Vatican warns against splinter group devoted to angels

(November 5, 2010) The Vatican's doctrinal office has asked the world's bishops to be vigilant over the activities of members of a wayward splinter group that is pretending to be part of the Church-recognized Opus Angelorum association. In a letter, the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith said the splinter movement was trying to revive practices banned 18 years ago, including liturgical ceremonies that focus on angels. Opus Angelorum, the Latin for "work of angels," was reformed after a 1992 Vatican decree and today is a "public association of the church in conformity with traditional doctrine and with the directives of the Holy See.” The association "spreads devotion to the holy angels among the faithful, exhorts them to pray for priests, and promotes love for Christ in his Passion and union with it," said the letter sent to the presidents of the world's bishops' conferences. But it said bishops should be aware that there are a certain number of members, including priests who left or were expelled from the Order of Canons Regular of the Holy Cross, who "have not accepted the norms given by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and seek to restore what, according to them, would be the 'authentic Opus Angelorum.'" The splinter movement "professes and practices all those things which were forbidden" by earlier Vatican documents.