Their Kingdom Come: Inside the Secret World of Opus Dei [Hardcover]

Robert Hutchison (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 23, 1999

An explosive expose of one of the most powerful and secretive sects operating within the Roman Catholic Church-Opus Dei.

This book reveals that Opus Dei:

-Has become the Catholic Church's paramount financial power
-Influences its members through a combination of secret rites and insistence on absolute obedience
-Uses a strategy of discretion to cloud its real intentions
-Aims to prepare Christendom for the next crusade against Islam

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Their Kingdom Come: Inside the Secret World of Opus Dei by Robert Hutchison purports to expose the inner workings of an extremely conservative Catholic organization headquartered in Rome, whose members include the Pope's personal secretary, his spokesman, and several of his close ministers. These leaders are supported by 80,000 other believers around the world. Opus Dei is Latin for "God's Work," and Hutchison believes that Opus Dei's divine devotions include the operation of a media network as large as Rupert Murdoch's; immense financial support of the Church; and the preparation for a new Crusade against Islam. Their Kingdom Come paints Opus Dei as a Catholic conspiracy to infiltrate the world's upper echelons of political, financial, and educational power, and suggests that the group especially prizes its Mafia connections. Hutchison, a Swiss journalist who has written for the Sunday Telegraph and Toronto's Financial Post, weakens some of his arguments with cheap shots (chapter titles include "Moneybags Theology" and "Opus Octopus"), and he leans too heavily on anonymous sources for his most scandalous accusations. The few Opus Dei members whom he does identify, do, however, evince a steely, dogmatic self-confidence: "We have been chosen by God to save the Church," says one; "We have an orthodox vision that is pure, certain, solid, assured of everything," intones another. Opus Dei is the pope's only Personal Prelature, a privileged bishopric with no geographical boundaries. Learning more about the group is worth a reader's time, and Their Kingdom Come is a fine, though flawed, way to begin that endeavor. --Michael Joseph Gross

From Publishers Weekly

Hutchison has chosen a tricky subject: a secretive Catholic organization that can easily provoke the old prejudices against Catholics involving secrecy and conspiracies. It's to his credit, then, that his report on Opus Dei ("God's Work"), a small, little-known but powerful lay organization within the Catholic church, is a responsible piece of investigative reporting. Both politically and theologically conservative (many would say reactionary), Opus Dei has, according to Hutchison, flourished during the papacy of John Paul II: "John Paul II's closest advisers were the men of Opus Dei... which, through his help, had become the Church's only Personal Prelature, that is to say, a privileged bishopric without a territory." The organization's aggressive recruiting of influential professionals in business, media, finance and government has enabled it to amass enormous backroom influence. Hutchison presents a mixed chronological and thematic account of Opus Dei's development, from the provincial family background of Spanish founder Josemar!a Escriv de Balaguer (1902-1975) to its present role intensifying lines of conflict with fundamentalist Islam. While Hutchison puts readers right in the middle of various complex financial/political scandals, his narrative slips rapidly from thread to thread, exacerbating the inherent confusion of such secretive dealings. He touches on important theological, philosophical and moral issues, but fails to use them systemically to illuminate Opus Dei's rivalries with others on the right or its profound hostility to progressives such as Pope John XXIII. Ultimately, while the book is packed with meticulous detail, Hutchison never weaves his findings into a coherent evaluative framework. Photos, illustrations not seen by PW.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 486 pages
• Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books; 1st edition (June 23, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312193440
• ISBN-13: 978-0312193447
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.5 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #635,261 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

50 of 60 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars 1Star because you cannot give 0, January 12, 2007

By 

Steven R. McEvoy "MCWPP" (Canada) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Their Kingdom Come: Inside the Secret World of Opus Dei (Paperback)

Seldom do I come across a book that turns me off so quickly, and so completely, as this book did. For a little over a year I have been researching Opus Dei with the goal of doing my Thesis on the organization. If even a tenth of what this book claims is true, then this group is the best in the world at keeping secrets, and the people I have known who are members are great deceivers, better than what the devil himself is given credit for being.

The cover of the book claims: "A responsible piece of investigative reporting ... packed with meticulous detail." from Publishers Weekly. Yet I find none of that in this book in comparison with other books on the same subject. Both this author, and Michael Walsh in his book The Secret World of Opus Dei, claim to have access to secret documents that are not reproduced or evidenced other than their claims given to their existence.

Hutchison claims that Josemaria Escriva, the founder of Opus Dei, was not really interested in the spiritual life of his followers. He states: "Escriva was interested in power. He was a schemer. God's schemer. And he wanted to control higher education, and later government ministries." p.87 This book makes such wide and varied accusations against Opus Dei that it is hard to believe the author has not been charged with libel and slander. Hutchison claims that Opus Dei has overturned governments, controlled the FBI and the CIA, bankrupted the Vatican so that Opus Dei could bail them out, and orchestrated assassination attempts including the one against Pope Paul VI. He even went so far as to claim that Opus Dei controls the majority of the Clergy and Laity in the Roman Curia and that they even actively recruit in the Pentagon and other government organizations around the world to achieve the power and control they want. Hutchison even alludes to the fact that Pope John Paul II was really just a puppet for Opus Dei; he calls JPII Opus Dei's Pope.

How this book is published as Non-Fiction and not Fiction I will never know. Of the 30 odd books I have read, both for and against Opus Dei in the last year, this book is definitely the worst and thus deserves a `Hate It' book review. If you want to read something unbiased and informative, I would start with John Allen Jr.'s book Opus Dei: An Objective Look Behind the Myths and Reality of the Most Controversial Force in the Catholic Church. It is worth the read. But this book by Hutchison is trash and does not deserve your time, effort or hard-earned money.

(First Published in Imprint 2007.01.12 as 'Hate it' part of the 'Love it/ Hate it' book review column.)

35 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A scathing expose of the elite shadow government behind the Vatican, June 7, 2006

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Their Kingdom Come: Inside the Secret World of Opus Dei (Paperback)

Now in an newly updated and expanded edition, Their Kingdom Come: Inside the Secret World of Opus Dei is a scathing expose of the elite shadow government behind the Vatican, Opus Dei. From their unholy alliance with the Mafia, secular powerbrokers, and high-ranking prelates, to the threat that money and politics poses to the Christian values underlying the Catholic Church itself, Their Kingdom Come chills the spine as it shows how absolute power corrupts absolutely. Written by journalist and National Business Writing Award winner Robert Hutchinson, Their Kingdom Come is highly recommended for lay readers and religious leadership alike, both as a warning of Opus Dei's shortcomings and a cautionary tale for other religious groups, institutions and movements.

26 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars How sensationalism can replace realism, July 10, 2002

By 

Bill O'Chee (Surfers Paradise, QLD Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Their Kingdom Come: Inside the Secret World of Opus Dei (Hardcover)

This book is loaded with sensational "revelations" - all you have to do is replace rational thought with gullibility and have a rollicking read.

As with many books of this genre, the author relies upon suggestion, rather than proof to support his thesis. What "may have happened" in one chapter becomes fact when repeated in another. The result is something more akin to a cross between tabloid journalism and a witchhunt, than serious investigation.

The author follows the path of Opus Dei founder, Monseigneur Escrivar and the organisation itself. Interwoven are tales of alleged financial improriety, neafrious dealings in the vatican, and shadowy right wing conspiracies. Sadly, nothing in this book goes much beyond unproven conjecture.

Along the way there is a vigorous defence of Liberation theology, which was at the root of decades of civil war in Latin America, and a staunch effort by the author to equate anyone opposed to it with the CIA or worse.

There is no denying that the Catholic Church was involved in a political fight during the Cold War. With many millions of Catholics locked behind the Iron Curtain, and the Church struggling for its very survival, that is not surprising. What is surprising is that the author put any consideration of these factors aside when writing his work.