Another interesting comment from Congar, who had been talking to Mgr André Baron, the rector of the French church in Rome, Saint Louis des Français:
“He spoke to me a bit about the atmosphere. He is no longer on the commission for the laity but on the one for Religious.
“He told me that Opus Dei, which is spreading fantastically, is also spreading its own view according to which members of secular institutes are the only genuine laity!” Congar wrote, astonished.
Indeed, it was a view that Cardijn too would have completely rejected.
Congar adds, however, that Mgr Baron was full of praise for Cardinal Paolo Marella, who had just completed his term as nuncio in France (after also serving in Australia and New Zealand), and who therefore “had a good understanding and supported the French approach.”
Another potential ally at the Vatican!
SOURCE
Yves Congar, My Journal of the Council, ATF Press, 2012, 25-35.
Yves Congar, Mon Journal du Concile, T. I, Cerf, Paris, 2002, 43.
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