In this podcast, Fr. Peter Armenio shares a historical reflection on the 80th anniversary of St. Josemaria Escriva’s founding of the Priestly Society of the Holy Cross on February 14, 1943. 

Fifteen years after founding Opus Dei (October 2, 1928), St. Josemaria finally saw “a way, a canonical solution to have priests in Opus Dei.” St. Josemaria had realized early on that Opus Dei needed priests “who have that heightened awareness that Christ wants to be in the workplace. He wants to be in the family, he wants to be in social relations… The layperson can’t just receive the sacraments in a perfunctory way. Those sacraments need to be administered by holy priests who completely understand that the layperson is called to a first-class sanctity.”

As Fr. Peter explains, “the priest and the layperson are an organic unity.” Both “have their own role that is indispensable for the New Evangelization, to bring Christ to the middle of the world, and they complement each other and they’re profoundly united to each other.” This is why the Priestly Society of the Holy Cross is so important to Opus Dei and the Church: to meet the “burning need for holiness among the priests” so that they meet the “burning need for holiness among laypersons.”

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