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Paul Bompard's article from Italy ("Rectors accused of freemason link", THES, February 23) alleges that many rectors are freemasons and that, for some top jobs, masonic approval is needed "especially in medicine and law". He adds that someone "who presided over the examining commission for a job teaching cardio-vascular surgery was sentenced to two years in prison", and that the daughter of a professor at a Rome medical school "won a competitive exam . . ."

Amid this welter of anecdotes Bompard mixes in a mention of Opus Dei. What has Opus Dei got to do with any of the specific examples of alleged misconduct which he cites?

The members of Opus Dei who teach in the universities, like those in any other job whether in Rome or in London, act independently in accordance with their professional freedom and responsibility, seeking to practise the Christian virtues of justice, honesty and service to others through their work. The only thing Opus Dei does is to help them in their spiritual life. Opus Dei has no power, and wants none, over any temporal activity.

Andrew Soane

Director

Information office, Opus Dei Prelature in Britain