During my trip to Rome last week, I gave an interview for the website of the founder of Opus Dei. The text of the interview is given here:

1. What do you know: about St Josemaria and his writings?

I have been familiar with St Josemaria and his writings for many years, ever since the earliest days of my life as a Catholic following my conversion to the Faith in 1989. I found the spirituality of The Way particularly inspiring. Its robust spirituality served as a priceless guide to the spiritual life as I set out on my life as a Catholic and it remains one of the most valued of all the spiritual works that I know.

2. What aspect of St Josemaria’s teachings has meant the most to you?

As intimated above, it is the robust orthodoxy and uncompromising candour of St Josemaria’s teaching that most inspires me. In an age of secular fundamentalism and nihilistic doubt, the courageous life and teaching of Opus Dei’s founder rings out like a bell of truth in the desert darkness of the modern world.

3. If you could have met St Josemaria, what would you like to tell him? Or ask him?

I think I’d be struck dumb by the awe-inspiring experience of his presence! If I did manage to say anything, it would be an expression of my fathomless gratitude for all that he’s done to help revitalise the Church in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

4. You have written about many well-known people, all of them very different. Which of them do you think would most have appreciated St Josemaria and his teachings?

All of the people that I’ve written about would have benefited from knowing the works of St Josemaria. I think, however, that the poet, Roy Campbell, of whom I have written a biography (Unafraid of Virginia Woolf: The Friends and Enemies of Roy Campbell, soon to be published in Spanish by LibrosLibres), would have been particularly inspired by St Josemaria’s life and work. Campbell was received into the Catholic Church after he moved to Spain in 1934 and he wrote that Spain and the Spanish people saved his soul. I think he would have been greatly encouraged by the rise of Opus Dei during the turbulent years of the twentieth century. I also think that Hilaire Belloc, of whom I have written a biography, would have been a great admirer of St Josemaria and the Work. As a tireless defender of the Faith, Belloc would have seen in St Josemaria a kindred spirit, though Belloc never ascended to the heights of sanctity that charactersied the life of Opus Dei’s founder.

5. St Josemaria lived in the 20th century. Does he have something to say to people in the 21st century?

Like the works of all the greatest saints in the Church’s history, St Josemaria’s work is timeless. It springs from one particular age and generation but speaks to all ages and to every generation.

6. Do you think St Josemaria’s message contains something for people who are not Catholics? Might they help people who were thinking of converting to Catholicism? How?

Since St Josemaria speaks and preaches the Gospel of truth and life, he has soemthing to say to everybody, as long as they are willing to listen. Those who are open to the profundity and truth of his words will find themselves attracted to the Church, which, as the Mystical Body of Christ, is the source of St Josemaria’s wisdom. As G. K. Chesterton said, most memorably, when people stop fighting against the Church they can’t help feeling drawn towards it. St Josemaria is a magnet drawing people to Christ and His Church.

7. What is the relevance of Opus Dei in English-speaking countries, whose cultural background may be very different from what St Josemaria was familiar with?

Opus Dei, like the Church of which it is a part, is universally relevant. It may have sprung forth from the rich soil of one particular culture but it speaks to all cultures with a ringing clarity.

8. Do you know people in Opus Dei? How would you say their Founder’s spirit is reflected in their lives?

I know quite a few people who are in Opus Dei, including several of my faculty colleagues at Ave Maria University in Florida, the Catholic institution at which I teach. There is no doubt that the Work animates and motivates the lives of its members in multifarious ways that are manifestly evident to all those who know them.