Living at Elmbrook, Schmitt said, "involves a serious effort to make use of the means the Church has to offer-the sacraments, prayer and confession-to live conscientiously.

"As long as you live by Catholic doctrine, what you do in the world is your affair," he added. "Opus Dei is very conscious of the dimension of individual freedom."

Officially Elmbrook has no house rules. There is tacit agreement, however, to maintain a minimum of noise, to wear coats to dinner, and generally to observe home manners. "We like to keep a family atmosphere," Richard F. Collier '72, one Elmbrook resident, said.

Elmbrook has no official policy on the use of drugs. "It's never come up," Collier said. "The people who live here and the people who come over a lot aren't going to use them."

The upkeep of the house and the planning of activities are the responsibility of a house committee, consisting of Schmitt and two residents appointed by him. The committee assigns cleaning and maintenance jobs to everyone in the house, but hires women to cook and to clean up after meals. Elmbrook students pay room and board fees to the house which Collier said were "slightly higher than Harvard's."

Most students now living at Elmbrook moved there as sophomores, after hearing about Opus Dei from friends who were members. Collier said he learned about the Cambridge center after taking a seminar at Schuyler Hall, Opus Dei's student residence at Columbia University.

Several students became interested in Elmbrook after attending summer orientation meetings held at the center for incoming Harvard freshmen from the Boston area. "We posted notices in local high schools," Schmitt said. "Perhaps six or seven freshmen showed up for each session."

F. Skiddy von Stade Jr. '38, dean of freshmen, said last week that he had met with incoming freshmen at Elmbrook "two and three summers ago" to talk about freshman year.

Students wishing to live at Elmbrook must first gain Schmitt's permission. Then they must file off-campus living applications with their House Master of the dean of students. Collier said the application process was "difficult."

Dean Epps said last week that no students had filed applications for permission to live at Elmbrookt for next year. "I've never heard of Elmbrook or Opus Dei," Epps added.

III

"OPUS DEI has no political or economic orientation in Spain or elsewhere," Escriva has written. "Each member is absolutely free to think and act as he sees fit."

However, members of Opus Dei may not hold political beliefs that contradict Catholic doctrine. "Atheistic communism is specifically condemned," Schmitt said, "and if socialism is understood as a denial of private property, then that would be wrong too."

Opus Dei members, however, have a reputation for extreme conservatism. At Elmbrook, life is outwardly more restrained than life in a Harvard House. A recent Life article described Elmbrook's Columbia counterpart as "a tasteful commune for conservatives."

Collier said that students living at Elmbrook hold "diverse political views." "There are no real extremists, or if there are, they keep it to themselves," he added.

"The local Opus Dei people seem to be apolitical," Fr. Richard B. Griffin, S.J. '51, the Catholic chaplain of Harvard, said last week. "Many of us in the Church increasingly think that participation in the broad area of polities is a basic part of the Christian commitment. I have the impression that they don't feel that."