Romana

Darío Menor

How are you going to coordinate your mutual responsibilities. Will traveling and attending to daily matters be Msgr. Ocáriz’s responsibility?

The appointment of Msgr. Ocáriz as Auxiliary Vicar of the Prelature will be an important help for the governing of this portion of the People of God that is the Prelature of Opus Dei. He will share with me the executive power, not only in matters that corresponds to a Vicar General but also those our law reserves to the Prelate.

Thanks be to God, in recent years the number of circumscriptions of the Prelature that depend more directly on the Prelate has grown. All this entails an increase in the work of government. The Auxiliary Vicar—and the new Vicar General—can provide direct assistance in this task and help to maintain close contact with people, also by means of trips. I hope to continue making pastoral visits to the various countries, so that the faithful of the Prelature can sense the “family” spirit (the whole Church is a family!) of the spiritual make-up of Opus Dei, which the founder so deeply marked with his paternity.

We will coordinate each one’s work on the various matters, following the collegiality that St. Josemaría imprinted from the beginning on the government of Opus Dei.

Is it correct to interpret the appointment of Msgr. Ocáriz as a sign of who is the best candidate for an eventual succession at the head of the Prelature?

It is not up to me to anticipate the future. The Prelature’s Statutes are very clear on this point: they set down that the election of the Prelate is the responsibility of a General Elective Congress and requires the confirmation of the Holy Father.