Opus Dei presents proposal for new statutes to the Holy See

The prelate of Opus Dei with Pope Leo XIV. / Credit: Vatican Media

Vatican City, Jun 11, 2025 / 16:41 pm (CNA).

Opus Dei presented its proposed statutes to the Holy See on June 11 following the guidelines from the Vatican in the 2022 motu proprio Ad Charisma Tuendum as announced by the apostolate’s prelate, Monsignor Fernando Ocáriz.

“I would like to inform you about the work of adapting the statutes. We had planned to complete this study at the general congress, but, as you know, due to the Holy See being vacant, it was deemed appropriate not to do so,” Ocáriz explained in a letter. “The congress participants gave their positive opinion so that, with the new [general] council and [central] advisory [board], we could conclude the revision of the statutes and submit them to the Holy See for approval, which we did today.”

“It has been a three-year journey, accompanied by everyone’s prayers, which I ask you to intensify in this final stage,” he added in the letter, in which he urged everyone to entrust their work and apostolic labors to the Most Holy Trinity and to St. Josemaría Escrivá, noting that this June marks the 50th anniversary of the founder of Opus Dei’s death.

Now the Holy See will have to review and determine whether it will accept the statutes proposed by the prelature. The time frame for the decision is unknown.

On May 14, just six days after his election, Pope Leo XIV discussed with Ocáriz the process of revising its statutes. This process had to be postponed following the death of Pope Francis on April 21, two days before the convening of the general congress from which the revisions proposed for approval were to be issued.

According to the Opus Dei communications office in Rome, “the Holy Father, among other things, inquired about the current study of the prelature’s statutes.”

“Leo XIV listened with great interest to the explanations given to him,” the official statement noted.

The Vatican did not provide an account of the meeting’s content and limited itself to reporting it in the pope’s agenda, which is distributed daily to the Vatican-accredited press.

Since the summer of 2022, Opus Dei has been in the process of revising its statutes to adapt them to Pope Francis’ motu proprio Ad Charisma Tuendum. In essence, the pontiff’s directive placed Opus Dei under the direction of the Dicastery for the Clergy rather than the Dicastery for Bishops, and ended the practice of elevating the prelate of Opus Dei to the rank of bishop.

The Argentine pontiff had also requested that Opus Dei revise its statutes to reflect this new structure, which was to be finalized during the general congress. This revision was to be presented as a proposal to the Holy See for approval, following its adoption by the assembly.

However, the general congress ultimately focused solely on the tasks of choosing a new general council and central advisory board, positions that are selected every eight years.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.