The three-step process to elect a new prelate for Opus Dei, the predominantly lay organisation, will begin on January 21 with a consultation involving more than three dozen women leaders.
The 38 women members of the Central Advisory will be asked to submit a list with the name or names of those priests in the Opus Dei electoral congress they believe are best suited for the position of prelate.
Opus Dei is a personal prelature, which in some ways is like a diocese without territorial boundaries. St John Paul II named as bishops the two prelates elected after the death of St Josemaria Escriva: first Blessed Alvaro del Portillo and then Bishop Javier Echevarria.
