Harpercons luncheon with the Opus Dei

I highly doubt that the Opus Dei are as bizarre as they are in novels and the rumour mill.

They happen to be your garden variety Homophobes and an Ultraconservative branch of the Catholic church.
They "allegedly" love them some fascist governments. (Lunch with the conservative party is rather fitting) 

Critics assert that Escrivá and the organization supported the governments of Augusto Pinochet, Alberto Fujimori of Peru during the 1990s, both of which allegedly included members of Opus Dei amongst their ministers and prominent supporters. There have also been allegations that Escrivá expressed sympathy for Adolf Hitler. One former Opus Dei priest, Vladimir Felzmann, who has become a vocal Opus Dei critic, says that Escrivá once remarked that Hitler had been "badly treated" by the world and he further declared that "Hitler couldn't have been such a bad person. He couldn't have killed six million [Jews]. It couldn't have been more than four million.

With the recent protect Israel at any cost stance of the Harpercons, this is an interesting point.

There are many reports that the Opus Dei practice "Mortification of the flesh," which depending on who you ask....:

In its simplest form, it can mean merely denying oneself certain pleasures, such as by abstaining from alcoholic beverages, meats, dairy products, etc. It can also be practiced by choosing a simple or even impoverished lifestyle; this is often one reason many monks of various religions take vows of poverty.
In some of its more severe forms, it can mean causing self-inflicted pain and physical harm, such as by beating, whipping, piercing, or cutting.

So, possibly denying oneself the last cookie in the cookie jar all the way to weird chain and whip fetishists. Hey, as long as it is self inflicted, it isn't my biz. Just more of an ewwwww moment.

This wasn't the teddy bears picnic, and I bet there was more on the menu than bread and water.

Guess who came to dinner in Ottawa at Parliament's own restaurant to meet with some MP's? Well, as Le Devoir reported yesterday, it was Frederick Dolan, head of Opus Dei in Canada - an ultraconservative and influential Catholic organization that's close to the Vatican and has offices in 61 countries.

MPs from all parties had been invited, it seems, but most of the 20 or so who showed up were Conservatives, with none from the NDP or the Bloc QuÈbÈcois.

It's not a case of the religious right exercising "influence" over the government. Rather, the real problem lies instead with the growing evidence that the religious right and the Harper government are more ideological and religious fellow travellers, and circumstantial allies. After all, friends are friends.