poorly rated in this area.
Please let me know if you require any other details.
On 4/26/06, BMW Customer Service wrote:
Dear Mr Tan,
Thank you for your e-mail.
Unfortunately, you did not state your request clearly. Please explain your
enquiry in greater detail. In particular, we would like to know why you
wish to contact BMW and we would also like to have some more background
information about your request.
Your efforts are appreciated.
Kind Regards,
BMW Customer Service Team
Thank you for your e-mail.
Unfortunately, you did not state your request clearly. Please explain your
enquiry in greater detail. In particular, we would like to know why you
wish to contact BMW and we would also like to have some more background
information about your request.
Your efforts are appreciated.
Kind Regards,
BMW Customer Service Team
--
____________________________________________
Michael Tan
[email protected]
michaeltan
Banned.
Re: Another BMW marketing-engineering-legislation quandary - Pedestrian Protection
2) Let's not aim for perfection before we do anything. Perfection is a pursuit, and not achievable overnight. The Ultimate Driving Machine is actually a process of pursuing perfection in driving enjoyment, never achieved. If NCAP is the best thing we can have right now, let's not knock it to destruction.
3) Thank you for taking a step back and seeing the true intention of this thread. This thread has the initial intention of (a) and evolved to (b):
a) Hightlighting the incompatibility of BMW's core marketing tenets of the 6 inline engine, and the short front overhangs, with modern engineering methods of creating buffer zones for enhancement of pedestrian safety.
b) Bringing the issue of pedestrian safety to the attention of BMW enthusiasts and owners, so that those who care, will take a second look at the NCAP ratings before they buy a BMW. Or at least realise the social cost of a BMW.
I would like to bring it up to the Honda forums too (Lexus and Merc have crappy local forums) but they are young and the demographic is not close enough to the issue of Pedestrian Safety, since many are still in the adrenaline stage of removing cats and engine power at the expense of everything else. I have no passion for Korean cars and Audis or VWs (except the GTI and few people own a GTI anyway) and I got no time for that. Since I'm pretty involved in this BMW forum already, I decided to post it here.
Why I did not post at Carma? The population there is different from here. I felt that posting here would be more fruitful, since, in a large part, my message contains BMW specific material.
1) NCAP is not an absolute science. However, not being absolute does not mean that it is useless. Network security is not absolute, yet we try our best efforts to keep the network secure against as many people as possible with exception of the best hackers. When lives are at stake, why not use NCAP as our best effort humanity has right now?jason3s said:
2) Let's not aim for perfection before we do anything. Perfection is a pursuit, and not achievable overnight. The Ultimate Driving Machine is actually a process of pursuing perfection in driving enjoyment, never achieved. If NCAP is the best thing we can have right now, let's not knock it to destruction.
3) Thank you for taking a step back and seeing the true intention of this thread. This thread has the initial intention of (a) and evolved to (b):
a) Hightlighting the incompatibility of BMW's core marketing tenets of the 6 inline engine, and the short front overhangs, with modern engineering methods of creating buffer zones for enhancement of pedestrian safety.
b) Bringing the issue of pedestrian safety to the attention of BMW enthusiasts and owners, so that those who care, will take a second look at the NCAP ratings before they buy a BMW. Or at least realise the social cost of a BMW.
I would like to bring it up to the Honda forums too (Lexus and Merc have crappy local forums) but they are young and the demographic is not close enough to the issue of Pedestrian Safety, since many are still in the adrenaline stage of removing cats and engine power at the expense of everything else. I have no passion for Korean cars and Audis or VWs (except the GTI and few people own a GTI anyway) and I got no time for that. Since I'm pretty involved in this BMW forum already, I decided to post it here.
Why I did not post at Carma? The population there is different from here. I felt that posting here would be more fruitful, since, in a large part, my message contains BMW specific material.
Re: Another BMW marketing-engineering-legislation quandary - Pedestrian Protection
Michael Tan works in Convergent Systems (S) Pte Ltd as a salesman selling computer spare parts. He is not a lawyer or some technology expert. You can reach him at [email protected] or 68281826 and 96516591.
Anyone who wants a salesman job that can surf web, waste time post nonsense in forum shoud email Mr KB Tan at [email protected] who is the Managing Director or Mr Kevin Khong at [email protected] who is the General Manager. You can also reach Mr Tan or Mr Khong at 63370177.
Please consider sending this URL link to his bosses if you can't justify yourself for a job there.
Michael Tan works in Convergent Systems (S) Pte Ltd as a salesman selling computer spare parts. He is not a lawyer or some technology expert. You can reach him at [email protected] or 68281826 and 96516591.
Anyone who wants a salesman job that can surf web, waste time post nonsense in forum shoud email Mr KB Tan at [email protected] who is the Managing Director or Mr Kevin Khong at [email protected] who is the General Manager. You can also reach Mr Tan or Mr Khong at 63370177.
Please consider sending this URL link to his bosses if you can't justify yourself for a job there.
AC Boy
Well-Known Member
Re: Another BMW marketing-engineering-legislation quandary - Pedestrian Protection
my uncle was drivin along 6th ave in his gs 300, this ang moh just dashed across the rd from 7-11 store towards guthrie hse & slammed into him. knn simi lexus 7-star rating!? only if the ang moh were to exercise to be a responsible pedestrian. nnb, this thread really liow jeng sin, another computer hero.totoseow said:
pg7170
Users Awaiting Email Confirmation
Re: Another BMW marketing-engineering-legislation quandary - Pedestrian Protection
and one need not be an idiot to know where u coming from...
the rule of the game is very plain n simple for me... when i buy a car... wat comes after the car's performance/reliabilities/performance/driver's appeal/looks will be the most important safety feature i look for.... the driver's n its passengers' SAFETY!!!
lets throw all these moral hypocrisy aside... u can keep lobbying abt ur pedestrian safety mambo jumbo... coz at the end of the day the only people that on ur side is the people walking on the roads ( ask them to wear body armour n helmets instead for a change-that will improve their chances for sure ) n not the people behind the wheel... u honestly think those NACP people doesnt have any hidden political bureaucracy agendas behind them... BS!!
so ultimately... people will continue to buy their cars... be it protons to ferraris... i will still drive my beemer with pride....n continue to aspire to upgrade to another beemer perhaps or even to a 1xNACP star rated car for that matter.... despite wat more hypocritical BS u say in this forum
so.... when u drive.... DRIVE carefully n Responsibly
n when u walk to walk n cross the roads... pls DO so too...
keep on Walking.... hahaha
michaeltan said:
and one need not be an idiot to know where u coming from...
the rule of the game is very plain n simple for me... when i buy a car... wat comes after the car's performance/reliabilities/performance/driver's appeal/looks will be the most important safety feature i look for.... the driver's n its passengers' SAFETY!!!
lets throw all these moral hypocrisy aside... u can keep lobbying abt ur pedestrian safety mambo jumbo... coz at the end of the day the only people that on ur side is the people walking on the roads ( ask them to wear body armour n helmets instead for a change-that will improve their chances for sure ) n not the people behind the wheel... u honestly think those NACP people doesnt have any hidden political bureaucracy agendas behind them... BS!!
so ultimately... people will continue to buy their cars... be it protons to ferraris... i will still drive my beemer with pride....n continue to aspire to upgrade to another beemer perhaps or even to a 1xNACP star rated car for that matter.... despite wat more hypocritical BS u say in this forum
so.... when u drive.... DRIVE carefully n Responsibly
n when u walk to walk n cross the roads... pls DO so too...
keep on Walking.... hahaha
michaeltan
Banned.
Re: Another BMW marketing-engineering-legislation quandary - Pedestrian Protection
Kenntona, you have a unique understanding of the situation. And majorly, assuming you didn't mix up the speakers, what you say is very very close to the truth I do not usually dig so deep in myself to find.
From a hippie view, I was born on October 16th and that makes me a Libran. I am a balancing sign, not a balanced sign. Therefore, I try for balance. In a forum so BMW-centric, I play the devil's advocate and balance the other was - to offer a counterpoint to BMW ownership. In an era of anti-PAP environment, I find myself pro-PAP. Any of these reflect my inner convictions? I think, not yet. Nothing has cut me so close to the bone to reflect my true inner convictions, in fact, I don't know them yet.
Hippie view or not, astrology being true or not, I do this incomprehensively and intuitively. Another side of me is that I live on friendly, impersonal debate. I always learn from debates, and learn much slower any other way.
I do not wish to convert you to my way of thinking. I merely want negative responses to my post, so that we can debate. And it does not matter to me whether the people opposed to my views are eventually converted or not, because that is for yourself to do, not me. I am totally satisfied that I raised these points, you guys read it and understood 60% of my message, planted the seed of controversy in your mind, and let it at least remind you in the background of my message.
I don't work in the automotive industry and stand to gain nothing from it. The car marque I love most is Mercedes for its exquisite past, and Honda for their enormous efforts to chase technology for the sake of technology. They are both in a downer now.
Before anybody misunderstand me (not you, Kenntona, you understand me perfectly I think), thinking that I stir controversy for the sake of controversy and condemn me for being an attention seeker, that's an inaccurate view IMHO. If I wanted attention (my god, there is too much attention in some other IT forum!) I would not bother to do it in such a negative way. I want the knowledge, I want to develop my forumming skills to a high level, and in the process, I want to learn, by googling, more on important issues without the usual boring study methods.
There are issues which are important in this world, and I love to see these issues be implanted in the minds of intelligent people, of which the best approximation of the concept of `intelligent people' I know of in car forums, is here in the BMW forum.
Kenntona, you have a unique understanding of the situation. And majorly, assuming you didn't mix up the speakers, what you say is very very close to the truth I do not usually dig so deep in myself to find.
From a hippie view, I was born on October 16th and that makes me a Libran. I am a balancing sign, not a balanced sign. Therefore, I try for balance. In a forum so BMW-centric, I play the devil's advocate and balance the other was - to offer a counterpoint to BMW ownership. In an era of anti-PAP environment, I find myself pro-PAP. Any of these reflect my inner convictions? I think, not yet. Nothing has cut me so close to the bone to reflect my true inner convictions, in fact, I don't know them yet.
Hippie view or not, astrology being true or not, I do this incomprehensively and intuitively. Another side of me is that I live on friendly, impersonal debate. I always learn from debates, and learn much slower any other way.
I do not wish to convert you to my way of thinking. I merely want negative responses to my post, so that we can debate. And it does not matter to me whether the people opposed to my views are eventually converted or not, because that is for yourself to do, not me. I am totally satisfied that I raised these points, you guys read it and understood 60% of my message, planted the seed of controversy in your mind, and let it at least remind you in the background of my message.
I don't work in the automotive industry and stand to gain nothing from it. The car marque I love most is Mercedes for its exquisite past, and Honda for their enormous efforts to chase technology for the sake of technology. They are both in a downer now.
Before anybody misunderstand me (not you, Kenntona, you understand me perfectly I think), thinking that I stir controversy for the sake of controversy and condemn me for being an attention seeker, that's an inaccurate view IMHO. If I wanted attention (my god, there is too much attention in some other IT forum!) I would not bother to do it in such a negative way. I want the knowledge, I want to develop my forumming skills to a high level, and in the process, I want to learn, by googling, more on important issues without the usual boring study methods.
There are issues which are important in this world, and I love to see these issues be implanted in the minds of intelligent people, of which the best approximation of the concept of `intelligent people' I know of in car forums, is here in the BMW forum.
kenntona said:
Re: Another BMW marketing-engineering-legislation quandary - Pedestrian Protection
michael lets go for coffee
http://mercury.walagata.com/w/ghisallo/bigmouth-kopishop.MPA
michael lets go for coffee
http://mercury.walagata.com/w/ghisallo/bigmouth-kopishop.MPA
michaeltan
Banned.
Re: Another BMW marketing-engineering-legislation quandary - Pedestrian Protection
And this is consistent with all that I have said.
Please note the words I have bolded in my own statement. I believe all the time, that people should buy BMWs ONLY for the driving enjoyment they have (thanks to Eggz for clarifying this concept in my mind) and if they buy it for anything else other than driving enjoyment as the top priority, they are POSEURS, and I hate POSEURS more than anything else.
For those who hit the redline in their precious BMW, BRAVO. BRAVO. At least you prove that you are not the kind of guy who leaves the plastic protective covering on their seats 1 year after they received their new car. And I do not disrespect those who readily hit the redline.
And this is consistent with all that I have said.
Please note the words I have bolded in my own statement. I believe all the time, that people should buy BMWs ONLY for the driving enjoyment they have (thanks to Eggz for clarifying this concept in my mind) and if they buy it for anything else other than driving enjoyment as the top priority, they are POSEURS, and I hate POSEURS more than anything else.
For those who hit the redline in their precious BMW, BRAVO. BRAVO. At least you prove that you are not the kind of guy who leaves the plastic protective covering on their seats 1 year after they received their new car. And I do not disrespect those who readily hit the redline.
Remus325 said:
Re: Another BMW marketing-engineering-legislation quandary - Pedestrian Protection
MT u sound confused....at times its seems like u r more worried about pedestrians flat-lining rather than bmw red-lining....
oh well another internet hero....talk talk talk....election coming..nomination day coming..quick go as independant candidate. champion ur cause: Another BMW marketing-engineering-legislation quandary - Pedestrian Protection
MT u sound confused....at times its seems like u r more worried about pedestrians flat-lining rather than bmw red-lining....
oh well another internet hero....talk talk talk....election coming..nomination day coming..quick go as independant candidate. champion ur cause: Another BMW marketing-engineering-legislation quandary - Pedestrian Protection
michaeltan
Banned.
Re: Another BMW marketing-engineering-legislation quandary - Pedestrian Protection
I draw several very fine distinction between the concepts mentioned in that extract. You should read more of what I wrote in my thread if you indeed desire to understand my thinking to a finer extent.
1) One is entitled to disregard his own life, but is liable if he harms others.
2) Travelling fast is not fundamentally illegal, but if you can incur personal liability when travelling fast without the capacity to handle safe fast driving. I did not promote legislation against fast driving, and promoted de-legislation instead, but still fully subject to liability.
3) Government should have no business in anything other than keeping the peace, defending the country and adjudicating conflicts between parties.
Other points:
1) This thread is NOT about Pedestrian Safety initially, but is about BMW's internal conflict between its core marketing tenets and Pedestrian Safety. It was a thread to make BMW and its fans address the conflict issue.
2) NCAP is NOT legislation, it is merely an index of safety. Homologation in EU is NOT based on NCAP but rather, by governmental homologation tests.
3) I am toasting BMW not because it fell foul of the legislation, but missing its committment. I am not toasting BMW because they build unsafe cars. If BMW came out to say - YES I BUILD UNSAFE CARS, BUT THEY ARE FUN, TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT. IF YOU WANT PEDESTRIAN SAFETY, GO BUY A TOYOTA - then I respect them more.
I draw several very fine distinction between the concepts mentioned in that extract. You should read more of what I wrote in my thread if you indeed desire to understand my thinking to a finer extent.
1) One is entitled to disregard his own life, but is liable if he harms others.
2) Travelling fast is not fundamentally illegal, but if you can incur personal liability when travelling fast without the capacity to handle safe fast driving. I did not promote legislation against fast driving, and promoted de-legislation instead, but still fully subject to liability.
3) Government should have no business in anything other than keeping the peace, defending the country and adjudicating conflicts between parties.
Other points:
1) This thread is NOT about Pedestrian Safety initially, but is about BMW's internal conflict between its core marketing tenets and Pedestrian Safety. It was a thread to make BMW and its fans address the conflict issue.
2) NCAP is NOT legislation, it is merely an index of safety. Homologation in EU is NOT based on NCAP but rather, by governmental homologation tests.
3) I am toasting BMW not because it fell foul of the legislation, but missing its committment. I am not toasting BMW because they build unsafe cars. If BMW came out to say - YES I BUILD UNSAFE CARS, BUT THEY ARE FUN, TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT. IF YOU WANT PEDESTRIAN SAFETY, GO BUY A TOYOTA - then I respect them more.
kenntona said:
Re: Another BMW marketing-engineering-legislation quandary - Pedestrian Protection
The issue of safety is inhenrent in your first post so its not abt whether you want to talk about safety or not rather the core subject of the thread you have so humbly started. Let BMW deal with whatever conflicts they have as they know it better. Germans are proud of their technical abilities and intellect and they dont need people to tell them how and what to do. If vicious critism is your forte, then perhaps you shoudl do singapore proud by starting a local car company to rival BMW or even Lexus. Then we all would be seeing cars with 10-star pedestrian rating. And i would probably need one as driving in serangoon road on saturday and sunday is no joke! They need pedestrian safety! Dang Workers! And i can help you get a patent attorney i know to give you a patent on your invention. you would be happy in the knowledge, that you have created the safest car for pedestrians. somehow i ppl are gonna buy that car just to hit one another like bumper car. haha...
Cheers.
michaeltan said:
The issue of safety is inhenrent in your first post so its not abt whether you want to talk about safety or not rather the core subject of the thread you have so humbly started. Let BMW deal with whatever conflicts they have as they know it better. Germans are proud of their technical abilities and intellect and they dont need people to tell them how and what to do. If vicious critism is your forte, then perhaps you shoudl do singapore proud by starting a local car company to rival BMW or even Lexus. Then we all would be seeing cars with 10-star pedestrian rating. And i would probably need one as driving in serangoon road on saturday and sunday is no joke! They need pedestrian safety! Dang Workers! And i can help you get a patent attorney i know to give you a patent on your invention. you would be happy in the knowledge, that you have created the safest car for pedestrians. somehow i ppl are gonna buy that car just to hit one another like bumper car. haha...
Cheers.
michaeltan
Banned.
Re: Another BMW marketing-engineering-legislation quandary - Pedestrian Protection
Here is an answer I think if you ask publicly to all the posters in this thread, they will SAY that it is an acceptable answer. If you want to trap me in a situation where I contradict myself, you must develop more skill and ask better questions, and it is a pre-requisite that my ideas must be self-contradictory in the first place. In short, your question is NOT good enough to slap me in the first place.
The answer is:
Whatever car hits a pedestrian at 90km/h, the statistical figure will show that, a car with a lower NCAP pedestrian safety score will kill more people compared to a car with a higher NCAP pedestrian safety score.
If you think my answer is not good enough, ask for an honest opinion among all the other posters here. If my reading of humanity is right, they are all not commenting on your question because they know that my answer is good and logical enough. But since they are also defending their marque, they are not criticizing you at least not in this thread itself.
SL2 said:
Here is an answer I think if you ask publicly to all the posters in this thread, they will SAY that it is an acceptable answer. If you want to trap me in a situation where I contradict myself, you must develop more skill and ask better questions, and it is a pre-requisite that my ideas must be self-contradictory in the first place. In short, your question is NOT good enough to slap me in the first place.
The answer is:
Whatever car hits a pedestrian at 90km/h, the statistical figure will show that, a car with a lower NCAP pedestrian safety score will kill more people compared to a car with a higher NCAP pedestrian safety score.
If you think my answer is not good enough, ask for an honest opinion among all the other posters here. If my reading of humanity is right, they are all not commenting on your question because they know that my answer is good and logical enough. But since they are also defending their marque, they are not criticizing you at least not in this thread itself.
Re: Another BMW marketing-engineering-legislation quandary - Pedestrian Protection
NB i also can talk like u.....this is my story
April 26 (Bloomberg) -- In the basement of a six-story
concrete building on the outskirts of Rome, young men and women
in suits scurry around a simulated office, fetching documents
from laser printers and hashing out business presentations. The
fake corporate environment has a name: Junior Consulting.
Along with the Centro ELIS trade school upstairs, it's the
brainchild of Opus Dei, the Roman Catholic group that Dan
Brown's novel ``The Da Vinci Code'' portrayed as a killer cult
conspiring with the Vatican to hide the true origins of
Christianity.
Far from Brown's fictional world, Opus Dei says its image
should be that of MBAs, not the book's murderous monk. The 78-
year-old group of priests and laypeople has 84,000 members in
more than five dozen countries and counts top executives,
political leaders in Latin America and a U.K. cabinet official
in its ranks. Opus Dei's emphasis on recruiting and training
businesspeople sets it apart from other Roman Catholic groups.
``Opus Dei is unique,'' says Keith Pecklers, a Jesuit
priest and professor of theology at the Pontifical Gregorian
University in Rome. ``Their approach is finding God in daily
life as a Christian, and a big part of that is the business
world.''
Opus Dei is seeking more high-powered members by funding
pizza parties and seminars on embryonic research, physician-
assisted suicide and evolution near U.S. Ivy League campuses.
And it's targeting lawyers and bankers through monthly meetings
at St. Mary Moorfields church in the City of London financial
district.
Opus Dei promotes Catholic church policy. It opposes
abortion and the ordination of women. The group says its goal is
to spread a credo that working hard brings people closer to God.
Cisco, Vodafone
Some members, such as Eduardo Guilisasti, chief executive
officer of Santiago-based Vina Concha y Toro SA, Latin America's
biggest winery, advance the effort by giving their entire
paycheck to help run Opus Dei's more than 100 technical and
management schools from Spain to Mexico, to Vietnam, Guilisasti
Cisco Systems Inc., the world's largest maker of computer
networking equipment; Vodafone Group Plc, the biggest mobile
phone service company by market value; and Nokia Oyj, the top
cell phone maker, all sponsor courses at Centro ELIS.
Students there have designed a business plan for Vodafone'
Mobile Interactive TV and assessed the quality of computer
images for Hewlett-Packard Co., the world's No. 2 personal
computer maker.
Opus Dei Awareness Network
Not everyone accepts that Opus Dei's goal is purely
spiritual. Dianne DiNicola says the group is out to recruit
future executives, separate them from their families and then
take their money.
``They proselytize educated, bright people -- you're
talking doctors, lawyers, corporate types,'' says DiNicola,
executive director of the Opus Dei Awareness Network in
Pittsfield, Massachusetts. The group publicizes Opus Dei's
practices, which it says restrict members' personal freedoms.
DiNicola, 63, founded ODAN after her daughter, Tammy,
joined and then quit Opus Dei when she was a student at Boston
College.
``They get these subtle controls in places where it
counts,'' DiNicola says. Opus Dei recruits people who have a
potential to succeed professionally, both for their influence
and their money, DiNicola says, based in part on her daughter's
experience as a numerary, a type of member who is celibate and
lives in Opus Dei residences.
No Sex
About 30 percent of the people in Opus Dei swear off sex.
The rest, known as supernumeraries, live in their own homes,
often raising families.
``She even had to write down if she bought a postage stamp;
that's how controlling they are on money,'' DiNicola says.
Recruits can become big earners for Opus Dei. ``Say they have a
salary of $200,000; they'll give most of it to Opus Dei,'' she
says.
Such complaints almost always come from former numeraries,
who as celibates make the biggest commitment when joining and
may go through the most stress when leaving, says Opus Dei
spokesman Manuel Sanchez in Rome.
``Some people who have left Opus Dei, they rethink what
they've done and the things they loved,'' he says. ``Excuse us
and pardon us if there's something that didn't go well.'' He
says it's standard for members to give Opus Dei as much money as
they can afford.
Gasoline Allowance
Concha y Toro's Guilisasti, 53, who declined to disclose
his salary, says he has no need for wealth. Opus Dei makes sure
he has enough for clothing, food and gasoline for the 2002
Subaru he drives to his company's headquarters along the banks
of the Mapocho River in Santiago.
``What would I do with money?'' Guilisasti asks, seated in
his wood-paneled office, where he keeps a framed photograph of
Josemaria Escriva de Balaguer, the Spanish priest who founded
Opus Dei in 1928, inside his desk. ``It's not important to my
life.''
Like other numeraries, Guilisasti is celibate and lives in
an Opus Dei home with group members. In one aspect of the novel
that crosses into reality, Opus Dei numeraries participate in
regular ``mortification.''
In a weekly ritual, numeraries whip themselves on the back
with a small switch while saying a prayer. For a few hours each
day, they wear a band with inward-pointing spikes, known as a
cilice, around their thighs. It can leave red marks and scars.
`Conspiratorial Theories'
In ``The Da Vinci Code'' (Doubleday, 2003), Opus Dei and
the Vatican are covering up the story of early Christianity,
including the secret that Jesus fathered a family. The secret is
guarded by a society known as the Priory of Sion, whose ``grand
masters'' have included Leonardo da Vinci.
A monk, guided by the head of Opus Dei, goes on a killing
spree to keep the secret under wraps. On April 7, a London court
cleared Brown of allegations he plagiarized the plot from the
nonfiction book ``The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail'' (Jonathan
Cape, 1982) by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoln.
``The conspiratorial theories about Opus Dei are ridiculous,
but you might say the goals are beyond the church,'' says James
Hitchcock, a professor who teaches Catholic Church history at
Saint Louis University in Missouri. ``It's the idea of
influencing society from within, quietly, by utilizing whatever
professional influence you have.''
Within the church, Opus Dei has become increasingly
prominent over the past two decades. Pope John Paul II, who died
in April 2005, made Opus Dei the church's only personal
prelature in 1982, meaning that, with a few exceptions, its
members report to Opus Dei leaders in Rome rather than to local
dioceses.
Rapid Sainthood
In 2002, John Paul presided over the canonization of
Escriva just 27 years after the priest's death -- the fastest
saint-making process in modern times.
Joaquin Navarro-Valls, the pope's spokesman, is an Opus Dei
member, as are 41 of the church's 4,662 bishops and two of its
192 cardinals. Among them is Julian Cardinal Herranz Casado,
president of the Vatican council that interprets religious law.
``John Paul liked Opus Dei very much, and he liked that
they agreed with him on doctrinal issues,'' says Thomas Reese, a
Jesuit priest appointed in March as a senior fellow at
Georgetown University's Woodstock Theological Center in
Washington.
Specifically, he was referring to opposing abortion,
contraception and marriage by priests. More than such policies,
which are backed by many Catholic groups, Opus Dei's pro-
business stance and ability to rally supporters among laypeople
endeared Opus Dei to John Paul, especially during his Cold War
push to topple Communism, Reese says.
Political Leaders
``This is an organization that can turn out 100,000 people
in St. Peter's Square to cheer the pope and his policies, and it
has these people all over the world,'' he says.
The Vatican's stamp of approval gives Opus Dei clout in the
highest levels in mostly Catholic South America.
In Brazil, the world's largest Catholic country, Sao Paulo
Governor Geraldo Alckmin, a presidential candidate in October's
elections, seeks spiritual counsel about once a month on
economics, labor relations and religion from Opus Dei leader
Carlos Di Franco. Alckmin has said to Di Franco, Opus Dei's
communications director in Brazil, that he's not a member of
Opus Dei.
In Chile, Joaquin Lavin, Santiago's former mayor and a
losing presidential candidate last year, is an Opus Dei member.
London Bankers
Opus Dei, which means ``the work of God'' in Latin, is
expanding from strongholds in South America, Italy and Spain to
the English-speaking world. U.K. Education Secretary Ruth Kelly
is an Opus Dei supernumerary, says Andrew Soane, a chartered
accountant and a London-based member of Opus Dei's U.K. regional
council, which runs the group's affairs there. Former Bank of
England economist Kelly, 38, was elected to Parliament in 1997.
Opus Dei is reaching out to City of London bankers and lawyers,
Soane says.
In the U.S., Opus Dei completed its 17-story, $69 million
Manhattan headquarters at Lexington Avenue and 34th Street in
2001, a bricks-and-mortar announcement that the group had
arrived in the world's financial capital.
To target the nation's brightest students, Opus Dei runs
off-campus housing and centers around Harvard University in
Cambridge, Massachusetts; Brown University in Providence, Rhode
Island; and Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey.
Pizza Dinners
Opus Dei residences, which aren't affiliated with the
universities, are open to students who choose not to live in
dorms.
John Wauck, a Harvard graduate who's now an Opus Dei priest
in Rome, fulfilled the first-year requirement to live in a
dormitory and then moved into Opus Dei's Elmbrook Student Center.
For nonresidents, the centers offer pizza dinners, prayer
meetings and talks on topics such as ``Plotting a Pro-Life Legal
Strategy.''
Recruiting on campuses and running business schools
increase the odds that Opus Dei will have company executives as
members, Opus Dei Chief Financial Officer Pablo Elton says.
``If we're working with students, 30 years later they'll be
CEOs,'' he says.
Some former numeraries who joined as students describe what
they call cultlike experiences.
In Brazil, Antonio Carlos Brolezzi spent 10 years living in
an Opus Dei residence in Sao Paulo. A decade later, he says Opus
Dei uses deception and secrecy to lure innocent youth into
worshipping money and repressing their sexuality.
`Like a Slave'
Brolezzi, 41, a University of Sao Paulo statistics
professor, says he didn't start recovering from what he called
the ``trauma'' until he wrote a book about his time as a member,
which was published this year.
``The life of a numerary is like a slave's,'' says Brolezzi,
who married after leaving Opus Dei and has a two-year-old
daughter. At age 18, Brolezzi says he attended lectures about
astronomy that turned out to be recruiting meetings for Opus Dei.
At 19 and a virgin, he moved into an Opus Dei house for
numeraries.
``They really try to replace your family,'' Brolezzi says.
Control was personal and financial.
He gave his salary to Opus Dei, and when he confessed to
fantasizing about women, the center's director ordered Brolezzi
to wear tight-fitting pants that were hard to remove, to
discourage masturbation.
Exit Cost
Getting out of Opus Dei was difficult, he says, partly
because he had no savings.
``I don't think I will ever recover financially from Opus
Dei,'' he says. ``I gave 10 years of my most-productive years to
Opus Dei without earning a cent.''
Opus Dei spokesman Sanchez says the group doesn't publicly
contest grievances of former members. ``An experience is
subjective,'' he says.
Taking members' money isn't the group's objective and
having executives among its ranks isn't a particular point of
pride, Elton says.
``What's important is that their work is in service to
other people,'' he says.
Elton, speaking in Opus Dei's Rome headquarters, says ``The
Da Vinci Code'' has heightened scrutiny of his work and caused
him to be more open about Opus Dei's activities. It has also led
Opus Dei and some Catholic groups to counterattack.
Opus Dei has asked Sony Corp. to include a disclaimer in
the film adaptation stating that the thriller, which stars Tom
Hanks and which was directed by Ron Howard, is entirely
fictional.
No Monks
Opus Dei introduced a revamped Web site in March and moved
some staff from its information office in Rome to New York to
coordinate its media response to the movie. One piece of the
message is that Opus Dei has no monks, contrary to the depiction
in ``The Da Vinci Code.''
Part of Opus Dei's strategy in countering the movie is to
open its schools and residences to news reporters and to have
members grant interviews to tell the story of Opus Dei and its
history.
The founder of Opus Dei, who was born in 1902 in Barbastro,
Spain, learned the perils of entrepreneurship as a child.
Escriva's father, Jose, ran a textile company that failed
13 years later, forcing the family to move to the city of
Logrono in northern Spain for Jose to seek work, according to
Escriva's official biography.
When young Josemaria decided to become a priest, he
followed his father's advice and also trained as a lawyer.
Law Doctorate
Escriva, who was ordained in 1925, was working on his law
doctorate in Madrid when he said God showed him his mission: to
found Opus Dei. Escriva outlined those views in his book of
aphorisms, ``El Camino,'' or ``The Way,'' which was first
published in 1934 and translated into at least 43 languages.
``An hour of study, for a modern apostle, is an hour of
prayer,'' he wrote.
He'd just started to build the group when the outbreak of
the Spanish Civil War in 1936 forced him to flee the anti-
clerical Republicans in Madrid for France. He returned to Spain
during the rule of dictator Francisco Franco in 1939.
Opus Dei began its international push in 1946 when Escriva
moved to Rome and the group set up in Italy, Portugal and the
U.K.
In 1965, Escriva and Pope Paul VI opened the technical
school on the outskirts of Rome on land the Vatican donated.
Called Centro ELIS -- ELIS stands for the Italian words for
education, work, training and sport -- the Opus Dei school
became a model for projects worldwide.
Gaining Influence
Opus Dei members say education has been key to its
corporate aspirations. Opus Dei's Universidad de los Andes in
Santiago provides graduate courses to students who have already
made their way up the corporate ladder. The school admits only
managers at the division-head level and higher.
``The owner of a company can influence decisions more than
a simple employee,'' says Alberto Lopez-Hermida, 67, director
general of the university's business school, which has just
moved into a $10 million building in the arid Andean Mountain
foothills.
Guilisasti says he decided to join Opus Dei in 1968 after
becoming spellbound by a priest's talk during high school in
Santiago. Today, he lives with eight men in Santiago's affluent
Las Condes neighborhood. So-called administrators, or female
Opus Dei numeraries, take care of the cooking and cleaning.
Working Women
Opus Dei says it treats male and female members equally and
says women should be politically active in society. It also
considers men and women to have different natural abilities,
according to Opus Dei's Web site. Opus Dei says housekeeping and
child rearing are tasks in pursuit of holiness in the same ways
as office work.
``I give thanks to God often on seeing how the women of
Opus Dei work in every sector of society: running corporations
and hospitals, working in fields and in factories, holding
university chairs,'' Opus Dei's prelate, or leader, Bishop
Javier Echevarria says on the group's Web site.
Opus Dei members also work at home. In addition to running
Concha y Toro, Guilisasti polices Opus Dei rules at the group
house where he lives.
One regulation bars numeraries from watching ``immoral''
movies on television, he says.
A practice of self-flagellation outlined in ``The Da Vinci
Code'' forms part of his routine of daily ``mortification,''
which reminds him of the suffering Christ endured on the cross.
`Mild Discomfort'
``A lot is made of mortification,'' says Di Franco, who
wears a cilice for two hours a day. ``This has been around for
hundreds of years in many different forms. It's really just a
mild discomfort.''
Opus Dei, which is governed from Rome and funded locally,
requires members such as Guilisasti to finance its centers and
find money to run the schools and projects they start.
Members cover the living expenses of Opus Dei priests who
are assigned to each region to conduct Mass, hear confession and
provide clerical services. The members donate either to the
centers or to foundations set up to fund Opus Dei activities,
according to members and U.S. tax returns.
Guilisasti has willed all of his assets, including his
share of his family's 26 percent, $265 million stake in Concha y
Toro, to Opus Dei foundations.
Elton says that even with donations from members and from
the scores of foundations that support Opus Dei, the
organization isn't rich. He says the only accounting he has seen
of the group's assets is a $2.8 billion estimate for Opus Dei
and its branches, which he says is a small amount compared with
the $102 billion of revenue that Catholic programs in the U.S.
reported in 2001.
Numbers Game
``That helped explain an important theme -- that numbers
aren't the most important thing in Opus Dei,'' Elton says in his
Rome office, which has a desk with a computer, a round table, a
wardrobe and a door that leads to a bedroom with a single bed
that's covered with a floral bedspread.
Elton's role is to advise local Opus Dei branches and
foundations on how to establish endowment funds and to set
investment guidelines, which he says are conservative. The
directors of each foundation invest the money themselves.
``We don't go on adventures with hedge funds,'' Elton says,
laughing. The group's local foundations and branches don't send
him financial statements, although he's generally aware of their
activities, he says.
One such foundation, New York-based Clover Foundation,
reported assets of $31.3 million at the end of 2004. Of that sum,
it invested $12.1 million in stocks, $10.5 million in corporate
bonds and $5.93 million in municipal and U.S. government bonds,
according to its 2004 tax return.
Embryo Status
It used part of its money to build and renovate schools in
Mexico and Nigeria. It also spent $50,000 to study the legal
status of embryos, a topic that's central to the church's anti-
abortion efforts; run a conference on the importance of marriage;
and support unspecified postgraduate research at Princeton
University, according to the tax return.
Opus Dei's Woodlawn Foundation, based in New Rochelle, New
York, reported assets of $12.5 million at the end of 2004. It
invested $3.87 million in mutual funds and stocks that year.
Woodlawn acts as a clearinghouse for channeling donations
into Opus Dei activities. It received $11.4 million in gifts and
distributed $11 million to 45 Opus Dei centers, schools and
offices in 2004, according to its tax return. Woodlawn gave
$1.23 million to Murray Hill Place Inc., which owns Opus Dei's
U.S. headquarters in New York.
Because of ongoing fund raising, Centro ELIS is a four-
hectare (9.9-acre) oasis in a run-down neighborhood of concrete
apartment blocks on Rome's eastern fringe.
Welding Shops
It includes a 200-bed dormitory, green playing fields and
classes sponsored by some of the world's biggest companies. The
school houses its original welding shops as well as computer
networking labs and a business training program for men and
women who have just graduated from universities. It also has a
Catholic chapel, in which Mass is said a few times a year.
Centro ELIS has received about 800,000 euros ($990,000) in
Italian government funds to spawn at least 16 similar schools in
China, Ecuador, Uruguay, Vietnam and other countries, says
Pierluigi Bartolomei, director of Centro ELIS's technical school.
In Hanoi, Centro ELIS set up a mechanic school that has a
partnership with Hameco, a 48-year-old Vietnamese maker of
industrial equipment, according to the Centro ELIS Web site.
No Vatican Flag
Opus Dei establishes such schools through its
L'Associazione Centro ELIS, which competes with other
nongovernmental organizations for Italian Foreign Ministry
funding. When the Centro ELIS association wins contracts, it
sends staff, who are usually Opus Dei members, to start the
schools and turn them over to local administrators or the local
governments, Bartolomei says. The schools don't overtly flaunt
their Opus Dei connection, other than creating an environment
that fosters work and economic development, Bartolomei says.
``When we have an institute like this, we don't wear a
cross on our chests or carry a Vatican flag,'' he says.
Opus Dei also keeps a low profile at its IESE Business
School. The school, which has campuses in Madrid and Barcelona,
is a branch of the University of Navarra. Escriva founded the
Pamplona, Spain-based university in 1952.
Some executives say they had no idea they were associated
with Opus Dei's activities.
``I know nothing about the Opus Dei connection,'' says
Peter Sutherland, chairman of both Goldman Sachs International
and BP Plc, Europe's biggest oil company, who is a member of
IESE's international advisory board. ``It's ranked one of the
top two or three business schools in Europe,'' Sutherland says.
Nissan, Alcatel
Like Centro ELIS, IESE is cultivating corporate connections.
PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, one of the Big Four U.S.
accounting firms, funds the jobs of some of the school's
professors. Nissan Motor Co., Japan's No. 2 automaker; Alcatel
SA, the world's second-largest supplier of telecommunications
networks; and Banco Santander Central Hispano SA, Spain's
biggest bank, also provide funding, according to IESE's Web site.
Citigroup Inc., the world's biggest financial services
company, and Morgan Stanley, the third-biggest U.S. securities
firm by market value, are listed as ``supporting companies.''
The school says such support helps develop research
programs, train faculty and finance scholarships and
construction. Citigroup has sponsored student activities and
backed events in IESE's MBA program, says Eric Weber, IESE's
associate dean for executive education and an Opus Dei
supernumerary.
Pope Benedict XVI
``Part of the revolutionary character of Opus Dei is work
and economics acting for the pursuit of holiness,'' says Wauck,
42, who teaches a course on literature and the communication of
the faith at Opus Dei's Pontifical University of the Holy Cross
off Rome's Piazza Navona.
Across town in the office of Junior Consulting, there are
signs that Opus Dei's work there has the approval of at least
one higher authority.
On April 10, most of the students trekked to Vatican City
to join 3,500 youths from Opus Dei schools worldwide for an
audience with Pope Benedict XVI. Benedict greeted them in the
Vatican's audience hall, spoke of the importance of friendship
and quoted from ``The Way.'' He closed with a blessing.
``May the Holy Virgin help you,'' he said. ``And may Saint
Josemaria intercede on your behalf.'' The students presented
Benedict with a chocolate cake to mark his 79th birthday.
With friends like that, it's no wonder Opus Dei's leaders
are confident ``The Da Vinci Code'' won't stop them from
attracting and training students and executives and winning
financing from some of the world's largest corporations.
NB i also can talk like u.....this is my story
April 26 (Bloomberg) -- In the basement of a six-story
concrete building on the outskirts of Rome, young men and women
in suits scurry around a simulated office, fetching documents
from laser printers and hashing out business presentations. The
fake corporate environment has a name: Junior Consulting.
Along with the Centro ELIS trade school upstairs, it's the
brainchild of Opus Dei, the Roman Catholic group that Dan
Brown's novel ``The Da Vinci Code'' portrayed as a killer cult
conspiring with the Vatican to hide the true origins of
Christianity.
Far from Brown's fictional world, Opus Dei says its image
should be that of MBAs, not the book's murderous monk. The 78-
year-old group of priests and laypeople has 84,000 members in
more than five dozen countries and counts top executives,
political leaders in Latin America and a U.K. cabinet official
in its ranks. Opus Dei's emphasis on recruiting and training
businesspeople sets it apart from other Roman Catholic groups.
``Opus Dei is unique,'' says Keith Pecklers, a Jesuit
priest and professor of theology at the Pontifical Gregorian
University in Rome. ``Their approach is finding God in daily
life as a Christian, and a big part of that is the business
world.''
Opus Dei is seeking more high-powered members by funding
pizza parties and seminars on embryonic research, physician-
assisted suicide and evolution near U.S. Ivy League campuses.
And it's targeting lawyers and bankers through monthly meetings
at St. Mary Moorfields church in the City of London financial
district.
Opus Dei promotes Catholic church policy. It opposes
abortion and the ordination of women. The group says its goal is
to spread a credo that working hard brings people closer to God.
Cisco, Vodafone
Some members, such as Eduardo Guilisasti, chief executive
officer of Santiago-based Vina Concha y Toro SA, Latin America's
biggest winery, advance the effort by giving their entire
paycheck to help run Opus Dei's more than 100 technical and
management schools from Spain to Mexico, to Vietnam, Guilisasti
Cisco Systems Inc., the world's largest maker of computer
networking equipment; Vodafone Group Plc, the biggest mobile
phone service company by market value; and Nokia Oyj, the top
cell phone maker, all sponsor courses at Centro ELIS.
Students there have designed a business plan for Vodafone'
Mobile Interactive TV and assessed the quality of computer
images for Hewlett-Packard Co., the world's No. 2 personal
computer maker.
Opus Dei Awareness Network
Not everyone accepts that Opus Dei's goal is purely
spiritual. Dianne DiNicola says the group is out to recruit
future executives, separate them from their families and then
take their money.
``They proselytize educated, bright people -- you're
talking doctors, lawyers, corporate types,'' says DiNicola,
executive director of the Opus Dei Awareness Network in
Pittsfield, Massachusetts. The group publicizes Opus Dei's
practices, which it says restrict members' personal freedoms.
DiNicola, 63, founded ODAN after her daughter, Tammy,
joined and then quit Opus Dei when she was a student at Boston
College.
``They get these subtle controls in places where it
counts,'' DiNicola says. Opus Dei recruits people who have a
potential to succeed professionally, both for their influence
and their money, DiNicola says, based in part on her daughter's
experience as a numerary, a type of member who is celibate and
lives in Opus Dei residences.
No Sex
About 30 percent of the people in Opus Dei swear off sex.
The rest, known as supernumeraries, live in their own homes,
often raising families.
``She even had to write down if she bought a postage stamp;
that's how controlling they are on money,'' DiNicola says.
Recruits can become big earners for Opus Dei. ``Say they have a
salary of $200,000; they'll give most of it to Opus Dei,'' she
says.
Such complaints almost always come from former numeraries,
who as celibates make the biggest commitment when joining and
may go through the most stress when leaving, says Opus Dei
spokesman Manuel Sanchez in Rome.
``Some people who have left Opus Dei, they rethink what
they've done and the things they loved,'' he says. ``Excuse us
and pardon us if there's something that didn't go well.'' He
says it's standard for members to give Opus Dei as much money as
they can afford.
Gasoline Allowance
Concha y Toro's Guilisasti, 53, who declined to disclose
his salary, says he has no need for wealth. Opus Dei makes sure
he has enough for clothing, food and gasoline for the 2002
Subaru he drives to his company's headquarters along the banks
of the Mapocho River in Santiago.
``What would I do with money?'' Guilisasti asks, seated in
his wood-paneled office, where he keeps a framed photograph of
Josemaria Escriva de Balaguer, the Spanish priest who founded
Opus Dei in 1928, inside his desk. ``It's not important to my
life.''
Like other numeraries, Guilisasti is celibate and lives in
an Opus Dei home with group members. In one aspect of the novel
that crosses into reality, Opus Dei numeraries participate in
regular ``mortification.''
In a weekly ritual, numeraries whip themselves on the back
with a small switch while saying a prayer. For a few hours each
day, they wear a band with inward-pointing spikes, known as a
cilice, around their thighs. It can leave red marks and scars.
`Conspiratorial Theories'
In ``The Da Vinci Code'' (Doubleday, 2003), Opus Dei and
the Vatican are covering up the story of early Christianity,
including the secret that Jesus fathered a family. The secret is
guarded by a society known as the Priory of Sion, whose ``grand
masters'' have included Leonardo da Vinci.
A monk, guided by the head of Opus Dei, goes on a killing
spree to keep the secret under wraps. On April 7, a London court
cleared Brown of allegations he plagiarized the plot from the
nonfiction book ``The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail'' (Jonathan
Cape, 1982) by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoln.
``The conspiratorial theories about Opus Dei are ridiculous,
but you might say the goals are beyond the church,'' says James
Hitchcock, a professor who teaches Catholic Church history at
Saint Louis University in Missouri. ``It's the idea of
influencing society from within, quietly, by utilizing whatever
professional influence you have.''
Within the church, Opus Dei has become increasingly
prominent over the past two decades. Pope John Paul II, who died
in April 2005, made Opus Dei the church's only personal
prelature in 1982, meaning that, with a few exceptions, its
members report to Opus Dei leaders in Rome rather than to local
dioceses.
Rapid Sainthood
In 2002, John Paul presided over the canonization of
Escriva just 27 years after the priest's death -- the fastest
saint-making process in modern times.
Joaquin Navarro-Valls, the pope's spokesman, is an Opus Dei
member, as are 41 of the church's 4,662 bishops and two of its
192 cardinals. Among them is Julian Cardinal Herranz Casado,
president of the Vatican council that interprets religious law.
``John Paul liked Opus Dei very much, and he liked that
they agreed with him on doctrinal issues,'' says Thomas Reese, a
Jesuit priest appointed in March as a senior fellow at
Georgetown University's Woodstock Theological Center in
Washington.
Specifically, he was referring to opposing abortion,
contraception and marriage by priests. More than such policies,
which are backed by many Catholic groups, Opus Dei's pro-
business stance and ability to rally supporters among laypeople
endeared Opus Dei to John Paul, especially during his Cold War
push to topple Communism, Reese says.
Political Leaders
``This is an organization that can turn out 100,000 people
in St. Peter's Square to cheer the pope and his policies, and it
has these people all over the world,'' he says.
The Vatican's stamp of approval gives Opus Dei clout in the
highest levels in mostly Catholic South America.
In Brazil, the world's largest Catholic country, Sao Paulo
Governor Geraldo Alckmin, a presidential candidate in October's
elections, seeks spiritual counsel about once a month on
economics, labor relations and religion from Opus Dei leader
Carlos Di Franco. Alckmin has said to Di Franco, Opus Dei's
communications director in Brazil, that he's not a member of
Opus Dei.
In Chile, Joaquin Lavin, Santiago's former mayor and a
losing presidential candidate last year, is an Opus Dei member.
London Bankers
Opus Dei, which means ``the work of God'' in Latin, is
expanding from strongholds in South America, Italy and Spain to
the English-speaking world. U.K. Education Secretary Ruth Kelly
is an Opus Dei supernumerary, says Andrew Soane, a chartered
accountant and a London-based member of Opus Dei's U.K. regional
council, which runs the group's affairs there. Former Bank of
England economist Kelly, 38, was elected to Parliament in 1997.
Opus Dei is reaching out to City of London bankers and lawyers,
Soane says.
In the U.S., Opus Dei completed its 17-story, $69 million
Manhattan headquarters at Lexington Avenue and 34th Street in
2001, a bricks-and-mortar announcement that the group had
arrived in the world's financial capital.
To target the nation's brightest students, Opus Dei runs
off-campus housing and centers around Harvard University in
Cambridge, Massachusetts; Brown University in Providence, Rhode
Island; and Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey.
Pizza Dinners
Opus Dei residences, which aren't affiliated with the
universities, are open to students who choose not to live in
dorms.
John Wauck, a Harvard graduate who's now an Opus Dei priest
in Rome, fulfilled the first-year requirement to live in a
dormitory and then moved into Opus Dei's Elmbrook Student Center.
For nonresidents, the centers offer pizza dinners, prayer
meetings and talks on topics such as ``Plotting a Pro-Life Legal
Strategy.''
Recruiting on campuses and running business schools
increase the odds that Opus Dei will have company executives as
members, Opus Dei Chief Financial Officer Pablo Elton says.
``If we're working with students, 30 years later they'll be
CEOs,'' he says.
Some former numeraries who joined as students describe what
they call cultlike experiences.
In Brazil, Antonio Carlos Brolezzi spent 10 years living in
an Opus Dei residence in Sao Paulo. A decade later, he says Opus
Dei uses deception and secrecy to lure innocent youth into
worshipping money and repressing their sexuality.
`Like a Slave'
Brolezzi, 41, a University of Sao Paulo statistics
professor, says he didn't start recovering from what he called
the ``trauma'' until he wrote a book about his time as a member,
which was published this year.
``The life of a numerary is like a slave's,'' says Brolezzi,
who married after leaving Opus Dei and has a two-year-old
daughter. At age 18, Brolezzi says he attended lectures about
astronomy that turned out to be recruiting meetings for Opus Dei.
At 19 and a virgin, he moved into an Opus Dei house for
numeraries.
``They really try to replace your family,'' Brolezzi says.
Control was personal and financial.
He gave his salary to Opus Dei, and when he confessed to
fantasizing about women, the center's director ordered Brolezzi
to wear tight-fitting pants that were hard to remove, to
discourage masturbation.
Exit Cost
Getting out of Opus Dei was difficult, he says, partly
because he had no savings.
``I don't think I will ever recover financially from Opus
Dei,'' he says. ``I gave 10 years of my most-productive years to
Opus Dei without earning a cent.''
Opus Dei spokesman Sanchez says the group doesn't publicly
contest grievances of former members. ``An experience is
subjective,'' he says.
Taking members' money isn't the group's objective and
having executives among its ranks isn't a particular point of
pride, Elton says.
``What's important is that their work is in service to
other people,'' he says.
Elton, speaking in Opus Dei's Rome headquarters, says ``The
Da Vinci Code'' has heightened scrutiny of his work and caused
him to be more open about Opus Dei's activities. It has also led
Opus Dei and some Catholic groups to counterattack.
Opus Dei has asked Sony Corp. to include a disclaimer in
the film adaptation stating that the thriller, which stars Tom
Hanks and which was directed by Ron Howard, is entirely
fictional.
No Monks
Opus Dei introduced a revamped Web site in March and moved
some staff from its information office in Rome to New York to
coordinate its media response to the movie. One piece of the
message is that Opus Dei has no monks, contrary to the depiction
in ``The Da Vinci Code.''
Part of Opus Dei's strategy in countering the movie is to
open its schools and residences to news reporters and to have
members grant interviews to tell the story of Opus Dei and its
history.
The founder of Opus Dei, who was born in 1902 in Barbastro,
Spain, learned the perils of entrepreneurship as a child.
Escriva's father, Jose, ran a textile company that failed
13 years later, forcing the family to move to the city of
Logrono in northern Spain for Jose to seek work, according to
Escriva's official biography.
When young Josemaria decided to become a priest, he
followed his father's advice and also trained as a lawyer.
Law Doctorate
Escriva, who was ordained in 1925, was working on his law
doctorate in Madrid when he said God showed him his mission: to
found Opus Dei. Escriva outlined those views in his book of
aphorisms, ``El Camino,'' or ``The Way,'' which was first
published in 1934 and translated into at least 43 languages.
``An hour of study, for a modern apostle, is an hour of
prayer,'' he wrote.
He'd just started to build the group when the outbreak of
the Spanish Civil War in 1936 forced him to flee the anti-
clerical Republicans in Madrid for France. He returned to Spain
during the rule of dictator Francisco Franco in 1939.
Opus Dei began its international push in 1946 when Escriva
moved to Rome and the group set up in Italy, Portugal and the
U.K.
In 1965, Escriva and Pope Paul VI opened the technical
school on the outskirts of Rome on land the Vatican donated.
Called Centro ELIS -- ELIS stands for the Italian words for
education, work, training and sport -- the Opus Dei school
became a model for projects worldwide.
Gaining Influence
Opus Dei members say education has been key to its
corporate aspirations. Opus Dei's Universidad de los Andes in
Santiago provides graduate courses to students who have already
made their way up the corporate ladder. The school admits only
managers at the division-head level and higher.
``The owner of a company can influence decisions more than
a simple employee,'' says Alberto Lopez-Hermida, 67, director
general of the university's business school, which has just
moved into a $10 million building in the arid Andean Mountain
foothills.
Guilisasti says he decided to join Opus Dei in 1968 after
becoming spellbound by a priest's talk during high school in
Santiago. Today, he lives with eight men in Santiago's affluent
Las Condes neighborhood. So-called administrators, or female
Opus Dei numeraries, take care of the cooking and cleaning.
Working Women
Opus Dei says it treats male and female members equally and
says women should be politically active in society. It also
considers men and women to have different natural abilities,
according to Opus Dei's Web site. Opus Dei says housekeeping and
child rearing are tasks in pursuit of holiness in the same ways
as office work.
``I give thanks to God often on seeing how the women of
Opus Dei work in every sector of society: running corporations
and hospitals, working in fields and in factories, holding
university chairs,'' Opus Dei's prelate, or leader, Bishop
Javier Echevarria says on the group's Web site.
Opus Dei members also work at home. In addition to running
Concha y Toro, Guilisasti polices Opus Dei rules at the group
house where he lives.
One regulation bars numeraries from watching ``immoral''
movies on television, he says.
A practice of self-flagellation outlined in ``The Da Vinci
Code'' forms part of his routine of daily ``mortification,''
which reminds him of the suffering Christ endured on the cross.
`Mild Discomfort'
``A lot is made of mortification,'' says Di Franco, who
wears a cilice for two hours a day. ``This has been around for
hundreds of years in many different forms. It's really just a
mild discomfort.''
Opus Dei, which is governed from Rome and funded locally,
requires members such as Guilisasti to finance its centers and
find money to run the schools and projects they start.
Members cover the living expenses of Opus Dei priests who
are assigned to each region to conduct Mass, hear confession and
provide clerical services. The members donate either to the
centers or to foundations set up to fund Opus Dei activities,
according to members and U.S. tax returns.
Guilisasti has willed all of his assets, including his
share of his family's 26 percent, $265 million stake in Concha y
Toro, to Opus Dei foundations.
Elton says that even with donations from members and from
the scores of foundations that support Opus Dei, the
organization isn't rich. He says the only accounting he has seen
of the group's assets is a $2.8 billion estimate for Opus Dei
and its branches, which he says is a small amount compared with
the $102 billion of revenue that Catholic programs in the U.S.
reported in 2001.
Numbers Game
``That helped explain an important theme -- that numbers
aren't the most important thing in Opus Dei,'' Elton says in his
Rome office, which has a desk with a computer, a round table, a
wardrobe and a door that leads to a bedroom with a single bed
that's covered with a floral bedspread.
Elton's role is to advise local Opus Dei branches and
foundations on how to establish endowment funds and to set
investment guidelines, which he says are conservative. The
directors of each foundation invest the money themselves.
``We don't go on adventures with hedge funds,'' Elton says,
laughing. The group's local foundations and branches don't send
him financial statements, although he's generally aware of their
activities, he says.
One such foundation, New York-based Clover Foundation,
reported assets of $31.3 million at the end of 2004. Of that sum,
it invested $12.1 million in stocks, $10.5 million in corporate
bonds and $5.93 million in municipal and U.S. government bonds,
according to its 2004 tax return.
Embryo Status
It used part of its money to build and renovate schools in
Mexico and Nigeria. It also spent $50,000 to study the legal
status of embryos, a topic that's central to the church's anti-
abortion efforts; run a conference on the importance of marriage;
and support unspecified postgraduate research at Princeton
University, according to the tax return.
Opus Dei's Woodlawn Foundation, based in New Rochelle, New
York, reported assets of $12.5 million at the end of 2004. It
invested $3.87 million in mutual funds and stocks that year.
Woodlawn acts as a clearinghouse for channeling donations
into Opus Dei activities. It received $11.4 million in gifts and
distributed $11 million to 45 Opus Dei centers, schools and
offices in 2004, according to its tax return. Woodlawn gave
$1.23 million to Murray Hill Place Inc., which owns Opus Dei's
U.S. headquarters in New York.
Because of ongoing fund raising, Centro ELIS is a four-
hectare (9.9-acre) oasis in a run-down neighborhood of concrete
apartment blocks on Rome's eastern fringe.
Welding Shops
It includes a 200-bed dormitory, green playing fields and
classes sponsored by some of the world's biggest companies. The
school houses its original welding shops as well as computer
networking labs and a business training program for men and
women who have just graduated from universities. It also has a
Catholic chapel, in which Mass is said a few times a year.
Centro ELIS has received about 800,000 euros ($990,000) in
Italian government funds to spawn at least 16 similar schools in
China, Ecuador, Uruguay, Vietnam and other countries, says
Pierluigi Bartolomei, director of Centro ELIS's technical school.
In Hanoi, Centro ELIS set up a mechanic school that has a
partnership with Hameco, a 48-year-old Vietnamese maker of
industrial equipment, according to the Centro ELIS Web site.
No Vatican Flag
Opus Dei establishes such schools through its
L'Associazione Centro ELIS, which competes with other
nongovernmental organizations for Italian Foreign Ministry
funding. When the Centro ELIS association wins contracts, it
sends staff, who are usually Opus Dei members, to start the
schools and turn them over to local administrators or the local
governments, Bartolomei says. The schools don't overtly flaunt
their Opus Dei connection, other than creating an environment
that fosters work and economic development, Bartolomei says.
``When we have an institute like this, we don't wear a
cross on our chests or carry a Vatican flag,'' he says.
Opus Dei also keeps a low profile at its IESE Business
School. The school, which has campuses in Madrid and Barcelona,
is a branch of the University of Navarra. Escriva founded the
Pamplona, Spain-based university in 1952.
Some executives say they had no idea they were associated
with Opus Dei's activities.
``I know nothing about the Opus Dei connection,'' says
Peter Sutherland, chairman of both Goldman Sachs International
and BP Plc, Europe's biggest oil company, who is a member of
IESE's international advisory board. ``It's ranked one of the
top two or three business schools in Europe,'' Sutherland says.
Nissan, Alcatel
Like Centro ELIS, IESE is cultivating corporate connections.
PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, one of the Big Four U.S.
accounting firms, funds the jobs of some of the school's
professors. Nissan Motor Co., Japan's No. 2 automaker; Alcatel
SA, the world's second-largest supplier of telecommunications
networks; and Banco Santander Central Hispano SA, Spain's
biggest bank, also provide funding, according to IESE's Web site.
Citigroup Inc., the world's biggest financial services
company, and Morgan Stanley, the third-biggest U.S. securities
firm by market value, are listed as ``supporting companies.''
The school says such support helps develop research
programs, train faculty and finance scholarships and
construction. Citigroup has sponsored student activities and
backed events in IESE's MBA program, says Eric Weber, IESE's
associate dean for executive education and an Opus Dei
supernumerary.
Pope Benedict XVI
``Part of the revolutionary character of Opus Dei is work
and economics acting for the pursuit of holiness,'' says Wauck,
42, who teaches a course on literature and the communication of
the faith at Opus Dei's Pontifical University of the Holy Cross
off Rome's Piazza Navona.
Across town in the office of Junior Consulting, there are
signs that Opus Dei's work there has the approval of at least
one higher authority.
On April 10, most of the students trekked to Vatican City
to join 3,500 youths from Opus Dei schools worldwide for an
audience with Pope Benedict XVI. Benedict greeted them in the
Vatican's audience hall, spoke of the importance of friendship
and quoted from ``The Way.'' He closed with a blessing.
``May the Holy Virgin help you,'' he said. ``And may Saint
Josemaria intercede on your behalf.'' The students presented
Benedict with a chocolate cake to mark his 79th birthday.
With friends like that, it's no wonder Opus Dei's leaders
are confident ``The Da Vinci Code'' won't stop them from
attracting and training students and executives and winning
financing from some of the world's largest corporations.
michaeltan
Banned.
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Re: Another BMW marketing-engineering-legislation quandary - Pedestrian Protection
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