Bishop Manuel Aringarosa is head of Opus Dei

Bishop Manuel Aringarosa, the president-general of Opus Dei, is a pivotal figure whose desperate faith and ambition are manipulated to set the novel's violent plot in motion. As the head of a deeply devout Catholic sect facing excommunication from the Vatican, he becomes the unwitting patron of a scheme to secure the Holy Grail, a quest that leads to murder and his own near-fatal disillusionment.

Identity and Position

Bishop Manuel Aringarosa is the president-general of Opus Dei, a Catholic prelature founded in 1928 by the Spanish priest Josemaría Escrivá. The organization promotes a return to conservative Catholic values and encourages its members to make sweeping sacrifices in their own lives to do the Work of God. Aringarosa has spent the last decade of his life spreading this message. Opus Dei's traditionalist philosophy initially took root in Spain before Franco's regime, but with the 1934 publication of Escrivá's spiritual book The Way, the message exploded across the world. Now, with over four million copies of The Way in circulation in forty-two languages, Opus Dei is a global force, with residence halls, teaching centers, and even universities in almost every major metropolis on earth. It is the fastest-growing and most financially secure Catholic organization in the world. Aringarosa's physical appearance is marked by a flat, crooked nose that was shattered by a fist in Spain when he was a young missionary, a flaw that barely registers in his world of the soul, not of the flesh. He wears a 14-karat gold bishop's ring with a purple amethyst, large diamonds, and a hand-tooled mitre-crozier appliqué, a symbol of his high office.

Desperation and the Pact with the Teacher

Five months before the novel's events, Aringarosa received devastating news. He was summoned to a meeting at Castel Gandolfo, the Pope's summer residence, where the Vatican secretariat and two high-ranking Italian cardinals informed him that the Secretariat Council had voted unanimously to revoke the Vatican's sanction of Opus Dei. The Holy See would be disassociating itself from the prelature, citing unease with its aggressive recruiting policies, practices of corporal mortification, and policies regarding women. Aringarosa was told that Opus Dei had become a liability and an embarrassment. The Vatican planned to pay severance in five installments, effectively buying him off. Staggering from the meeting in bewilderment and panic, Aringarosa returned to New York, staring out at the skyline in disillusionment for days, overwhelmed with sadness for the future of Christianity. It was several weeks later that he received a phone call from a man who called himself the Teacher. The Teacher claimed to have ears everywhere and said he could uncover the hiding place of a sacred relic that would bring Aringarosa enormous power, enough to make the Vatican bow before him and save the Faith. Seeing a glorious ray of hope, Aringarosa agreed to the plan. The Teacher demanded a fee of twenty million euro, a sum approximately the same number of U.S. dollars. Aringarosa obtained the money in the form of large-denomination bearer bonds drawn on the Vatican Bank, which he collected from the secretariat at Castel Gandolfo on the night of the murders. The bonds were traceable directly to the Vatican Bank, serving as insurance to implicate the Church if anything went wrong.

Role in the Plot and Exploitation

Aringarosa placed enormous trust in the Teacher, allowing Silas, a devoted numerary of Opus Dei, to answer only to the Teacher for several days. The Teacher communicated with Silas through secure channels, and Aringarosa and Silas did not speak directly. Aringarosa believed the Teacher was a man of enormous influence who had somehow obtained very secret information, including the names of the brotherhood's four top members. The Teacher's plan was to use Silas to murder the four top members of the Priory of Sion—the Grand Master and his three sénéchaux—to obtain the location of the keystone, a map to the Holy Grail. Aringarosa, blinded by his own desperation to save Opus Dei, was far too eager to be suspicious. He believed the Grail would bring him enormous power and that the Teacher's price tag of twenty million euro was paltry when compared with the prize. The Teacher's ultimate insult was to demand payment in Vatican bonds, ensuring that if anything went wrong, the investigation would lead to Rome. Aringarosa's faith in the Teacher was absolute, and he instructed Silas to do as the Teacher commanded, believing they would be victorious.

Consequences and Disillusionment

The plan went horribly wrong. Silas murdered the four Priory members, but the keystone was not obtained as expected. The Teacher had been tricked, and the keystone was a devious dead end. When Aringarosa learned of the murders and the nun killed at Saint-Sulpice, he realized he had been cut loose and used. He confessed everything to Captain Bezu Fache, and together they raced to catch up with Silas before the Teacher persuaded him to kill again. Aringarosa flew to London, where he was shot by Silas during a police raid on the Opus Dei Centre. As he lay bleeding, he told Silas that they had been deceived and that the Teacher was never going to deliver them the Holy Grail. He urged Silas to forgive, saying forgiveness is God's greatest gift. Aringarosa survived his wound and, in the hospital, asked Fache to divide the contents of the briefcase of Vatican bonds among the families of the deceased in Paris. He realized that Leigh Teabing, the British Royal Historian, was the Teacher, who had caught wind of the Vatican's plans to disassociate itself from Opus Dei and chosen Aringarosa as the perfect pawn. Aringarosa's faith was shattered, and he was left to contemplate his uncertain path forward.