title: Addams Family Values

text: Unbeknownst to them, Debbie is a serial killer who marries rich bachelors and murders them to collect their inheritances. After Debbie seduces Uncle Fester, Wednesday becomes suspicious of her intentions. To maintain her cover, Debbie tricks Gomez and Morticia into believing Wednesday and Pugsley want to go to summer camp.


title: Addams Family Values

text: Wednesday and Pugsley are sent to Camp Chippewa, managed by the always cheerful and lively Gary and Becky Granger, where they are singled out by the counselors and popular (and snobbish) girl Amanda Buckman for their macabre appearance and behavior. Joel Glicker, a nerdy bookworm and fellow outcast, becomes attracted to Wednesday. Debbie and Fester become engaged.


title: Addams Family Values

text: At her bachelorette party, Debbie is repulsed by the Addams family and their relatives. On their honeymoon, she tries unsuccessfully to kill Fester by throwing a boombox into the bathtub. Frustrated, Debbie forces him to cut ties with his family; when they try to visit Fester and Debbie at their home, they are removed from the premises. The Addams are alarmed to find that Pubert has transformed into a blue-eyed, rosy-cheeked, blond-haired baby. Grandmama diagnoses this as a result of his disrupted family life and Gomez becomes horribly depressed.


title: Addams Family Values

text: At camp, the counselors cast Wednesday as Pocahontas in Gary's Thanksgiving play. When she refuses to participate, she, Pugsley, and Joel are all sent to the camp's "Harmony Hut" and forced to watch hours of wholesome family entertainment movies and television shows. Afterwards, the three feign cheerfulness, and Wednesday agrees to take part. However, during the performance, she reveals her deception and returns to her old self. With help from Joel, Pugsley, and the outcast campers, they capture Amanda, Gary, and Becky and set the camp on fire. Later, Wednesday and Joel share their first kiss before separating, with Joel staying behind to lead their friends to ensure the camp's permanent destruction. Pugsley and Wednesday return home in a stolen camp van.


title: Addams Family Values

text: Debbie tries to kill Fester by blowing up their mansion, but he survives. She then pulls a gun and reveals she never loved him and that she was only interested in his money. Thing helps Fester escape by knocking Debbie aside with her own car. Fester apologizes to Gomez upon his return to the Addams mansion, and Wednesday and Pugsley return, successfully reuniting the family. Debbie arrives in another car, holds the family at gunpoint, and straps them into electric chairs with the intent of killing them. As the Addamses listen sympathetically, she admits that she killed her parents and her first two husbands for incredibly frivolous and materialistic reasons. Pubert, now restored to his normal, pale, mustachioed self, escapes from his crib and reaches the rest of the family via a series of improbable events. As Debbie throws the switch to electrocute the family, he connects two loose wires that route the current through her instead. Debbie's body burns to ashes, leaving only her shoes and credit cards intact.


title: Addams Family Values

text: Some time later, the Addamses and their relatives gather to celebrate Pubert's first birthday, with Joel also attending. Fester laments Debbie's loss, but soon becomes smitten with Dementia, a nanny whom Cousin Itt and his wife Margaret Alford have hired to care for their child. Out in the family graveyard, Wednesday tells Joel that Debbie was a sloppy killer, and that Wednesday would have scared her victim to death and made sure not to be caught. As Joel lays flowers on Debbie's grave, a hand emerges from the earth and grabs him, prompting Wednesday to smile as he screams.


title: Addams Family Values

text: The "family values" in the film's title is a tongue-in-cheek reference by writer Paul Rudnick to a 1992 speech ("Reflections on Urban America") made by then-Vice Presidential candidate Dan Quayle. In the speech, Quayle controversially blamed the 1992 Los Angeles riots on a breakdown of "family values".


title: Addams Family Values

text: According to Anjelica Huston, during the filming of "Addams Family Values", it became increasingly clear that Raul Julia's health was deteriorating. He had trouble eating and was losing weight as a result. He died less than a year after the film was released.


title: Addams Family Values

text: Sequoia National Park, particularly Sequoia Lake, in the Sierra Nevada of California, was the site of the movie's "Camp Chippewa".


title: Addams Family Values

text: American singer Michael Jackson was supposed to feature a song in the film called "Addams Groove/Family Thing". The song is mostly rumored to have been removed due to the child sexual abuse allegations against Jackson; in reality, it was because of contractual differences with Paramount Pictures. The song has since been leaked online. Jackson is referenced in the film via a poster in the Harmony Hut advertising his 1992 single "Heal the World", which horrifies Joel.


title: Addams Family Values

text: "Addams Family Values" opened at number 1 at the US box office in its opening weekend with a reported gross of $14,117,545. In its second week, the film dropped to number 2 behind "Mrs. Doubtfire", and in its third week to number 3 behind "Mrs. Doubtfire" and "A Perfect World". Its final box office gross in the United States and Canada was $48,919,043, a significant decline from the previous film's domestic total of $113,502,426. Internationally it grossed $62 million, for a worldwide total of $110.9 million.


title: Addams Family Values

text: In retrospect, Barry Sonnenfeld recalled: "I was disappointed in the box office for the second film. I think the first film is more romantic and the second film is funnier. Part of the reason it didn't do as well is that the marketing of the movie was so similar to the first one that people didn't think it was going to be any value-added and I really wanted to push the Pubert of it all and the Fester of it all. Instead, the whole campaign was back with the original Addams Family, so it wasn't really promising anything new. I think that's in part why it didn't do as well. Many people love it as much or more as the first one".


title: Addams Family Values

text: "Addams Family Values" was well received, receiving significantly better reviews than the first film. On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the film received an approval rating of 75% based on 114 reviews, with an average rating of 6.7/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "New, well-developed characters add dimension to this batty satire, creating a comedy much more substantial than the original". On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 61 out of 100 based on 21 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale, a grade up from the "B" earned by the previous film.


title: Addams Family Values

text: Janet Maslin of "The New York Times" wondered if "the making of this sequel was sheer drudgery for all concerned", then answered herself by writing: "There's simply too much glee on the screen, thanks to a cast and visual conception that were perfect in the first place and a screenplay by Paul Rudnick that specializes in delightfully arch, subversive humor". Leonard Klady of "Variety" was slightly less enthusiastic than Maslin: "It remains perilously slim in the story department, but glides over the thin ice with technical razzle-dazzle and an exceptionally winning cast". Richard Schickel, writing for "Time", was even less enthuastic than Klady, calling the film "an essentially lazy movie, too often settling for easy gags and special effects that don't come to any really funny point". Both Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert had disliked the first film. Siskel gave "Addams Family Values" a mixed review and accused Sonnenfeld of caring more about how the film looks than how the jokes play. Ebert, however, gave the film three stars out of four and thought that, unusually for a sequel, it improved upon its predecessor. He enjoyed the various subplots and recommended the film.


title: Addams Family Values

text: The film was nominated for an Academy Award in the category Best Art Direction (Ken Adam, Marvin March), but lost to "Schindler's List"; and Huston was nominated for the 1993 Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for her performance as Morticia, a reprise of her Golden Globe-nominated performance in the 1991 original. The film won also a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Original Song for the Tag Team track "Addams Family (Whoomp!)". "Addams Family Values" was nominated for AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs. In 2016, James Charisma of "Playboy" ranked the film #15 on a list of "15 Sequels That Are Way Better Than The Originals".


title: Addams Family Values

text: The film was released on VHS and DVD in 2000 with only two theatrical trailers as special features. It was re-released in 2006 with the first film on a single disc, with no new features.


title: Addams Family Values

text: In October 2019, the film debuted on the Blu-ray format when Paramount Pictures released double feature of "Addams Family" and "Addams Family Values" on Blu-ray in the United States, along with standalone releases. In Australia, the film was released on VHS by Paramount Home Entertainment (Australasia) in 1994. In 2002 the film was released on DVD with theatrical trailers in the extra features.


title: Coati

text: Coatis, also known as coatimundis (), are members of the family Procyonidae in the genera "Nasua" and "Nasuella". They are diurnal mammals native to South America, Central America, Mexico, and the southwestern United States. The name "coatimundi" comes from the Tupian languages of Brazil, where it means "lone coati". Locally in Belize, the coati is known as "quash".


title: Coati

text: Adult coatis measure from head to the base of the tail, which can be as long as their bodies. Coatis are about tall at the shoulder and weigh between , about the size of a large house cat. Males can become almost twice as large as females and have large, sharp canine teeth. The measurements above relate to the white-nosed and South America coatis. The two mountain coatis are smaller.


title: Coati

text: All coatis share a slender head with an elongated, flexible, slightly upward-turned nose, small ears, dark feet, and a long, non-prehensile tail used for balance and signaling.


title: Coati

text: Ring-tailed coatis have either a light brown or black coat, with a lighter under-part and a white-ringed tail in most cases. Coatis have a long brown tail with rings on it which are anywhere from starkly defined like a raccoon's to very faint. Like raccoons and unlike ring-tailed cats and cacomistles, the rings go completely around the tail. Coatis often hold the tail erect; it is used as such to keep troops of coatis together in tall vegetation. The tip of the tail can be moved slightly on its own, as is the case with cats, but it is not prehensile as is that of the kinkajou, another procyonid.


title: Coati

text: Coatis have bear- and raccoon-like paws, and walk plantigrade like raccoons and bears (on the soles of the feet, as do humans). Coatis have nonretractable claws. Coatis also are able to rotate their ankles beyond 180°, in common with raccoons and other procyonids (and others in the order Carnivora and rare cases amongst other mammals); they are therefore able to descend trees head first. (Other animals living in forests have acquired some or all of these properties through convergent evolution, including members of the mongoose, civet, weasel, cat, and bear families.)


title: Coati

text: The coati snout is long and somewhat pig-like (see Suidae) – part of the reason for its nickname 'the hog-nosed raccoon'. It is also extremely flexible – it can be rotated up to 60° in any direction. They use their noses to push objects and rub parts of their body. The facial markings include white markings around the eyes and on the ears and snout.


title: Coati

text: Coatis have strong limbs to climb and dig and have a reputation for intelligence, like their fellow procyonid, the raccoon. They prefer to sleep or rest in elevated places and niches, like the rainforest canopy, in crudely built sleeping nests. Coatis are active day and night but are not nocturnal animals unlike their raccoon cousins.


title: Coati

text: Overall, coatis are widespread, occupying habitats ranging from hot and arid areas to humid Amazonian rainforests or even cold Andean mountain slopes, including grasslands and bushy areas. Their geographical range extends from the southwestern U.S. (southern Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas) through northern Uruguay. Around 10 coatis are thought to have formed a breeding population in Cumbria, UK.


title: Coati

text: The Cozumel Island coati was formerly recognised as a species, but the vast majority of recent authorities treat it as a subspecies, "N. narica nelsoni", of the white-nosed coati.


title: Coati

text: Genetic evidence (cytochrome b sequences) has suggested that the genus "Nasuella" should be merged into "Nasua", as the latter is otherwise paraphyletic. Other genetic studies have shown that the closest relatives of the coatis are the olingos (genus "Bassaricyon"); the two lineages are thought to have diverged about 10.2 million years ago.


title: Coati

text: In the wild, coatis can live up to seven years. In captivity, their average lifespan is about 10 years, albeit some coatis have been known to live into their late teens.


title: Coati

text: Coatis are omnivores; their diet consists mainly of ground litter, invertebrates, such as tarantula, and fruit (Alves-Costa et al., 2004, 2007; Hirsch 2007). They also eat small vertebrate prey, such as lizards, rodents, small birds, birds' eggs, and crocodile eggs. The snout, with an acute sense of smell, assists the paws in a hog-like manner to unearth invertebrates.


title: Coati

text: Little is known about the behaviour of the mountain coatis, and the following is almost entirely about the coatis of the genus "Nasua". Unlike most members of the raccoon family (Procyonidae), coatis are primarily diurnal. Nasua coati females and young males up to two years of age are gregarious and travel through their territories in noisy, loosely organised bands made up of four to 25 individuals, foraging with their offspring on the ground or in the forest canopy. Males over two years become solitary due to behavioural disposition and collective aggression from the females and will join the female groups only during the breeding season.


title: Coati

text: When provoked, or for defence, coatis can be fierce fighters; their strong jaws, sharp canine teeth, and fast scratching paws, along with a tough hide sturdily attached to the underlying muscles, make it very difficult for potential predators (e.g., dogs or jaguars) to seize the smaller mammal.


title: Coati

text: Coatis communicate their intentions or moods with chirping, snorting, or grunting sounds. Different chirping sounds are used to express joy during social grooming, appeasement after fights, or to convey irritation or anger. Snorting while digging, along with an erect tail, states territorial or food claims during foraging. Coatis additionally use special postures or moves to convey simple messages; for example, hiding the nose between the front paws as a sign for submission; lowering the head, baring teeth, and jumping at an enemy signal an aggressive disposition. Individuals recognise other coatis by their looks, voices, and smells, the individual smell is intensified by special musk-glands on their necks and bellies.


title: Coati

text: Coatis from Panama are known to rub their own fur and that of other troop members with resin from "Trattinnickia aspera" (Burseraceae) trees, but its purpose is unclear. Some proposed possibilities are it serves as an insect repellent, a fungicide, or as a form of scent-marking.


title: Coati

text: Coati breeding season mainly corresponds with the start of the rainy season to coincide with maximum availability of food, especially fruits: between January and March in some areas, and between October and February in others. Female and young coatis commonly live in bands of 5 to 40 and travel together. The males are solitary and join the bands only during the short mating season.


title: Coati

text: For this period, an adult male is accepted into the band of females and juveniles near the beginning of the breeding season, leading to a polygynous mating system.


title: Coati

text: The pregnant females separate from the group, build a nest on a tree or in a rocky niche and, after a gestation period of about 11 weeks, give birth to litters of three to seven kits. About six weeks after birth, the females and their young will rejoin the band. Females become sexually mature at two years of age, while males will acquire sexual maturity at three years of age.


title: Coati

text: Coati predators include jaguarundis, anacondas, pumas, maned wolves, boa constrictors, foxes, dogs, tayras, ocelots, and jaguars. Large raptors, such as ornate hawk-eagles, black-and-chestnut eagles, and harpy eagles, also are known to hunt them. White-headed capuchin monkeys hunt their pups.


title: Coati

text: Coatis face unregulated hunting and the serious threat of environmental destruction in Central and South America. The absence of scientifically sound population studies of "Nasua" or "Nasuella" in the wild is probably leading to a severe underestimation of the ecological problems and decline in numbers affecting the species.


title: Coati

text: Coatis are one of five groups of procyonids commonly kept as pets in various parts of North, Central and South America, the others being the raccoons (common and crab-eating), the kinkajou, the ring-tailed cat and cacomistle. However, while both the white-nosed and South America coatis are common in captivity, mountain coatis are extremely rare in captivity.


title: Coati

text: Coatis are small creatures that can be wild, somewhat difficult to control or train in some cases, and generally behave in a manner radically different from that of a pet dog. Optimally, they should have a spacious outdoor enclosure and a coati-proofed room in the house and/or other climate-controlled place, as well. They can be given the run of the house but need careful watching, more careful in some cases than others.


title: Coati

text: It is possible to litter or toilet train coatis; if one cannot be trained as such, it is still possible to lessen problems in that they tend to designate a latrine area, which can have a litter pan placed in it as is done with many ferrets, pet skunks, rabbits, and rodents. Coatis generally need both dog and cat vaccines for distemper and many other diseases and a killed rabies vaccine. They can be spayed or neutered for the same reason as cats and dogs and other pets.


title: April Bowlby

text: April Michelle Bowlby is an American actress and model. She is known for portraying Kandi on the CBS comedy series "Two and a Half Men" (2006–2015), Stacy Barrett on "Drop Dead Diva" (2009–2014), and Rita Farr on "Titans" (2018) and "Doom Patrol" (2019–present).


title: April Bowlby

text: Bowlby was born in Vallejo, California. She moved to Manteca, California, as a child, and attended East Union High School. She studied ballet, French, and marine biology at Moorpark College, and began a modelling career before deciding to pursue acting. She studied drama with Ivana Chubbuck.


title: April Bowlby

text: Bowlby secured the role of Kandi on the television series "Two and a Half Men" within months of her first auditions. She is also known for her role as Stacy Barrett in "Drop Dead Diva". She played Barney Stinson's obsessive ex-girlfriend Meg in "How I Met Your Mother", and has made appearances in "", "Psych", and "". She has appeared in films such as "All Roads Lead Home" (2008), "The Slammin' Salmon" (2009), and "From Prada to Nada" (2011).


title: Pine

text: A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus Pinus () of the family Pinaceae. "Pinus" is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. The World Flora Online created by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Missouri Botanical Garden accepts 187 species names of pines as current, together with more synonyms. The American Conifer Society (ACS) and the Royal Horticultural Society accept 121 species. Pines are commonly found in the Northern Hemisphere. "Pine" may also refer to the lumber derived from pine trees; it is one of the more extensively used types of lumber. The pine family is the largest conifer family and there are currently 818 named cultivars (or trinomials) recognized by the ACS.


title: Pine

text: Pine trees are evergreen, coniferous resinous trees (or, rarely, shrubs) growing tall, with the majority of species reaching tall. The smallest are Siberian dwarf pine and Potosi pinyon, and the tallest is an tall ponderosa pine located in southern Oregon's Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest.


title: Pine

text: Pines are long lived and typically reach ages of 100–1,000 years, some even more. The longest-lived is the Great Basin bristlecone pine ("P. longaeva"). One individual of this species, dubbed "Methuselah", is one of the world's oldest living organisms at around 4,800 years old. This tree can be found in the White Mountains of California. An older tree, now cut down, was dated at 4,900 years old. It was discovered in a grove beneath Wheeler Peak and it is now known as "Prometheus" after the Greek immortal.


title: Pine

text: The spiral growth of branches, needles, and cones scales may be arranged in Fibonacci number ratios. The new spring shoots are sometimes called "candles"; they are covered in brown or whitish bud scales and point upward at first, then later turn green and spread outward. These "candles" offer foresters a means to evaluate fertility of the soil and vigour of the trees.


title: Pine

text: The bark of most pines is thick and scaly, but some species have thin, flaky bark. The branches are produced in regular "pseudo whorls", actually a very tight spiral but appearing like a ring of branches arising from the same point. Many pines are uninodal, producing just one such whorl of branches each year, from buds at the tip of the year's new shoot, but others are multinodal, producing two or more whorls of branches per year.


title: Pine

text: Pines are monoecious, having the male and female cones on the same tree. The male cones are small, typically 1–5 cm long, and only present for a short period (usually in spring, though autumn in a few pines), falling as soon as they have shed their pollen. The female cones take 1.5–3 years (depending on species) to mature after pollination, with actual fertilization delayed one year. At maturity the female cones are 3–60 cm long. Each cone has numerous spirally arranged scales, with two seeds on each fertile scale; the scales at the base and tip of the cone are small and sterile, without seeds.


title: Pine

text: The seeds are mostly small and winged, and are anemophilous (wind-dispersed), but some are larger and have only a vestigial wing, and are bird-dispersed. Female cones are woody and sometimes armed to protect developing seeds from foragers. At maturity, the cones usually open to release the seeds. In some of the bird-dispersed species, for example whitebark pine, the seeds are only released by the bird breaking the cones open. In others, the seeds are stored in closed cones for many years until an environmental cue triggers the cones to open, releasing the seeds. This is called serotiny. The most common form of serotiny is pyriscence, in which a resin binds the cones shut until melted by a forest fire, for example in "P. rigida".


title: Pine

text: Pines are gymnosperms. The genus is divided into two subgenera based on the number of fibrovascular bundles in the needle. The subgenera can be distinguished by cone, seed, and leaf characters:


title: Pine

text: Phylogenetic evidence indicates that both subgenera have a very ancient divergence from one another, having diverged during the late Jurassic. Each subgenus is further divided into sections and subsections.


title: Pine

text: Many of the smaller groups of "Pinus" are composed of closely related species with recent divergence and history of hybridization. This results in low morphological and genetic differences. This, coupled with low sampling and underdeveloped genetic techniques, has made taxonomy difficult to determine. Recent research using large genetic datasets has clarified these relationships into the groupings we recognize today.


title: Pine

text: The modern English name "pine" derives from Latin "pinus", which some have traced to the Indo-European base "*pīt-" ‘resin’ (source of English "pituitary"). Before the 19th century, pines were often referred to as firs (from Old Norse "fura", by way of Middle English "firre"). In some European languages, Germanic cognates of the Old Norse name are still in use for pines — in Danish "fyr", in Norwegian "fura/fure/furu", Swedish "fura/furu", Dutch "vuren", and German "Föhre" — but in modern English, "fir" is now restricted to fir ("Abies") and Douglas-fir ("Pseudotsuga").


title: Pine

text: "Pinus" is the largest genus of the Pinaceae, the pine family, which first appeared in the Jurassic period. Based on recent Transcriptome analysis, "Pinus" is most closely related to the genus "Cathaya", which in turn is closely related to spruces. These genera, with firs and larches, form the pinoid clade of the Pinaceae. Pines first appeared during the Early Cretaceous, with the oldest verified fossil of the genus is "Pinus yorkshirensis" from the Hauterivian-Barremian boundary (131–129 million years ago) from the Speeton Clay, England.


title: Pine

text: The evolutionary history of the genus "Pinus" has been complicated by hybridization. Pines are prone to inter-specific breeding. Wind pollination, long life spans, overlapping generations, large population size, and weak reproductive isolation make breeding across species more likely. As the pines have diversified, gene transfer between different species has created a complex history of genetic relatedness.


title: Pine

text: The following cladogram shows the phylogenetic relationships between the pine species as described in 2021.


title: Pine

text: Pines are native to the Northern Hemisphere, and to a few parts from the tropics to temperate regions in the Southern Hemisphere. Most regions of the Northern Hemisphere host some native species of pines. One species (Sumatran pine) crosses the equator in Sumatra to 2°S. In North America, various species occur in regions at latitudes from as far north as 66°N to as far south as 12°N.


title: Pine

text: Pines may be found in a very large variety of environments, ranging from semi-arid desert to rainforests, from sea level up to , from the coldest to the hottest environments on Earth. They often occur in mountainous areas with favorable soils and at least some water.


title: Pine

text: Various species have been introduced to temperate and subtropical regions of both hemispheres, where they are grown as timber or cultivated as ornamental plants in parks and gardens. A number of such introduced species have become naturalized, and some species are considered invasive in some areas and threaten native ecosystems.


title: Pine

text: Pines grow well in acid soils, some also on calcareous soils; most require good soil drainage, preferring sandy soils, but a few (e.g. lodgepole pine) can tolerate poorly drained wet soils. A few are able to sprout after forest fires (e.g. Canary Island pine). Some species of pines (e.g. bishop pine) need fire to regenerate, and their populations slowly decline under fire suppression regimens.


title: Pine

text: Pine trees are beneficial to the environment since they can remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Although several studies have indicated that after the establishment of pine plantations in grasslands, there is an alteration of carbon pools including a decrease of the soil organic carbon pool.


title: Pine

text: Several species are adapted to extreme conditions imposed by elevation and latitude (e.g. Siberian dwarf pine, mountain pine, whitebark pine, and the bristlecone pines). The pinyon pines and a number of others, notably Turkish pine and gray pine, are particularly well adapted to growth in hot, dry semidesert climates.


title: Pine

text: Pine pollen may play an important role in the functioning of detrital food webs. Nutrients from pollen aid detritivores in development, growth, and maturation, and may enable fungi to decompose nutritionally scarce litter. Pine pollen is also involved in moving plant matter between terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems.


title: Pine

text: Pine needles serve as food for various Lepidoptera (butterfly and moth) species. Several species of pine are attacked by nematodes, causing pine wilt disease, which can kill some quickly. Some of these Lepidoptera species, many of them moths, specialize in feeding on only one or sometimes several species of pine. Beside that many species of birds and mammals shelter in pine habitat or feed on pine nuts.


title: Pine

text: The seeds are commonly eaten by birds, such as grouse, crossbills, jays, nuthatches, siskins, and woodpeckers, and by squirrels. Some birds, notably the spotted nutcracker, Clark's nutcracker, and pinyon jay, are of importance in distributing pine seeds to new areas. Pine needles are sometimes eaten by the Symphytan species pine sawfly, and goats.


title: Pine

text: Pines are among the most commercially important tree species valued for their timber and wood pulp throughout the world. In temperate and tropical regions, they are fast-growing softwoods that grow in relatively dense stands, their acidic decaying needles inhibiting the sprouting of competing hardwoods. Commercial pines are grown in plantations for timber that is denser and therefore more durable than spruce ("Picea"). Pine wood is widely used in high-value carpentry items such as furniture, window frames, panelling, floors, and roofing, and the resin of some species is an important source of turpentine.


title: Pine

text: Because pine wood has no insect- or decay-resistant qualities after logging, in its untreated state it is generally recommended for indoor construction purposes only (indoor drywall framing, for example). For outside use, pine needs to be treated with copper azole, chromated copper arsenate or other suitable chemical preservative.


title: Pine

text: Many pine species make attractive ornamental plantings for parks and larger gardens with a variety of dwarf cultivars being suitable for smaller spaces. Pines are also commercially grown and harvested for Christmas trees. Pine cones, the largest and most durable of all conifer cones, are craft favorites. Pine boughs, appreciated especially in wintertime for their pleasant smell and greenery, are popularly cut for decorations. Pine needles are also used for making decorative articles such as baskets, trays, pots, etc., and during the U.S. Civil War, the needles of the longleaf pine "Georgia pine" were widely employed in this. This originally Native American skill is now being replicated across the world. Pine needle handicrafts are made in the US, Canada, Mexico, Nicaragua, and India. Pine needles are also versatile and have been used by Latvian designer Tamara Orjola to create different biodegradable products including paper, furniture, textiles and dye.


title: Pine

text: When grown for sawing timber, pine plantations can be harvested after 25 years, with some stands being allowed to grow up to 50 (as the wood value increases more quickly as the trees age). Imperfect trees (such as those with bent trunks or forks, smaller trees, or diseased trees) are removed in a "thinning" operation every 5–10 years. Thinning allows the best trees to grow much faster, because it prevents weaker trees from competing for sunlight, water, and nutrients. Young trees removed during thinning are used for pulpwood or are left in the forest, while most older ones are good enough for saw timber.


title: Pine

text: A 30-year-old commercial pine tree grown in good conditions in Arkansas will be about in diameter and about high. After 50 years, the same tree will be about in diameter and high, and its wood will be worth about seven times as much as the 30-year-old tree.


title: Pine

text: This however depends on the region, species and silvicultural techniques. In New Zealand, a plantation's maximum value is reached after around 28 years with height being as high as and diameter , with maximum wood production after around 35 years (again depending on factors such as site, stocking and genetics). Trees are normally planted 3–4 m apart, or about 1,000 per hectare (100,000 per square kilometre).


title: Pine

text: The seeds (pine nuts) are generally edible; the young male cones can be cooked and eaten, as can the bark of young twigs. Some species have large pine nuts, which are harvested and sold for cooking and baking. They are an essential ingredient of "pesto alla genovese".


title: Pine

text: The soft, moist, white inner bark (cambium) beneath the woody outer bark is edible and very high in vitamins A and C. It can be eaten raw in slices as a snack or dried and ground up into a powder for use as an ersatz flour or thickener in stews, soups, and other foods, such as bark bread. Adirondack Indians got their name from the Mohawk Indian word "atirú:taks", meaning "tree eaters".


title: Pine

text: A tea is made by steeping young, green pine needles in boiling water (known as "tallstrunt" in Sweden). In eastern Asia, pine and other conifers are accepted among consumers as a beverage product, and used in teas, as well as wine. In Greece, the wine retsina is flavoured with Aleppo pine resin.


title: Pine

text: Pine needles from "Pinus densiflora" were found to contain 30.54 milligram/gram of proanthocyanidins when extracted with hot water. Comparative to ethanol extraction resulting in 30.11 mg/g, simply extracting in hot water is preferable.


title: Pine

text: Pines have been a frequently mentioned tree throughout history, including in literature, paintings and other art, and in religious texts.


title: Pine

text: Writers of various nationalities and ethnicities have written of pines. Among them, John Muir, Dora Sigerson Shorter, Eugene Field, Bai Juyi, Theodore Winthrop, and Rev. George Allan D.D.


title: Pine

text: Pine trees, as well as other conifers, are mentioned in some verses of the Bible, depending on the translation. In the Book of Nehemiah 8:15, the King James Version gives the following translation:"And that they should publish and proclaim in all their cities, and in Jerusalem, saying, Go forth unto the mount, and fetch olive branches, and "pine branches" [emphasis added], and myrtle branches, and palm branches, and branches of thick trees, to make booths, as it is written."


title: Pine

text: However, the term here in Hebrew (עץ שמן) means "oil tree" and it is not clear what kind of tree is meant. Pines are also mentioned in some translations of Isaiah 60:13, such as the King James:"The glory of Lebanon shall come unto thee, the fir tree, the pine tree, and the box together, to beautify the place of my sanctuary; and I will make the place of my feet glorious."


title: Pine

text: Again, it is not clear what tree is meant (תדהר in Hebrew), and other translations use "pine" for the word translated as "box" by the King James (תאשור in Hebrew).


title: Pine

text: Some botanical authorities believe that the Hebrew word "ברוש" (bərōsh), which is used many times in the Bible, designates "P. halepensis", or in Hosea 14:8 which refers to fruit, "Pinus pinea", the stone pine.


title: Pine

text: The word used in modern Hebrew for pine is "אֹ֖רֶן" (oren), which occurs only in Isaiah 44:14, but two manuscripts have "ארז" (cedar), a much more common word.


title: Pine

text: The pine is a motif in Chinese art and literature, which sometimes combines painting and poetry in the same work. Some of the main symbolic attributes of pines in Chinese art and literature are longevity and steadfastness: the pine retains its green needles through all the seasons. Sometimes the pine and cypress are paired. At other times the pine, plum, and bamboo are considered as the "Three Friends of Winter". Many Chinese art works and/or literature (some involving pines) have been done using paper, brush, and Chinese ink: interestingly enough, one of the main ingredients for Chinese ink has been pine soot.


title: Opus Dei

text: Opus Dei, formally known as the Prelature of the Holy Cross and Opus Dei (), is an institution of the Catholic Church whose members seek personal Christian holiness and strive to imbue their work and society with Christian principles.


title: Opus Dei

text: The majority of its membership are lay people; the remainder are secular priests under the governance of a prelate elected by specific members and appointed by the Pope. "Opus Dei" is Latin for "Work of God"; hence the organization is often referred to by members and supporters as "the Work".


title: Opus Dei

text: Opus Dei was founded in Spain in 1928 by Catholic priest Josemaría Escrivá and was given final Catholic Church approval in 1950 by Pope Pius XII. John Paul II made it a personal prelature in 1982 by the apostolic constitution "Ut sit"; that is, the jurisdiction of the Opus Dei's head covers members wherever they are, rather than geographical dioceses. On 14 July 2022, Pope Francis issued the apostolic letter "Ad charisma tuendum", which transferred responsibility for the "Opus Dei" from the Dicastery for Bishops to the Dicastery for the Clergy and decreed that the head of the Opus Dei cannot become a bishop. While Opus Dei has met controversies, it remains influential within the Roman Church.


title: Opus Dei

text: As of 2018, there were 95,318 members of the Prelature: 93,203 lay persons and 2,115 priests. These figures do not include the diocesan priest members of Opus Dei's Priestly Society of the Holy Cross, estimated to number 2,000 in the year 2005. Members are located in more than 90 countries. About 70% of Opus Dei members live in their own homes, leading family lives with secular careers, while the other 30% are celibate, of whom the majority live in Opus Dei centers. Aside from their personal charity and social work, Opus Dei members organize training in Catholic spirituality applied to daily life; members are involved in running universities, university residences, schools, publishing houses, hospitals, and technical and agricultural training centers.


title: Opus Dei

text: Opus Dei was founded by a Catholic priest, Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer, on 2 October 1928 in Madrid, Spain. According to Escrivá, on that day he experienced a vision in which he "saw Opus Dei". He gave the organization the name "Opus Dei", which in Latin means "Work of God", in order to underscore the belief that the organization was not his (Escrivá's) work, but was rather God's work. Throughout his life, Escrivá held that the founding of Opus Dei had a supernatural character. Escrivá summarized Opus Dei's mission as a way of helping ordinary Christians "to understand that their life... is a way of holiness and evangelization... And to those who grasp this ideal of holiness, the Work offers the spiritual assistance and training they need to put it into practice."


title: Opus Dei

text: Initially, Opus Dei was open only to men, but in 1930, Escrivá started to admit women, based on what he believed to be a communication from God. In 1936, the organization suffered a temporary setback with the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, as many Catholic priests and religious figures, including Escrivá, were forced into hiding. After the civil war was won by General Francisco Franco, Escrivá was able to return to Madrid. Escrivá himself recounted that it was in Spain where Opus Dei found "the greatest difficulties" because of "enemies of personal freedom," and traditionalists who he felt misunderstood Opus Dei's ideas. Despite this, Opus Dei flourished during the years of the Franquismo, spreading first throughout Spain, and after 1945, expanding internationally.


title: Opus Dei

text: In 1939, Escrivá published "The Way", a collection of 999 maxims concerning spirituality for people involved in secular affairs. In the 1940s, Opus Dei found an early critic in the Jesuit Superior General Wlodimir Ledóchowski, who told the Vatican that he considered Opus Dei "very dangerous for the Church in Spain," citing its "secretive character" and calling it "a form of Christian Masonry."


title: Opus Dei

text: In 1947, a year after Escrivá moved the organization's headquarters to Rome, Opus Dei received a decree of praise and approval from Pope Pius XII, making it an institute of "pontifical right", i.e. under the direct governance of the Pope. In 1950, Pius XII granted definitive approval to Opus Dei, thereby allowing married people to join the organization, and secular clergy to be admitted to the Priestly Society of the Holy Cross.


title: Opus Dei

text: Several Opus Dei members such as Alberto Ullastres were ministers () under the dictator Franco in Spain (see Opus Dei and politics).


title: Opus Dei

text: In 1975, Escrivá died and was succeeded by Álvaro del Portillo. In 1982, Opus Dei was made into a personal prelature. This means that Opus Dei is part of the Catholic Church, and the apostolate of the members falls under the direct jurisdiction of the prelate of Opus Dei wherever they are. As to "what the law lays down for all the ordinary faithful", the lay members of Opus Dei, being no different from other Catholics, "continue to be [...] under the jurisdiction of the diocesan bishop", in the words of John Paul II's "Ut Sit".


title: Opus Dei

text: One-third of the world's bishops sent letters petitioning for the canonization of Escrivá. Escrivá was beatified in 1992 in the midst of controversy prompted by questions about his suitability for sainthood. In 2002, approximately 300,000 people gathered in St. Peter's Square on the day Pope John Paul II canonized him. According to John L. Allen Jr., "Escrivá is... venerated by millions".


title: Opus Dei

text: There are other members whose process of beatification has been opened: Ernesto Cofiño, a father of five children and a pioneer in pediatric research in Guatemala; Montserrat Grases, a teenage Catalan student who died of cancer; Toni Zweifel, a Swiss engineer; Tomás Alvira and wife, Paquita Domínguez, a Spanish married couple; Isidoro Zorzano Ledesma, an Argentinian engineer; Dora del Hoyo, a domestic worker; Fr. Josemaria Hernandez Garnica; and Father José Luis Múzquiz de Miguel, a Spanish priest who began Opus Dei in the United States.


title: Opus Dei

text: During the pontificate of John Paul II, two members of Opus Dei, Juan Luis Cipriani Thorne and Julián Herranz Casado, were made cardinals.


title: Opus Dei

text: In September 2005, Pope Benedict XVI blessed a newly installed statue of Josemaría Escrivá placed in an outside wall niche of St Peter's Basilica, a place for founders of Catholic organizations.


title: Opus Dei

text: During that same year, Opus Dei received some unwanted attention due to the extraordinary success of the novel "The Da Vinci Code", in which both Opus Dei and the Catholic Church itself are depicted negatively. The film version was released globally in May 2006, further polarizing views on the organization.


title: Opus Dei

text: In 2014, Pope Francis through a delegate beatified Alvaro del Portillo and said that "he teaches us that in the simplicity and ordinariness of our life we can find a sure path to holiness.


title: Opus Dei

text: At the end of 2014, the prelature has been established in 69 countries, while its members are present in 90 countries.


title: Opus Dei

text: Javier Echevarría Rodríguez, the second prelate of Opus Dei, died on 12 December 2016, and was succeeded by Fernando Ocáriz. He was elected the new prelate of Opus Dei on 23 January 2017, and on the same day was appointed by Pope Francis as such.


title: Opus Dei

text: In 2019, Guadalupe Ortiz de Landázuri, one of the first women who joined Opus Dei, was beatified in Madrid, Spain. She is the first lay faithful, as well as the first woman, in Opus Dei to be beatified.


title: Opus Dei

text: In 2005, the first publicly-known sexual abuse case of Opus Dei in the US, against C. John McCloskey, was settled for $977,000. In July 2020, Opus Dei publicly acknowledged for the first time ever that they had a sexual abuse case, this one involving the priest Manuel Cociña in Spain.


title: Opus Dei

text: On 22 July 2022, Pope Francis issued the apostolic letter in the form of a "motu proprio" "Ad charisma tuendum". Among other things, the new disposition decrees that the head of the Opus Dei "shall not be honoured with the episcopal order", but "is granted, by reason of his office, the use of the title of Supernumerary Apostolic Protonotary with the title of Reverend Monsignor and therefore may use the insignia [including heraldic devices] corresponding to this title". It also transfers responsibility for the personal prelature "Opus Dei" from the Dicastery for Bishops to the Dicastery for the Clergy, conforming to the apostolic constitution "Praedicate evangelium", and mandates revision of the statutes of the personal prelature to bring them into conformity with these reforms. This reform became effective on 4 August 2022, and is viewed as reducing the power and influence of the prelature within the Catholic church.


title: Opus Dei

text: Opus Dei is an organization of the Catholic Church. As such, it shares the doctrines of the Catholic Church and has "no other teaching than the teaching of the Magisterium of the Holy See", as per the founder.


title: Opus Dei

text: Opus Dei places special emphasis on certain aspects of Catholic doctrine. A central feature of Opus Dei's theology is its focus on the lives of the ordinary Catholics who are neither priests nor monks. Opus Dei emphasizes the "universal call to holiness": the belief that everyone should aspire to be a saint, as per Jesus' commandment to "Love God with all your heart" (Matthew 22:37) and "Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect." (Matthew 5:48) Opus Dei also teaches that sanctity is within the reach of everyone, not just a few special individuals, given Jesus' teaching that his demands are "easy" and "light," as his divine assistance is assured.


title: Opus Dei

text: Opus Dei does not have monks or nuns, and only a minority of its members are priests. Opus Dei emphasizes uniting spiritual life with professional, social, and family life. Members of Opus Dei lead ordinary lives, with traditional families and secular careers, and strive to "sanctify ordinary life". Indeed, Pope John Paul II called Escrivá "the saint of ordinary life".


title: Opus Dei

text: Similarly, Opus Dei stresses the importance of work and professional competence. While some religious institutes encourage their members to withdraw from the material world, Opus Dei exhorts its members and all lay Catholics to "find God in daily life" and to perform their work excellently as a service to society and as a fitting offering to God. Opus Dei teaches that work not only contributes to social progress but is "a path to holiness".


title: Opus Dei

text: The biblical roots of this Catholic doctrine, according to the founder, are in the phrase "God created man to work" (Genesis 2:15) and Jesus's long life as an ordinary carpenter in a small town. Escrivá, who stressed the Christian's duty to follow Christ's example, also points to the gospel account that Jesus "has done everything well" (Mark 7:37).


title: Opus Dei

text: The foundation of the Christian life, stressed Escrivá, is "divine filiation": Christians are children of God, identified with Christ's life and mission. Other main features of Opus Dei, according to its official literature, are "freedom", respecting choice and taking personal responsibility, and "charity", love of God above all and love of others.


title: Opus Dei

text: At the bottom of Escrivá's understanding of the "universal call to holiness" are two dimensions, subjective and objective, according to Fernando Ocariz, a Catholic theologian and prelate of Opus Dei since 2017. The subjective is the call given to each person to become a saint, regardless of their place in society. The objective refers to what Escrivá calls Christian materialism: all of creation, even the most material situation, is a meeting place with God, and leads to union with him.


title: Opus Dei

text: All members – whether married or unmarried, priests or laypeople – are trained to follow a 'plan of life', or 'the norms of piety', which are some traditional Catholic devotions. This is meant to follow the teaching of the Catholic Catechism: "pray at specific times...to nourish continual prayer".


title: Opus Dei

text: As a spirituality for ordinary people, Opus Dei focuses on performing sacrifices pertaining to normal duties and to its emphasis on charity and cheerfulness. However, much public attention has focused on Opus Dei's practice of mortification—the voluntary offering up of discomfort or pain to God; this includes fasting, or for its celibate members, "corporal mortifications" such as self-inflicted pain (self-flagellation), sleeping without a pillow or sleeping on the floor, fasting, and if compatible with their family or professional duties, remaining silent for certain hours during the day. Mortification has a long history in many world religions, including the Catholic Church. It has been endorsed by popes as a way of following Christ, who died in a bloody crucifixion and who, speaking of anybody that sought to be his disciple, said: "let him deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow me" (Luke 9:23). Supporters say that opposition to mortification is rooted in having lost (1) the "sense of the enormity of sin" or offense against God, and the consequent penance, both interior and exterior, (2) the notions of "wounded human nature" and of concupiscence or inclination to sin, and thus the need for "spiritual battle", and (3) a spirit of sacrifice for love and "supernatural ends", and not only for physical enhancement.


title: Opus Dei

text: In Pope John Paul II's 1982 decree known as the Apostolic constitution "Ut Sit", Opus Dei was established as a personal prelature, a new official structure of the Catholic Church, similar to a diocese in that it contains lay people and secular priests who are led by a bishop. However, whereas a bishop normally has a territory or diocese, the prelate of Opus Dei is pastor to the members and priests of Opus Dei worldwide, no matter what diocese they are in. To date, Opus Dei is the only personal prelature in existence. In addition to being governed by "Ut Sit" and by the Catholic Church's general law, Opus Dei is governed by the church's Particular Law concerning Opus Dei, otherwise known as Opus Dei's statutes. This specifies the objectives and workings of the prelature. The prelature is under the Congregation for Bishops.


title: Opus Dei

text: The head of the Opus Dei prelature is known as the prelate. The prelate is the primary governing authority and is assisted by two councils—the General Council (made up of men) and the Central Advisory (made up of women). The prelate holds his position for life. The current prelate of Opus Dei is Fernando Ocáriz Braña, who became the third prelate of Opus Dei on 23 January 2017. The first prelate of Opus Dei was Álvaro del Portillo, who held the position from 1982 until his death in 1994.


title: Opus Dei

text: Opus Dei's highest assembled bodies are the General Congresses, which are usually convened once every eight years. There are separate congresses for the men's and women's branches of Opus Dei. The General Congresses are made up of members appointed by the prelate and are responsible for advising him about the prelature's future. The men's General Congress also elects the prelate from a list of candidates chosen by their female counterparts. After the death of a prelate, a special elective General Congress is convened. The women nominate their preferred candidates for the prelate and is voted upon by the men to become the next prelate—an appointment that must be confirmed by the Pope.


title: Opus Dei

text: Based on the language of Catholic Church law and theology, the prelature calls the people under the pastoral care of the prelate as "faithful of the prelature", since the term member connotes an association rather than a hierarchical structure such as a prelature or a diocese.


title: Opus Dei

text: , the faithful of the Opus Dei Prelature numbered 95,318 members, of which 93,203 are lay persons, men and women, and 2,115 priests. These figures do not include the priest members of Opus Dei's Priestly Society of the Holy Cross, estimated to number 2,000 in the year 2005.


title: Opus Dei

text: About 60 percent of Opus Dei faithful reside in Europe, and 35 percent reside in the Americas. Women comprise 57% of the total membership. According to the study of John Allen, for the most part, Opus Dei faithful belong to the middle to low levels in society in terms of education, income, and social status.


title: Opus Dei

text: Opus Dei is made up of several different types of faithful. According to the Statutes of Opus Dei, the distinction derives from the degree to which they make themselves available for the official activities of the Prelature and for giving formation according to the spirit of Opus Dei.


title: Opus Dei

text: Supernumeraries, the largest type, currently account for about 70% of the total membership. Typically, supernumeraries are married men and women with careers. Supernumeraries devote a portion of their day to prayer, in addition to attending regular meetings and taking part in activities such as retreats. Due to their career and family obligations, supernumeraries are not as available to the organization as the other types of faithful, but they typically contribute financially to Opus Dei, and they lend other types of assistance as their circumstances permit.


title: Opus Dei

text: Numeraries, the second largest type of the faithful of Opus Dei, comprise about 20% of the total membership. Numeraries are celibate members who give themselves in "full availability" () for the official undertakings of the Prelature. This includes full availability for giving doctrinal and ascetical formation to other members, for staffing the internal government of Opus Dei if asked by the regional directors, and for moving to other countries to start or help with apostolic activities if asked by the prelate. Because they are making themselves fully available to do whatever needs to be done for the undertakings of the Prelature, numeraries are expected to live in special centers run by Opus Dei, and the question of which particular center a numerary will live in depends upon the regional needs. "Numerary" is a general term for persons who form part of the permanent staff of an organization. Therefore, in order to maintain a family atmosphere in the centers (rather than an institutional one), it is considered very important for numeraries to participate in daily meals and "get-togethers" in which they converse and share news. Both men and women may become numeraries in Opus Dei, although the centers are strictly gender-specific. Numeraries generally have jobs outside of Opus Dei, although some are asked to work internally full-time, and many modify the way that they go about their professional goals in order to be available for the Prelature. They devote the bulk of their income to the organization.


title: Opus Dei

text: Numerary assistants are a type of numerary that exists in the Women's Branch of Opus Dei. Their full availability for the Prelature is lived out as full availability for doing a specific type of work, namely looking after the domestic needs of the conference centers and the residential centers of Opus Dei. Hence they live in special centers run by Opus Dei and do not have jobs outside the centers.


title: Opus Dei

text: Associates are celibate faithful who make themselves fully available to God and to others in apostolic celibacy and stably take on at least one (sometimes more) apostolic assignment(s) from the Prelature in giving doctrinal and ascetical formation and/or coordinating activities. They differ from numeraries in not making themselves "fully" available to staff the official undertakings of the Prelature, instead giving themselves in additional social realities, such as through their profession or to their own families. Because of this difference in availability for the official activities of Opus Dei, unlike numeraries the associates do not live in Opus Dei centers but maintain their own abodes. Some of their family life (emotional and social support) comes from the centers of Opus Dei, some from other associates of Opus Dei, and some from their personal families and friends; the precise ratio of this distribution depends upon the circumstances of the individual associate.


title: Opus Dei

text: The Clergy of the Opus Dei Prelature are priests who are under the jurisdiction of the prelate of Opus Dei. They are a minority in Opus Dei—only about 2% of Opus Dei members are part of the clergy. Typically, they are numeraries or associates who ultimately joined the priesthood.


title: Opus Dei

text: The consists of priests associated with Opus Dei. Part of the society is made up of the clergy of the Opus Dei prelature—priests who fall under the jurisdiction of the Opus Dei prelature are automatically members of the Priestly Society. Other members in the society are diocesan priests—clergymen who remain under the jurisdiction of a geographically defined diocese. These priests are considered full members of Opus Dei who are given its spiritual training. They do not, however, report to the Opus Dei prelate but to their own diocesan bishop. , there were roughly two thousand of these priests.


title: Opus Dei

text: The Cooperators of Opus Dei are non-members who collaborate in some way with Opus Dei—usually through praying, charitable contributions, or by providing some other assistance. Cooperators are not required to be celibate or to adhere to any other special requirements, and are not even required to be Christian. There were 164,000 cooperators in the year 2005.


title: Opus Dei

text: In accordance with Catholic theology, membership is granted when a vocation or divine calling is presumed to have occurred.


title: Opus Dei

text: Leaders of Opus Dei describe the organization as a teaching entity whose main activity is to train Catholics to assume personal responsibility in sanctifying the secular world from within. This teaching is done by means of theory and practice.


title: Opus Dei

text: Its lay people and priests organize seminars, workshops, retreats, and classes to help people put the Christian faith into practice in their daily lives. Spiritual direction, one-on-one coaching with a more experienced lay person or priest, is considered the "paramount means" of training. Through these activities, they provide religious instruction (doctrinal formation), coaching in spirituality for lay people (spiritual formation), character and moral education (human formation), lessons in sanctifying one's work (professional formation), and know-how in evangelizing one's family and workplace (apostolic formation).


title: Opus Dei

text: The official Catholic document, which established the prelature, states that Opus Dei strives "to put into practice the teaching of the universal call to sanctity, and to promote at all levels of society the sanctification of ordinary work, and by means of ordinary work." Thus, the founder and his followers describe members of Opus Dei as resembling the members of the early Christian Church—ordinary workers who seriously sought holiness with nothing exterior to distinguish them from other citizens.


title: Opus Dei

text: Opus Dei runs residential centers throughout the world. These centers provide residential housing for celibate members and provide doctrinal and theological education. Opus Dei is also responsible for a variety of non-profit institutions called "Corporate Works of Opus Dei." A study of the year 2005 showed that members have cooperated with other people in setting up a total of 608 social initiatives: schools and university residences (68%), technical or agricultural training centers (26%), universities, business schools, and hospitals (6%). The University of Navarra in Pamplona, Spain, and the Austral University in Buenos Aires, Argentina, are both examples of the corporate work of Opus Dei. These universities usually perform very high in international rankings. IESE, the University of Navarra's Business School, was adjudged one of the best in the world by the "Financial Times" and the "Economist Intelligence Unit". The total assets of non-profits connected to Opus Dei are worth at least $2.8 billion.


title: Opus Dei

text: Leopoldo Eijo y Garay, the bishop of Madrid, where Opus Dei was born, supported Opus Dei and defended it in the 1940s by saying that "this "opus" is truly "Dei"" (this work is truly God's). Contrary to attacks of secrecy and heresy, the bishop described Opus Dei's founder as someone who was "open as a child" and "most obedient to the Church hierarchy."


title: Opus Dei

text: In the 1950s, Pope Pius XII told the most senior Australian bishop, Cardinal Norman Gilroy, that Escrivá "is a true saint, a man sent by God for our times". Pius XII gave Opus Dei the canonical status of "[pontifical right]]", an institution depending directly and exclusively on the Vatican in its internal governance.


title: Opus Dei

text: In 1960, Pope John XXIII commented that Opus Dei opens up "unsuspected horizons of apostolate". Furthermore, in 1964, Pope Paul VI praised the organization in a handwritten letter to Escrivá, saying:


title: Opus Dei

text: Opus Dei is "a vigorous expression of the perennial youth of the Church, fully open to the demands of a modern apostolate... We look with paternal satisfaction on all that Opus Dei has achieved and is achieving for the kingdom of God, the desire of doing good that guides it, the burning love for the Church and its visible head that distinguishes it, and the ardent zeal for souls that impels it along the arduous and difficult paths of the apostolate of presence and witness in every sector of contemporary life."


title: Opus Dei

text: The relationship between Paul VI and Opus Dei, according to Alberto Moncada, a doctor of sociology and ex-member, was "stormy." After the Second Vatican Council concluded in 1965, Pope Paul VI denied Opus Dei's petition to become a personal prelature, Moncada stated.


title: Opus Dei

text: Pope John Paul I, a few years before his election, wrote that Escrivá was more radical than other saints who taught about the universal call to holiness. While others emphasized monastic spirituality applied to lay people, Escrivá "it is the material work itself which must be turned into prayer and sanctity," thus providing a lay spirituality.


title: Opus Dei

text: Criticisms against Opus Dei have prompted Catholic scholars and writers like Piers Paul Read and Vittorio Messori to call Opus Dei a sign of contradiction, in reference to the biblical quote of Jesus as a "sign that is spoken against". John Carmel Heenan, Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster said "One of the proofs of God's favor is to be a sign of contradiction. Almost all founders of societies in the Church have suffered. Monsignor Escrivá de Balaguer is no exception. Opus Dei has been attacked, and its motives misunderstood. In this country and elsewhere, an inquiry has always vindicated Opus Dei."


title: Opus Dei

text: One of Opus Dei's most prominent supporters was Pope John Paul II. John Paul II cited Opus Dei's aim of sanctifying secular activities as a "great ideal." He emphasized that Escrivá's founding of Opus Dei was "ductus divina inspiratione," led by divine inspiration, and he granted the organization its status as a personal prelature. Stating that Escrivá is "counted among the great witnesses of Christianity," John Paul II canonized him in 2002 and called him "the saint of ordinary life." Of the organization, John Paul II said:


title: Opus Dei

text: [Opus Dei] has as its aim the sanctification of one's life, while remaining within the world at one's place of work and profession: to live the Gospel in the world, while living immersed in the world, but in order to transform it, and to redeem it with one's personal love for Christ. This is truly a great ideal, which right from the beginning has anticipated the theology of the lay state of the Second Vatican Council and the post-conciliar period.


title: Opus Dei

text: One-third of the world's bishops petitioned for the canonization of Escrivá. During the canonization, there were 42 cardinals and 470 bishops from around the world, generals superior of many religious institutes, and representatives of various Catholic groups. During those days, these church officials commented on the universal reach and validity of the message of the founder. For his canonization homily, John Paul II said: With the teachings of St. Josemaría, "it is easier to understand what the Second Vatican Council affirmed: 'there is no question, then, of the Christian message inhibiting men from building up the world ... on the contrary, it is an incentive to do these very things' (Vatican II, "Gaudium et spes," n. 34)."


title: Opus Dei

text: Concerning the group's role in the Catholic Church, critics have argued that Opus Dei's unique status as a personal prelature gives it too much independence, making it essentially a "church within a church" and that Opus Dei exerts a disproportionately large influence within the Catholic Church itself, as illustrated, for example, by the rapid , which some considered to be irregular (27 years). In contrast, Catholic officials say that church authorities have even greater control of Opus Dei now that its head is a prelate appointed by the Pope, and its status as a prelature "precisely means dependence." Allen says that Escrivá's relatively quick canonization does not have anything to do with power but with improvements in procedures and John Paul II's decision to make Escrivá's sanctity and message known. The canonizations of John Paul II himself and Mother Teresa were much faster than Escrivá's.


title: Opus Dei

text: Pope Benedict XVI has been a particularly strong supporter of Opus Dei and of Escrivá. Pointing to the name "Work of God," Benedict XVI (then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger) wrote that "The Lord simply made use of [Escrivá] who allowed God to work." Ratzinger cited Escrivá for correcting the mistaken idea that holiness is reserved for some extraordinary people who are completely different from ordinary sinners: Even if he can be very weak, with many mistakes in his life, a saint is nothing other than to speak with God as a friend speaks with a friend, allowing God to work, the Only One who can really make the world both good and happy.


title: Opus Dei

text: Ratzinger spoke of Opus Dei's "surprising union of absolute fidelity to the Church's great tradition, to its faith, and unconditional openness to all the challenges of this world, whether in the academic world, in the field of work, or in matters of the economy, etc." He further explained:


title: Opus Dei

text: the theocentrism of Escrivá ... means this confidence in the fact that God is working now and we ought only to put ourselves at his disposal ... This, for me, is a message of greatest importance. It is a message that leads to overcoming what could be considered the great temptation of our times: the pretense that after the 'Big Bang' God retired from history.


title: Opus Dei

text: Pope Francis is "the first Pope who has dealt with Opus Dei closely as a bishop," and according to James V. Schall, S.J., is a "friend of Opus Dei". Francis referred to St. Josemaria as "a precursor of Vatican II in proposing the universal call to holiness." In the analysis of John Allen, Pope Francis' strong dislike for clericalism, which he calls "one of the worst evils" in the church, is a key factor for "what Francis admires about Opus Dei since Escrivá’s emphasis on the dignity of the laity was a challenge to the ultra-clerical ethos of Spanish Catholicism in the late 1920s." He has a devotion to St. Josemaria, and he prayed before his relics for 45 minutes when he once visited the church of the prelature in Rome. Francis beatified Alvaro del Portillo, the successor of Escrivá. What Bergoglio most liked about Opus Dei was the work done for the poor by one of its schools in Buenos Aires. He thanks Opus Dei for its work to further the holiness of priests in the Roman Curia.


title: Opus Dei

text: Throughout its history, Opus Dei has been criticized from many quarters, prompting journalists to describe Opus Dei as "the most controversial force in the Catholic Church" and founder Josemaría Escrivá as a "polarizing" figure. Criticism of Opus Dei has centered on allegations of secretiveness, controversial and aggressive recruiting methods, strict rules governing members, elitism and misogyny, and support of or participation in authoritarian or right-wing governments, including the fascist Franco regime which governed in Spain until 1978. The mortification of the flesh practiced by some of its members is also criticized. Opus Dei has also been criticized for allegedly seeking independence and more influence within the Catholic Church.


title: Opus Dei

text: However, according to several journalists who have researched Opus Dei separately, many criticisms against Opus Dei are based on fabrications by opponents. Several popes and other Catholic leaders have endorsed what they see as its innovative teaching on the sanctifying value of work, and its fidelity to Catholic beliefs. In 2002, Pope John Paul II canonized Josemaría Escrivá, and called him "the saint of ordinary life."


title: Opus Dei

text: In recent years, Opus Dei has received international attention due to the novel "The Da Vinci Code" and its film version of 2006, both of which prominent Christians and non-believers criticized as misleading, inaccurate and anti-Catholic.


title: Opus Dei

text: Critics such as the Jesuit Wladimir Ledóchowski sometimes refer to Opus Dei as a Catholic (or Christian or "white") form of Freemasonry.


title: Opus Dei

text: According to several journalists who have worked independently on Opus Dei, such as John L. Allen Jr., Vittorio Messori, Patrice de Plunkett, Maggy Whitehouse, Noam Friedlander many of the criticisms against Opus Dei are myths and unproven tales. Allen, Messori, and Plunkett say that most of these myths were created by its opponents, with Allen adding that he perceives that Opus Dei members generally practice what they preach.


title: Opus Dei

text: Allen, Messori, and Plunkett also state that accusations that Opus Dei is secretive are unfounded. These accusations stem from a clerical paradigm which expects Opus Dei members to behave as monks and clerics, people who are traditionally known and externally identifiable as seekers of holiness. In contrast, these journalists continue, Opus Dei's lay members, like any normal Catholic professional, are ultimately responsible for their personal actions, and do not externally represent the organization which provides them religious education. Writer and broadcast analyst John L. Allen Jr. states that Opus Dei provides abundant information about itself. These journalists have stated that the historic roots of criticisms against Opus Dei can be found in influential clerical circles.


title: Opus Dei

text: As to its alleged participation in right-wing politics, especially the Francoist regime, British historians Paul Preston and Brian Crozier state that the Opus Dei members who were Franco's ministers were appointed for their talent and not for their Opus Dei membership. Also, there were notable members of Opus Dei who were vocal critics of the Franco Regime such as Rafael Calvo Serer and Antonio Fontán, who was the first President of the Senate in Spain, following the adoption of a democratic Constitution. The German historian and Opus Dei member Peter Berglar calls any connection made between Opus Dei and Franco's regime a "gross slander." At the end of Franco's regime, Opus Dei members were 50:50 for and against Franco, according to John Allen. Similarly Álvaro del Portillo, the former prelate of Opus Dei, said that any statements that Escrivá supported Hitler were "a patent falsehood," that were part of "a slanderous campaign". He and others have stated that Escrivá condemned Hitler as a "rogue", a "racist" and a "tyrant". Opus Dei spokespersons also deny claims that Opus Dei members worked with General Pinochet. Various authors and researchers state that Escrivá was staunchly non-political, and detested dictatorships. Allen wrote that, compared with other Catholic organizations, Opus Dei's stress on freedom and personal responsibility is extraordinarily strong. There are many Opus Dei members who are identified with left-wing politics, including Ruth Kelly, Jorge Rossi Chavarría, Mario Fernández Baeza, Antonio Fontán, Mario Maiolo, and Jesus Estanislao.


title: Opus Dei

text: While Opus Dei spokespersons have admitted mistakes in dealing with some members and do not, as a rule, contest their grievances, supporters have rejected generalizations merely based on negative experiences of some members.


title: Opus Dei

text: Opus Dei is not "elitist" in the sense in which people often invoke the term, meaning an exclusively white-collar phenomenon, concluded John Allen. He observed that among its members are barbers, bricklayers, mechanics and fruit sellers. Most supernumeraries are living ordinary middle-class lives, he said.


title: Opus Dei

text: Regarding alleged misogyny, John Allen states that half of the leadership positions in Opus Dei are held by women, and they supervise men.


title: Opus Dei

text: As regards the claim that religious people in Spain, including Opus Dei members, were involved in abduction of children during the Franco era, an investigation found that DNA analysis of 81 cases ruled out that they were stolen babies. The supreme court of Spain did not consider the first case of stolen babies to be proven, and the chief prosecutor of the Basque Country, said that "not even reasonable evidence" of any abduction of babies had been found, after special investigations of the police.


title: Opus Dei

text: Critics of Opus Dei include María del Carmen Tapia, an ex-member who was a high-ranking officer of Opus Dei for many years, liberal Catholic theologians such as Fr. James Martin, a Jesuit writer and editor and supporters of Liberation theology, such as journalist Penny Lernoux and Michael Walsh, a writer on religious matters and former Jesuit.


title: Opus Dei

text: Critics state that Opus Dei is "intensely secretive"—for example, members generally do not disclose their affiliation with Opus Dei in public. Further, under the 1950 constitution, members were expressly forbidden to reveal themselves without the permission of their superiors. This practice has led to much speculation about who may be a member. Due in part to its secrecy, the Jesuit-run magazine "America" referred to it as, "...the most controversial group in the Catholic Church today."


title: Opus Dei

text: Opus Dei has been accused of deceptive and aggressive recruitment practices, such as showering potential members with intense praise ("Love bombing"), and instructing numeraries to form friendships and attend social gatherings explicitly for recruiting purposes.


title: Opus Dei

text: Critics allege that Opus Dei maintains an extremely high degree of control over its members—for instance, past rules required numeraries to submit their incoming and outgoing mail to their superiors for inspection, and members are forbidden to read certain books without permission from their superiors. Critics charge that Opus Dei pressures numeraries to sever contact with non-members, including their own families. Exit counselor David Clark has described Opus Dei as "very cult-like".


title: Opus Dei

text: Critics assert that Escrivá and the organization supported radical right-wing governments, such as those of Franco, Augusto Pinochet and Alberto Fujimori of Peru during the 1990s. Both Pinochet's and Fujimori's ministries and prominent supporters allegedly included members of Opus Dei, but there are also prominent Opus Dei members in parties that opposed those governments. Likewise, among Opus Dei members there were also strong detractors of Franco, such as Antonio Fontán. 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."


title: Opus Dei

text: Opus Dei has also been accused of elitism through targeting of "the intellectual elite, the well-to-do, and the socially prominent."


title: Opus Dei

text: As members of Opus Dei are Catholics, Opus Dei has been subjected to the same criticisms targeted to Catholicism in general. For example, Opus Dei's position has been "to oppose sexual freedoms and promote conservative morals," according to an investigative report produced by the advocacy group Catholics for Choice. The report further cites a study from sociologist Marco Burgos alleging Opus Dei interference in sex education programs in Honduras that contradict the Catholic faith.


title: Opus Dei

text: Between 1950 and 1980, as many as 300,000 illegal adoptions occurred in Spain in a scandal known as the Lost children of Francoism. Many Catholic clergy and religious sisters at church-sponsored hospitals or other charitable organizations in Spain are alleged to have been involved, including members of Opus Dei.


title: Opus Dei

text: The Opus Dei organisation has been described as a ""Holy Mafia"" or ""Santa Mafia"" in the 1970s due to alleged "inscrutable business practices".


title: Opus Dei

text: After conducting a critical study of Opus Dei, Catholic journalist John L. Allen Jr. concluded that Opus Dei should (1) be more transparent, (2) collaborate with members of religious institutes, and (3) encourage its members to air out in public their criticisms of the institution.


title: Opus Dei

text: Sociologists Peter Berger and Samuel Huntington suggest that Opus Dei is involved in "a deliberate attempt to construct an alternative modernity," one that engages modern culture while at the same time is resolutely loyal to Catholic traditions. Van Biema of "Time" magazine emphasises Opus Dei's Spanish roots as a source of misunderstandings in the Anglo-Saxon world, and suggests that as the United States becomes more Hispanic, controversies about Opus Dei (and similar Catholic organizations) will decrease.


title: Opus Dei

text: In her 2006 book on Opus Dei, Maggy Whitehouse, a non-Catholic journalist, argues that the relative autonomy of each director and center has resulted in mistakes at the local level. She recommends greater consistency and transparency for Opus Dei, which she sees as having learned the lesson of greater openness when it faced the issues raised by "The Da Vinci Code" and other critics.


title: Jane Fallon

text: Born as the youngest of five children in Harrow, northwest London, Fallon's family moved to Buckinghamshire when she was a child, and she grew up in a house above her parents' newsagent's shop.


title: Jane Fallon

text: She was educated at St Bernard's Convent School in Slough, Berkshire, and University College London, where she studied history, graduating with a bachelor of arts in 1982. Alongside her studies, she started writing for the history department's magazine, for the university newspaper, "London Student", and for "Pi Magazine".


title: Jane Fallon

text: After her studies, she began working for a theatrical literary agency. After a few years there, she decided to become a freelance script reader and script editor for different theatrical productions and television, and in 1994, she advanced to become a producer on the series "EastEnders". This was followed by a number of awarded series, such as "This Life", "20 Things to Do Before You're 30", and "Teachers".


title: Jane Fallon

text: By 2006, Fallon had decided to quit television and become a full-time novelist. A year later, she debuted with her first national bestseller, "Getting Rid of Matthew". She has followed this with "Got You Back", "Foursome", "The Ugly Sister", "Skeletons", "Strictly Between Us", "My Sweet Revenge", "Faking Friends", "Tell Me a Secret", "Queen Bee", "Worst. Idea. Ever." and "Just Got Real". Her books have been translated into more than 20 languages.


title: Jane Fallon

text: Her novel "Got You Back" is being made into a musical, with music by Swedish pop group Roxette and a world premiere scheduled for Malmö Opera, Sweden in 2024.


title: Jane Fallon

text: In 2011, "Foursome" was nominated for the Melissa Nathan Award for Romantic Comedy Fiction and in 2018, "Faking Friends" was nominated in the popular fiction category of the National Book Awards. In 2019, it was longlisted for the Comedy Women in Print Prize. In 2020 she was awarded an honorary fellowship of University College London.


title: Jane Fallon

text: Fallon has been in a relationship with comedian Ricky Gervais since 1982; they met while studying at University College London. The couple have lived together since 1984 and reside in Hampstead. Fallon's niece, Elsie Fallon, is an actress.


title: Mass Effect

text: Mass Effect is a military science fiction media franchise created by Casey Hudson, Drew Karpyshyn and Preston Watamaniuk. The franchise depicts a distant future where humanity and several alien civilizations have colonized the known universe using technology left behind by advanced precursor civilizations.


title: Mass Effect

text: The franchise originated in a series of video games developed by BioWare and published by Electronic Arts. Each installment is a third-person shooter with role-playing elements. The first three games form a trilogy in which the player character, Commander Shepard, attempts to save the Milky Way galaxy from a race of ancient, hibernating machines known as the Reapers. The inaugural video game in the series, "Mass Effect" (2007), follows Shepard's investigation of Saren Arterius, one of the Reapers' agents. "Mass Effect 2" (2010) begins two years later and sees Shepard's forces battling the Collectors, an alien race abducting human colonies to facilitate the Reapers' return. The original trilogy's final installment, "Mass Effect 3" (2012), depicts a war between the Reapers and the rest of the galaxy. A fourth game, "" (2017), featured a new setting and cast of characters, and a fifth is in active development.


title: Mass Effect

text: The original trilogy was met with commercial success as well as universal acclaim. Critics praised the game's narrative, characters, voice acting, world building, and emphasis on player choice. The ending of "Mass Effect 3" drew widespread criticism for being an unsatisfying conclusion to the trilogy, prompting Electronic Arts to release an expanded cut with additional cutscenes. "Mass Effect: Andromeda" received mixed reviews. Praise was directed at the game's visuals and combat, but the game drew criticism for technical issues and its plot.


title: Mass Effect

text: The series has generated attention and discussion about its representation of same-sex relationships and sexual minorities. It also originated the dialogue wheel, a mechanic similar to dialogue trees, enabling players to dynamically steer conversations by selecting from a number of preset choices; the feature has seen widespread use in other role-playing video games. The success of the video game series spawned adaptations in other media, including novels, comics, and an animated film.


title: Mass Effect

text: The "Mass Effect" original trilogy takes place in the Milky Way towards the end of the 22nd century. In 2148, humanity discovered an alien outpost on Mars, and learned that Charon is actually an alien artifact known as a "mass relay" that enables faster-than-light travel to other mass relays located across the galaxy. These discoveries drastically increased the enhancement rate of humanity's technology.


title: Mass Effect

text: Humanity comes into contact with numerous other space-faring alien species, some far more advanced than humans. Humanity's first encounter resulted in the First Contact War, but the Council, a ruling body for the galaxy, intervened to achieve peace and welcomed humanity. The main species encountered by humanity include the asari, a species of mono-gendered beings closely resembling human women; the salarians, an amphibious species with considerable technological and intellectual prowess and an extremely high metabolism; and the turians, a heavily militaristic race of raptor-like avian humanoids who fought humanity in the First Contact War.


title: Mass Effect

text: The center of the Council's governing power is the Citadel, another artifact and a massive space station that, like the mass relays, were made by a race known as the Protheans believed to be the progenitor race for all species but long since disappeared. Over the next few decades, humanity is given access to new technology, allowing them to colonize new planets, and they are made part of the Citadel Security (C-Sec) forces, a highly regarded position that other species had been long waiting for and take resentment over. Numerous other inter-species conflicts remain active at the time of the first game, results of past wars and conflicts.


title: Mass Effect

text: The first three games center on the character of Commander Shepard (whose gender and personality are determined by the player), a leading Special Forces soldier in Earth's Systems Alliance space force, the Systems Alliance Navy. After an Earth colony discovers a new Prothean artifact, it is attacked by an unknown vessel, and the Council names Shepard its first human SPECTRE (Special Tactics and Reconnaissance), an elite agent with associated authority and impunity, to investigate the incident.


title: Mass Effect

text: Shepard comes in contact with the artifact and has a vision of war and death across the galaxy. Following their vision, Shepard discovers that the strange craft is one of thousands of artificial lifeforms called Reapers, and learns that every fifty-thousand years, the Reapers scour through the Milky Way and eliminate all higher forms of life, leaving the younger species to advance and thrive until the next cycle as to prevent constant war and chaos, part of what the Protheans had left behind along with their artifacts. The appearance of the Reapers in this cycle is being manipulated by numerous forces, including a human-centrist terrorist organization known as Cerberus led by the Illusive Man who believe they can control the Reapers and use them for humanity's benefit. Shepard and their allies discover the Citadel is key to ending the Reapers' cycle and setting the fate of the galaxy.


title: Mass Effect

text: The fourth game takes place in the Heleus Cluster of the Andromeda galaxy, 634 years after the events of its predecessor. In the midst of events of the first three games, the combined races of the Milky Way sent a number of ships to Andromeda to establish the Nexus, a space-borne operations base and a number of colonies to accept future colonists once contact is established. After over 600 years of travel in cryogenic stasis, they arrive to find the Heleus Cluster in brutal conflict between two native races: the Kett, a barbaric race obsessed with assimilating the traits of other sentient species through a process known as "exaltation"; and the Angara, an emotionally charged humanoid species whose civilization has recently been targeted and nearly decimated by the Kett.


title: Mass Effect

text: The Heleus Cluster is also the location of a series of ruins predating an advanced, spacefaring race known as the Jardaan. The Jardaan made use of powerful terraforming technologies to colonize worlds in the Heleus Cluster, which was otherwise extremely hazardous and naturally unsustainable for life. They later fled from the Heleus Cluster three centuries before the arrival of the Milky Way races, when a protracted battle against an unknown enemy faction resulted in the usage of a weapon of mass destruction aboard a Jardaan space station. The weapon's activation unleashed a cataclysmic energy phenomenon known as the Scourge, which spread across the cluster and greatly damaged the Jardaan's terraforming systems. After the Jardaan left, the Angara, genetically engineered creations of the elder race, began to develop their own civilization before falling under attack by the encroaching Kett.


title: Mass Effect

text: With the Milky Way species' arrival, it becomes the responsibly of Pathfinder Ryder (who, like Shepard, is also customizable by the player) and their allies to shut down the malfunctioning terraforming systems, deal with the Kett and Angara attacks, and make planets habitable for colonization.


title: Mass Effect

text: While various features of gameplay varied across the series, the "Mass Effect" games are action role-playing games. The player customizes their version of the game's main character (Shepard for the first three games, and Ryder for "Mass Effect: Andromeda") based on physical appearance, background, and one of six character classes, each class centered around one or two specializations in combat, technology, or "biotic" (magic-like) skills. This establishes a skill tree that the player can advance through as their character gains experience levels through completing missions. Each game generally follows a main story pathway with points of branching narratives and multiple side missions, allowing the player to proceed through the game as they desire. Both story and optional missions most often involve using their ship to travel via the mass relay to remote star systems and explore planets to find target objectives.


title: Mass Effect

text: When exploring planets, the player has the option to bring up to two of their crew members with them, who generally act autonomously but can be given specific orders by the player. In missions, the player can explore an area to find information, discover lootable objects with new gear or in-game currency, non-playable characters to talk to, and key mission items that are to be recovered. Frequently, the player will enter combat, which plays out as a third-person shooter, with the player and their allies using a combination of their weapons and combat, tech, and biotic powers along with tactic use of the environment to defeat opponents. There are six different types of weapons: assault rifles, grenades, sniper rifles, shotguns, pistols, and in later games, heavy weapons (i.e. grenade launchers, rocket launchers, flamethrowers, or heavy machine guns). Due to these weapons being collapsible for easy storage, it is possible for a player to carry all five weapons at once and alternate between them depending on their position, enemy type, and situation. Melee weapons include fists, the butt of a gun, or in later games, a condensed transparent silicon-carbide dagger called an Omni-blade.


title: Mass Effect

text: Through story encounters and missions, the player meets a number of non-player characters and engages in dialogue trees with them to learn information and progress the story. This is presented through what BioWare called a Dialogue Wheel, with the player-character reply options shown as choices extending radially outward from a circle at the bottom of the screen. Most of these choices are simple questions and responses, but in some dialogues, they offer additional choices that either influence how the game plays out from there, or are as a result from those previous choices. In the first three games, these choices influenced the player-character's morality, putting them on the path of a Paragon or Renegade, indicated by color and positioning on the Dialogue Wheel. With the second and third game, it became possible to select these choices during the non-player's character dialog, resulting in an interruption of the action that could have even larger ramifications. The player's choices of Paragon or Renegade could change how some parts of the story progressed and could limit choices of allies they could gain later in the game or the ability to access powerful gear. Cinematic designer John Ebenger stated in 2020 that only about 8% of the players chose the Renegade route across the first three games, and jokingly lamented about the amount of effort they had put into some of the Renegade cinematics. In "Andromeda", BioWare replaced the Paragon/Renegade distinctions, which were tied more to the Shepard character, to a new system based on four ideals of emotional, logical, casual, and professional attitudes.


title: Mass Effect

text: Among notable side missions in the series include the various romancing options with the main character's crewmates: these included both hetero- and homosexual relationships since the player-character's gender was selectable, as well as intra-species options. Players could work to improve their relationship with these characters through dialogue options, providing them gifts, or completing various side missions specific to each character. Successfully romancing a character would typically lead to scenes leading up to a sexual encounter though otherwise not showing anything inappropriate for the game's rating. These options had created some controversy for the first game on release with mainstream reporters critical of the sexual content of the game.


title: Mass Effect

text: "Mass Effect" (2007), the first game in the series, was originally created as an exclusive title for the Xbox 360 but was later ported to Microsoft Windows by Demiurge Studios, and to the PlayStation 3 by Edge of Reality. The game focuses on the protagonist, Commander Shepard, and their quest to stop the rogue Spectre Saren Arterius from leading an army of sentient machines, called the Geth, to conquer the galaxy. During pursuit of Saren, Shepard develops key relationships with other characters, primarily their squad team members, all while learning of a far greater threat in the form of the Reapers. Saren has been mentally enslaved by the Reaper vanguard Sovereign, and sent into Citadel Space to initiate the purge of all advanced organic life in the galaxy, a cycle repeated by the Reapers every 50,000 years.


title: Mass Effect

text: Two downloadable content packs, "Bring Down The Sky" and "", were released in 2008 and 2009, respectively.


title: Mass Effect

text: "Mass Effect 2", the second main game in the series, was released on January 26, 2010, in North America and January 29 in Europe. A great deal of secrecy surrounded the game prior to launch, with few details emerging other than Casey Hudson, Project Director for BioWare, stating that "players should keep their save files, because decisions made by the player in the first game will continue to have influences on their character in the sequel." The game takes place two years after the events of "Mass Effect". Human colonies are being attacked, their colonists disappearing without a trace. The game's protagonist, Commander Shepard, is forced into an uneasy alliance with the pro-Human paramilitary organization, Cerberus, in an effort to discover the cause. Evidence emerges pointing to the "Collectors," an advanced, enigmatic race of insect-like humanoids. Adding to the threat is the revelation that the Collectors are working for the Reapers. Shepard sets out on a "suicide mission" to stop the Collectors, accompanied by a hand-picked team of soldiers, assassins, mercenaries, and specialists. "Mass Effect 2" has received overwhelming critical and public praise since its release, for its characters, storyline, voice acting, and refined combat and gameplay with many critics calling it a major improvement over the original and an easy Game of the Year contender despite its January release. At Gamescom 2010, it was announced that a PlayStation 3 version would become available, which was released on January 18, 2011.


title: Mass Effect

text: Seven episodic expansions were released as downloadable content, with "Normandy Crash Site", "Zaeed – The Price of Revenge", "Firewalker", "", "", and "" coming in 2010, followed by "" in 2011.


title: Mass Effect

text: "Mass Effect 3", the third installment in the original trilogy, was released on March 6, 2012. Casey Hudson commented that "Mass Effect 3" "will be easier [to develop] because we don't have to worry about continuity into the next one." However, decisions are routinely imported from the two previous titles to "Mass Effect 3" in order to maintain continuity within the series. In the final chapter of the trilogy, the Reapers have returned in force, and have begun their purge of the galaxy, attacking Earth. During this attack Commander Shepard is on Earth and forced to flee. After fleeing Earth, Commander Shepard must hurry and rally the advanced races of the galaxy to make one final stand, not only to save Earth, but also to break a cycle that has continued for millions of years. The first official trailer was unveiled on December 11, 2010, during the Spike TV Video Game Awards.


title: Mass Effect

text: Four story-focused episodic expansions were released as downloadable content, with "", "", and "" being released in 2012, followed by the final expansion, "", in 2013. There were also five free DLC packs released for the multiplayer component, "Resurgence", "Rebellion", "Earth", and "Retaliation" in 2012 and "Reckoning" in 2013, collectively adding thirty playable characters, dozens of new weapons and abilities, seven new maps, and a new enemy faction to complement the base game's three, among other content.