Following the canonisation of Josemaría Escrivá, the Opus Dei movement now has a second leading figure on the path to sainthood. To be beatified in Madrid today, he is Alvaro del Portillo who, as a senior member of movement in Britain explains, played key role in defining and defending the lay vocation One of the twentieth century’s greatest promoters of the lay vocation will be beatified this weekend. A quiet, even slightly shy man, Bishop Alvaro del Portillo worked tirelessly behind the scenes both during and after the Second Vatican Council to help ensure that the universal call to holiness would be at the heart of its teaching and its implementation.Del Portillo owed his deep understanding of the greatness of the lay vocation to St Josemaría Escrivá,