Isabel Sanchez (Murcia, 1969) is the most powerfulwoman in Opus Dei . After graduating in Law, he moved to Rome 25 years ago to study Philosophy and Theology. She is now publishing Mujeres brujula en un bosque de challenges (Espasa), a story in which she tells stories about women who are a reference for our society. She is the secretary of the Opus Dei Central Advisory, a position very close to the prelate, Fernando Ocariz . “He is humble, very intelligent and a great listener,” he says.
-I’m curious. Explain your position in Opus.
–I am the person who heads the council that helps the prelate of Opus to govern the institution. That council is made up of eight people, which later extends to almost 40, because we work all over the world. Actually I am one more, but yes, I have a prominent position.
She – she is the woman with the most power within the Work. What does it mean
–I have a greater decision-making capacity in the issues that the prelate grants me in collaboration with him in the government. As in all Church institutions, power means serving and I am available to the 50,000 women who are part of the institution, trying to encourage initiatives that favor women, take care of their training and be aware that they develop in those 80 countries. the Work works.
–Write about women who are referents in our society. Do we need inspiration –
I think so. We need inspiration and meaning. Sometimes in this complicated world we lose the north of where we are going. And the woman shows us a clear north, which is the primacy of the person, the care of those we love.
-They say that her book brings a new vision of feminism. Why
I do
n’t know if she is new, but she is the one that any Christian from 20 centuries ago would defend. It is a balanced, complementary vision. It is a feminism of equity, where there is admiration for men and women as people capable of making a society much better than the one we have.
Is that being a feminist
-Yes, that’s it. I defend all the value of women, who do not need to trample on men in order to assert themselves.
–Do you consider yourself a feminist
–I am, with that equitable and complementary feminism that I told you before.
-Imagine that you are the president of the Government. Would it have a Ministry of Equality
Would it have a Ministry of Equality that would try, among other things, to bring men into the world of care. Because it is not only about women reaching all professional fields, but also attracting men towards co-responsibility with great pleasure. Not only by obligation, but with pleasure, to discover the value of that field.
-Has man forgotten the care of others
–In part, yes, because we have allowed that to be relegated to women. The woman has learned a lot, she has learned the science of care and a lot of courage, but she has also assumed a burden that becomes unbearable, when there are so many of us who have to take care of it now.
-They are many.
-We are in a world that leaves us very wounded and care is not only needed by the elderly at the end of their lives, but also by those who are born, the young… We are all full of wounds. We are vulnerable.
“The individual by himself cannot face this great scourge that is the coronavirus pandemic”
– This vulnerability has been seen in residences.
-The pandemic has accelerated and shown that this change has to be made soon, because we are not prepared.
–Do you share the quota policy
–In general, this policy has been necessary in several countries because it has been a middle way to reach equality.
– Especially salary.
–There is wage inequality at work and there is great wage inequality in care. Imagine, who dedicates himself to taking care of those he loves dies of hunger. We do not compensate them in any way.
–Have you been to any 8-M demonstration
–This year has caught me traveling and we were also in the midst of a pandemic in Italy. But, well, internally, I join that cause, the cause of women.
– Is the feminist struggle very polarized
-I have lived in Italy for 25 years and I am far from the Spanish debate. But I have found a very bitter debate. I think we are working on an antagonist board between men and women. And it is necessary to arrive at a board of a greater dialogue.
–Is the figure of women in the Opus recognized
–Within the Work, yes. We are always leading all kinds of initiatives in 80 countries: women directors of schools, hospitals… In that sense, yes. Outside, less is known.
–Is equality practiced
–Yes, because it is a Christian value. Women have equal dignity.
–And in the Church
, does that equality exist
-Too. It seems to me that the revolution that we all want is not so much that of women but that of the laity. There are issues that have been assumed by the priests, by the priests, as if they were their own and they are not. A screen must be made there so that lay men and women, ordinary Christians, who go on foot, can deal with things in which they are experts.
–Is Pope Francis fulfilling the expectations of change
–The Pope is leading us to a great coherence with the values ​​of the Gospel. He is taking very brave steps in fields like poverty, humanity and also in the role of women. He is revaluing her a lot.
-Although everyone notices that women cannot give mass. Can’t we expect that
-The Pope receives a deposit of faith, the Pope is not the owner of what the Church believes. And that is a guarantee for Christians, because there is not going to be a leader who is going to change things as it suits him or as he sees fit. Here we all follow Jesus Christ and he becomes the guarantor of what he said.
– Act as an analyst. What future awaits us
I can’t say when the pandemic will end, hopefully. If we take advantage of it well, it will raise a whole current of solidarity, it will focus us on the people we love and, if we correspond well, it can help us to come out better. But that means we have to get down to helping each other. The individual by himself cannot face this great scourge.