I realized that I could be a good Christian, a football fan and a party member

Jorge Barrera, lawyer and member of parliament, Uruguay

November 1, 2002

Tags: Opus Dei, Politics, Service, Unity of life I have to acknowledge the fact that I come from a very idealistic family. I was born and brought up in politics, and arguing about ideas and ideals has always been part of my life. I’ve always considered myself an idealist, and so I defend the conviction instilled in me by my parents, that life has a meaning if you are committed to an ideal.

Social concern has also been part and parcel of my life, for both intellectual and personal reasons: we have all had to suffer the harmful economic effects of a dictatorship. My father met Luis Batlle in 1960, and shortly afterwards he moved to Montevideo to go to university and work for the Partido Colorado [the traditional liberal party in Uruguay] for which Batlle was standing as candidate. During the campaign, at a political club, my father met my mother, who was studying for her Master’s degree and they got married eight months later. I was born in 1968, a hundred-per-cent politician.

What most attracted me about Opus Dei is that I used to go to centers of the Work for spiritual guidance and religious instruction, and they helped me to understand the reasons behind things. I’m a very rational person, and I had often thought that faith was merely sentimentalism, which wasn’t at all my style. People in Opus Dei taught me to have a sturdy, solid faith, and explained to me that there was no split between faith and life, that I could be a football fan, a politician in the Partido Colorado, and a good Christian, and without losing or changing any of those three things. What I really liked was that I could go to the Amsterdam Road Football Club and yell for Morena, give out leaflets about List 15 [a faction of the Partido Colorado], and go to Mass every day; and all these things could come together into one. That was the best of all.

People sometimes ask me whether it’s difficult being in Opus Dei and being a politician. I think it’s not difficult at all – just the opposite. If there is one thing that political life demonstrates throughout the whole of its history, it’s that it can only be understood from the viewpoint of service. And the essence of Christian life is charity. In Opus Dei we are taught to love other people, including those who have different opinions from one’s own.

I didn’t discover my political vocation in Opus Dei – I was born into politics. But I did find out about self-giving to others for supernatural reasons, being optimistic in tackling difficulties, and helping others in their material and spiritual needs, because what so many people need is simply to be listened to, to be recognized as human beings. In my political life, Opus Dei has helped me a lot to make friends again with people after we’ve had a fight, to try not to bear grudges, and something that’s helped me most especially is what an Opus Dei priest told me once: “Behind each person, don’t see a vote but a soul.” I find it hard, because it’s true that I look at souls and votes, but it does help to situate me in what really matters. It is difficult, but in the Work we are taught to begin again and again.

It’s not the first time I’ve said this, but it’s worth repeating it: I’ve never received any directions in Opus Dei to do with politics. What’s more, my political loyalties are with Jorge Batlle, List 15 and my constituents, and I don’t owe any political loyalty to Opus Dei. Of course I try to be a good Christian: I think Saint Josemaria gave a magnificent example of this when he said that Christianity isn’t a hat that you put on and take off depending on where you are. I also have to say that I’ve never asked anyone I met through Opus Dei to vote for or against anything, because that would mean betraying what I hold most sacred, which is this vocation, struggling for holiness in the middle of the world, through my daily work.

With regard to Opus Dei and politics, I really like the answer Saint Josemaria gave when he was asked once, “What position do the members of Opus Dei have in the public life of their countries?” His answer was a wonderful, clear explanation of the freedom people have in the Work: “Whichever they choose.” That’s it, just as clear as can be.