Thursday, August 30, 2007
"THE ANGEL SECT'S WEB"
is the title of an article by Heiner Boberski that appeared in "The Tablet" May 30, 1998. It discusses Opus Angelorum. I have been able to locate an available copy online here. Boberinski is the author of a book-length investigation into the activities of Opus Angelorum. The book, however, is not available in English translation.
Here is a portion of The Tablet article:
Strict secrecy is regarded as of the utmost importance in the OA, so membership, with the exception of the 160 male and 150 female members of the Holy Cross Order (1992 figures), can rarely be proved. In 1993, Fr Hansjörg Bitterlich, Gabriele Bitterlich’s son, who at the time was still superior of the Holy Cross Convent of St Petersberg in the Tyrol, spoke of almost 10,000 regular members, and added that a further million people were close to the Opus Angelorum. The OA itself has claimed that about a dozen cardinals and more than 50 bishops have become members. With their help the organisation is pressing for influence in the Church, although it is doubtful whether all these church dignitaries are acquainted with and approve of OA writings like the Handbook. As early as 1988, when Cardinal Friedrich Wetter, Archbishop of Munich, forbade Opus Angelorum activities in his diocese, an ex-member warned on Bavarian television: I think the danger for the Church is very great. I really believe that, step by step, the OA intends to occupy key positions in the Church and make it into an Opus Angelorum Church.
The reason this group disturbs me is contained in the following passage:
The OA and its teachings are based on a so-called private revelation. From visions she had had, Gabriele Bitterlich (1896-1978), a Tyrolean housewife who originally came from Vienna, and is greatly venerated by the organisation as The Mother, described the names, characteristics and appearance of hundreds of angels and demons and the never-ending battle between them. Apparently 80,000 manuscript pages can be attributed to her, and from these various publications have been composed and made available to members.
According to OA theory, in order to achieve salvation, human beings must actively join the angels in their battle against the demons – which means, in concrete terms, joining the Opus Angelorum. That these inspirations were of a supernatural nature is not very plausible, as there are indications that spiritism and esoteric literature, above all occult Jewish cabbala teachings, played a certain role in the Bitterlich family. Some of Mother Gabriele’s angels bear the names of cabalistic Sefirot, like the titles of the chapters in Eco’s Foucault’s Pendulum, but also names like Yahweh, which, according to Jewish tradition, are reserved solely for God.
