A Life Long Catholic’s Take on the Opus Dei Cult

A bookstore display on cults that included the book “Opus” about Opus Dei.

Opus Dei is technically a “personal prelature” in the Roman Catholic Church, answering only to the Pope. Founded by Franco supporter and Nazi sympathizer Josemaria Escriva de Balaguer y Albas in 1928 in Spain to help Catholic laypersons find holiness in everyday life, the group has grown into a cult that is worldwide, has deep financial pockets secreted throughout the world and has been accused of human trafficking and sexual exploitation. It should be said that the majority of its members do try to lead holy lives and are not involved with the leadership, manipulations and crimes of some of its leaders. There are different types of members and affiliates and it is difficult to get a handle on all they ways people are aligned with this secretive cult.

Members of Opus Dei are expected to have spiritual directors and are advised not to make any life decisions without permission from their spiritual advisor. They also promote a more hierarchical form of church and government, want persons to kneel for communion, weekly confession, women to wear chapel veils, servers to be only male and wear pre-Vatican II robes, and promote a return to pre-Vatican II practices, especially the Latin Mass. Many churches have returned to bells being rung at certain times during the mass, and communion with only bread instead of also wine. Many priests supportive of this group have returned to wearing cassocks or dresses, and some Opus Dei supporting bishops have evicted order priests off of college campus parishes, installing their own priests and pre-Vatican II practices.

Pope Francis appears to have been somewhat aware of the grievous sins of the organization, in that he has not promoted it’s leader to Bishop, has changed who the group reports to in Rome and now requires annual reporting including finances instead of the previous every five years. He was hampered by his decision to not over-rule his predecessors or to caste them in a negative light when it is glaringly obvious that previous popes must have known about the evil actions of this group and in some instances likely approved of them.

Many readers and viewers of the Dan Brown book and subsequent movie, DaVinci Code, are aware of the group’s cult like secretiveness and encouragement of self-flagellation and obedience to superiors. All of that has been verified by various sources that have sought to study the group including theologian Matthew Fox and investigative British journalist Gareth Gore. Many of their practices are archaic and misogynistic such as having women (usually young women from underdeveloped countries seeking a better way of life) clean the men’s dorms after the men have gone to work and when they are not home. These women not only clean the facilities, but do the laundry as well as prepare, serve, and clean up the food. They often put in 14 hour days. This is where some of the allegations of human trafficking come from.

According to several sources, the bylaws and regulations governing the group are kept under lock and key and available to loyal members on a read only basis. They are also written in Latin and Spanish. Some persons who have taken great efforts to bring them out of the cult’s properties report that documents state that the group has a goal to have a “symbiotic relationship with government and society as a whole.” Further investigations indicate that they have taken great efforts to influence and in some cases take over political organizations, especially in the US. Many of the authors of Project 2025 are Opus Dei members.

It may interest and/or concern many that we have 6 Catholic US Supreme Court Justices. (Imagine, for a moment, that it was 6 Methodist or Jewish or Muslim). 5 of the 6 are affiliated in some way or outright members of Opus Dei (membership is not public, though they are not supposed to lie if asked directly.) Leonard Leo, head of the Federalist Society that has advised the Republican Party on judges, is a member, as is Bill Barr, Steve Bannon and more. J.D. Vance was featured on the cover of their magazine when he became Catholic and his stated views are certainly in line with Opus Dei. Bishop Gomez, recently head of the US Council of Catholic Bishops is a public member and many other bishops are presumed to be supportive if not open members including at least two Ohio bishops.

Some conservative Catholic members such as Tom Monaghan of Domino’s Pizza fame and members of his Legatus Society have founded and/or support conservative Catholic colleges, spurning institutions of higher education that have had widespread support for years. Steubenville University and Ave Maria University are two among them. The cult actively recruits on college campuses and has elementary and high schools around the country – many of them now supported by tax dollars thanks to tuition vouchers and even tax credits made part of state laws thanks to Opus Dei members and sympathizers in legislative bodies.

The Napa Institute in California supported in large part by attorney Timothy Busch and sponsor of an annual conservative Catholic conference also plays an integral part of the cult’s involvement in our society. They seem to be focused on increasing political influence and power and yet there is little evidence on spreading the gospel of taking care of and loving one another.

There is considerable talk among incoming conservative politicians about wanting to put a stop to religious persecution of groups like Opus Dei. They cite the FBI looking at “Latin Mass Parishes” when Catholic leaders speak out and say that those parishes are not following local guidelines or Vatican II and do not represent Catholicism. Those of us who are loyal Christians and Catholics need to reach out to our legislators and encourage them to keep on investigating them – they do NOT represent Catholicism or the official church.

Some US bishops are now banning the Latin mass in parish churches and only allowing limited use in special chapels. Many are wisely pointing out that the cult is focused only on personal piety and giving the cult money and there is no mention of service to others or the biblical mandates of the beatitudes.

The practice of focusing on schools, including enrolling children in the “order of the brown scapular” without parental permission alienates children from family and friends and causes them to be even more reliant on the cult for their emotional support. Cult.

Opus Dei is an evil cult that needs to be exorcised from our government and the Catholic Church. All thinking people need to speak out against this scourge.

Bibliography

America: Jesuit Review of Faith and Culture; January 2025

Fox, Matthew; The Pope’s War: Why Ratzinger’s Secret Crusade has Imperiled the Church and How It Can Be Saved; Sterling Ethos Publisher, New York, NY; 2011

Fox, Matthew; Trump & The Maga Movement as Anti-Christ; iUniverse, Bloomington IN, 2024

Gore, Gareth; OPUS: The cult of dark money, human trafficking, and right wing conspiracy inside the Catholic Church; Simon and Schuster, New York, NY; 2024

National Catholic Reporter Jan. 26, 2025

Nancy J. Stephani is a CTA Vision Council member and a member of CTA Columbus.