Pope Francis moved the prelature’s Vatican oversight from the office for bishops to that of clergy, triggering an ongoing review and rewrite of its governing norms.
Pope Leo XIV told the prelate of Opus Dei on Feb. 16 that “the process of updating Opus Dei’s statutes continues in its study phase and that no publication date can yet be foreseen,” according to a statement from the prelature.
The pope received Opus Dei’s prelate, Monsignor Fernando Ocáriz, in audience at the Vatican on Monday. Ocáriz was accompanied by his auxiliary vicar, Monsignor Mariano Fazio.
The Holy See Press Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Vatican meeting came as the personal prelature’s proposed statutes — submitted to the Holy See on June 11, 2025 — remain under review. Opus Dei’s draft is being examined by the Dicastery for the Clergy following the reforms to the governance of personal prelatures introduced under Pope Francis.
Opus Dei said that “several topics were addressed in an atmosphere of great trust,” including “the perspectives and challenges of the work of evangelization that Opus Dei carries out throughout the world, as it approaches its first centenary.”
The prelature added that it presented to the pope “the institutional perspective on some specific controversies in Argentina” and that the audience also included discussion of vocations in the Church, “particularly, the contrast between the situation in Africa and in Europe.”
According to the statement, Ocáriz presented the pope with two books: “The Church in the Street: The Reception of Gaudium et Spes in Six Holy Pastors,” by Augustinian Father Ramón Sala González, and “Yauyos, an Adventure in the Andes,” an account by Samuel Valero about Opus Dei priests’ evangelizing work in two provinces of Peru.
Opus Dei is currently the only personal prelature in the Catholic Church and reports about 94,450 members worldwide.
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.
