Interest not only in students

My daughters and sons, when speaking of the St Raphael work we should not conceive it as restricted to apostolate with university students. The apostolate of the St Raphael work is directed not only to these students, but also to young people who are not doing university level studies. This latter work is not carried out in St Raphael centres for Numeraries, but in other Centres.

St Raphael people do not acquire a juridical bond

As you would expect, they all have to acquire the same spirit, and the overall outlines and many other characteristic features will be the same for all. We have already said that the people who take part in this work do not acquire any bond with Opus Dei; they are friends of Opus Dei with just the necessary basic qualities of selection.

The apostolate of the Work has been explained to them and they have voluntarily undertaken to be part of it. They have joined us while wanting to remain what they were before: ordinary students, office workers or labourers.

That is to say, they don’t acquire any juridical bond – I repeat – with our work, nor with the houses of the Work. That is why the first thing they are told, in the first class they attend, is that we do not form any sort of association. There is no need to fill in an application form in order to be part of the apostolate of Opus Dei.