Santiago de Pablo: "'Expansión' (“Expansion”) and 'El hecho inesperado' (“An unexpected event”) make known the history of Opus Dei with great honesty and rigor

Santiago de Pablo, Professor of Modern History in the University of the Basque Country, was the main speaker at a colloquium held in the University of Navarra about the latest books produced by the Center for Documentation and Research on Josemaría Escriva de Balaguer relating to the history of Opus Dei: Expansión [“Expansion”] by Onésimo Díaz, and El hecho inesperado [“An unexpected event”] by Mercedes Montero and Inmaculada Alva. The three researchers from the Center and Professor de Pablo spoke about both books and their interest, in the latter words, “not only for historians but also a wider public interested in religious questions about the Catholic church and Opus Dei”.

Professor de Pablo pointed out some similarities between Expansión and El hecho inesperado, noting that “both are part of the Opus Dei’s historiographical commitment to presenting its own history based on academic methodology”. He also underscored “the rigor and honesty with which the history of Opus Dei is approached”, as well as the “impressive documentary contribution of the General Archive of the Prelature”. The honesty the professor referred to “is reflected in the bibliographical sources used because, in addition to the achievements of the institution during those years, neither the problems nor criticisms are overlooked".

“Through the history of Opus Dei as narrated in Expansión and El hecho inesperado it is possible to understand the society of the time, since the information they provide sheds light on the general history of daily life in post-war Spain," de Pablo said. In Onésimo Díaz’s book, “the freedom experienced by the members of the Work under a dictatorial regime and the social differences between the members in Madrid and Barcelona are striking,” he explained. “In El hecho inesperado, the most outstanding feature is to see how the first women of the Work managed to carry out pioneering initiatives even though they were very few in number, in charge of running of the centers, and about to expand internationally,” added De Pablo in regard to the book by Mercedes Montero and Inmaculada Alva. 

“Both Expansión and El hecho inesperado are end-points and, at the same time, starting-points for future works of research and synthesis, and should encourage the Center for Documentation and Research on Josemaría Escriva de Balaguer to continue its in-depth academic document-centered history of Opus Dei and to make it more widely known," concluded Santiago de Pablo.