Catholic Information Center - WASHINGTON, September 15—Cardinal James Hickey of Washington blessed and dedicated the first public chapel in the United States honoring Blessed Josemaria Escriva, founder of Opus Dei, during a Mass here on September 14, feast of the Triumph of the Holy Cross. The chapel is located in the Catholic Information Center of the Washington archdiocese, two blocks from the White House.

Concelebrating the Mass with Cardinal Hickey were Bishop Javier Echevarria, Prelate of Opus Dei, Bishop Paul S. Loverde of Arlington, Virginia, and Auxiliary Bishop William E. Lori of Washington. Other concelebrants included the Vicar General of the Prelature of Opus Dei, the very Rev. Msgr. Fernando Ocariz, and the Vicar of Opus Dei for the United States, the Very Reverend Arne Panula of New York.

Msgr. Josemaria Escriva, a Spanish priest, founded Opus Dei in Spain in 1928. He died in 1975 and was beatified—a step on the way to formal recognition by the Church as a saint—by Pope John Paul II in 1992. Canonically organized as a Prelature, Opus Dei encourages the pursuit of holiness by lay people living and working in the world. It has about 80,000 members worldwide, with headquarters in Rome.

"Beautifully renewed and developed," the Catholic Information Center (CIC) "is a place of evangelization, catechesis, and spiritual refreshment." The cardinal emphasized the genuine need for the center as "a resource for truth in the midst of the city."

"People who come to the center are indeed seeking information—information to lead to their salvation and holiness in life." The cardinal reminded over one hundred invited guests of the "universal call to holiness" that Blessed Josemaria and the Second Vatican Council "taught us," which is "to seek holiness in the home, in the workplace, and during leisure time."

The cardinal also shared in his homily words from the former director of the Catholic Information Center, Father Michael Curtin: "Those who come through these doors are also seeking the answers to life's questions … for what would it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul?"

Rev. C. J. McCloskey III, native of the Washington area and current director of the CIC, attributed the center’s initial expansion, and even survival, to the late Rev. Curtin, who became director in 1992. In his opening remarks, the director referred to the new center, located at 825 15th Street, "as another effort in the new evangelization," called for by Pope John Paul II.

The chapel itself, "was appropriately dedicated on the Feast of the Holy Cross," according to the Prelate of Opus Dei, "to remind everyone that finding the cross in the midst of work is finding Christ there, and thus is a source of joy."

Bishop Echevarria called the new Catholic Information Center a "wonderful instrument for helping many women and men in the nation’s capital to encounter and serve God … in the center of the public life of the country where so much of what transpires has influence throughout the world."

But according to Fr. McCloskey, the 12:05 Mass attracts anyone from senators to policemen and secretaries. In addition to daily Mass, a priest is always available for confession, spiritual direction, and counseling. The chapel is open each afternoon for private prayer and Eucharistic adoration. The center also provides spiritual reading with the largest Catholic bookstore in the greater Washington area.

Among the invited guests were the chapel’s architect, Henry H. Menzies, and sculptor Dony MacManus, who rendered the bronze statues of the Founder of Opus Dei and St. Catherine of Siena, on either side of the baldachin altar.

The statue of Blessed Josemaria Escriva, located to the right of the altar, depicts the Founder, who invites the lay faithful to embrace the universal call to holiness. Using only a prayer card with Blessed Escriva’s portrait, the architect executed the statue with great precision.

St. Catherine of Siena, noted for heroic charity and her artful negotiations with popes and cardinals, stands to the left of the altar.

The altar itself, which was anointed after the prayer of dedication, is covered by a richly colored canopy.

The chapel’s focal point, however, is an embossed ceramic of the Holy Family, mounted above the tabernacle. "It is the family, supported by the mutual self-giving of the spouses, which is at the center of human life and reflects the mutual self-giving of the persons of the Holy Trinity," explained Fr. McCloskey.

Opposite the altar, above the chapel’s entrance, are three carefully chosen stained glass windows. St. John Vianney, the patron saint of parish priests, also known as the Great Confessor, and St. Thomas More, the lay martyr who lived an authentic vocation to marriage and family life and sanctified his daily labors as a statesman, stand between a depiction of the Lord with His disciples at Emmaus.

The chapel’s iconography, particularly St. Catherine of Siena and St. Thomas More, were chosen for the chapel because they are role models for the contemporary lay Christian, who seeks God amidst the mundane and the ordinary. The emphasis on lay sanctity and the notion of the universal call to holiness are at the center of the spirituality of Opus Dei.

In a statement before leaving, Cardinal Hickey commented on the importance of the new Catholic Information Center: "It is a place where we go to get the good seed of the Lord’s word and to encourage its flowering in our Christian life. There is a great need for Catholics to be articulate, to replenish one’s knowledge, and to grow in charity for others."

Copyright © 2000 Christine Creech

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Christine Creech is the Information Officer of the Catholic Information Center. Miss Creech is completing her Licentiate in Social Institutional Communications at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome, Italy.